AUSTIN, Texas — Investigators into the deadly flood that killed 27 children and counselors at Camp Mystic concluded the Christian youth camp failed to meet state emergency requirements or prepare for the July 4, 2025, flood. State investigators for a joint investigative committee further found that Camp Mystic officials had ample time to evacuate and that reunification efforts and incident ...

A red heart with A "Mystic" sign is seen by the Guadalupe River, the other side of Camp Mystic, on Aug. 9, 2025, in Hunt, Texas.

Chitose Suzuki/The Dallas Morning News/TNS

AUSTIN, Texas — Investigators into the deadly flood that killed 27 children and counselors at Camp Mystic concluded the Christian youth camp failed to meet state emergency requirements or prepare for the July 4, 2025, flood.

State investigators for a joint investigative committee further found that Camp Mystic officials had ample time to evacuate and that reunification efforts and incident management were “chaotic, with traumatic effects for families,” a summary of the investigators’ findings said.

A joint committee of state Senate and House members was reviewing the investigators’ findings Thursday during a meeting at the Capitol attended by several family members of the children killed in the flood.

More than 100 people died in the flood. Kerr County was the worst hit, where the flooded Guadalupe River toppled trees, swept away structures and ravaged the shorelines of an idyllic Hill Country destination.

Twenty-five youth campers and two teenage counselors at the all-girls Christian camp died.

Leading up to the presentation of the investigators’ findings Thursday, lawmakers heard dozens of hours of testimony in Kerrville and Austin from victims’ families, local government officials and scientists. They employed a private investigator who placed much of the blame for the deaths of Camp Mystic children — dubbed the “Heaven’s 27” — on the family that owns and runs the camp.

Camp Mystic owner Richard Eastland also died in the flood while trying to rescue campers.

Several of their parents have sued Camp Mystic, alleging the camp’s owners were negligent and should be held to blame for their children’s deaths. A Texas board suspended the nursing license of Eastland’s daughter-in-law Mary Liz Eastland, who served as the camp’s medical director.

The family scuttled efforts to hold camp at one of the Camp Mystic sites in late April after facing pressure from top Texas political leaders, including Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, to not resume operations for the summer. Officials representing the camp said they pulled their application to renew their license out of respect for the victims’ families.

Lawmakers have since sought to prevent future flood tragedies at youth camps by creating new regulations that include emergency address systems, prohibiting camps from lying in floodplains, and mandating internet access at camps.

A group of 19 youth camps sued over the regulations, focusing on the high costs of fiber optic internet requirements they said could cost some camps more than $1 million. The state agency that oversees youth camps agreed to suspend the fiber optic requirement in May.

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