Texas Summer Camp Hit by Deadly Floods Cancels Reopening Plans

(Bloomberg) -- Camp Mystic canceled plans to reopen this summer after days of dramatic hearings over its response to deadly Texas floods last year that killed 25 campers and two counselors. 

The camp withdrew its application to renew its license for this summer, the Texas Department of State Health Services said in a statement. The agency said last week that Camp Mystic’s emergency plan failed to address several new rules for summer camps passed after last year’s July 4th floods, which killed more than 160 people, including 37 children. 

Mystic was a rite of passage for Texas girls: Laura Bush worked there as a counselor years before she became First Lady, and Lyndon Johnson sent his daughters there. The camp, set in a rural stretch of central Texas known as the Hill Country, offered respite from technology and city life. However, spotty cell phone reception and limited infrastructure complicated the response to last summer’s sudden flooding. 

State lawmakers grilled local officials and the camp’s owners over their response to the disaster. Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick called on the camp to stay closed after the recent hearings. 

“It’s clear that Camp Mystic was totally unprepared, understaffed, complacent, incompetent, and lacking an evacuation plan,” Patrick wrote on X. 

Governor Greg Abbott said a state investigation of the camp is still ongoing, adding that the results would be made public as soon as possible. 

Several of Camp Mystic’s cabins sat in floodways, areas so risky that the local county government limited new construction in them in 2020. State investigators found that the camp was slow in responding to flood warnings and lacked proper emergency training for counselors. 

Still, families held such strong connections to the camp that nearly 900 girls had signed up to attend this summer, the owners told state legislators. 

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