Camp Mystic co-owner evacuated campers 45 minutes after receiving ‘life-threatening' flash floods alert
Richard 'Dick' Eastland — who died trying to save young girls at his Hunt, Texas, camp on the Guadalupe River — got the initial National Weather Service blast on his phone at about 1:14 a.m., a spokesperson for his family told ABC News.
But he only began relocating campers at the private all-girls Christian camp to higher ground by 2:00 a.m. — just as the situation began deteriorating rapidly.
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4 Camp Mystic Director Dick Eastland died in the devastating floods.
LeslieEastland/Facebook
4 People place a cross by the Guadalupe River, across from Camp Mystic following the deadly floods.
REUTERS
'They had no information that indicated the magnitude of what was coming,' the family spokesperson, Jeff Carr, said of the floods that would kill 27 children and counselors.
'They got a standard run-of-the-mill NWS warning that they've seen dozens of times before,' Carr said.
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4 A view inside of a cabin at Camp Mystic after devastating floods hit the area.
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Eastland immediately began communicating with family members who worked at the camp via walkie-talkie as soon as he received the alert, which didn't include an evacuation warning, according to Carr.
They started moving campers to higher ground when they saw the flood waters, he added.
4 A sheriff's deputy pauses while combing through the banks of the Guadalupe River near Camp Mystic.
AP
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Carr said the timeline, which he stressed was preliminary, had been pieced together after speaking with Eastland family members who worked at the camp and frantically helped in the evacuation.
He noted the family wanted to release the timeline to avoid speculation after the devastating flash floods ended up claiming the lives of 27 children and counselors.
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