The long road to tragedy at the Texas girls camp where floods claimed 27 lives
But perhaps no bigger clue can be found than the account of an otherwise unremarkable and sparsely attended meeting of Kerr county commissioners in March 2018.
Members waited with anticipation for news of an application they submitted the previous year for a grant from the state of Texas to help pay for a comprehensive new flood warning system along the Guadalupe.
The county's unreliable old network of gauges and sensors, installed following flooding in 1987 that killed 10 children trying to flee a waterside church camp, had been inactive since 1999. Commissioners were chasing a $1m slice of federal funding made newly available to the state after a succession of flood disasters, including Hurricane Harvey in August 2017.
Now-retired commissioner Tom Moser brought bad news, noting 'about eight different counties' were selected, but 'they didn't select us,' according to minutes of the meeting still viewable online.
Tom Pollard, the county judge at the time, was incredulous.
'They prioritized us lower?' he asked, the county's many low-lying and therefore vulnerable youth summer camps immediately adjacent to the Guadalupe uppermost in his mind.
'They did,' Moser replied solemnly.
Without that funding from the state, the project foundered. No widespread gauge system was ever set up that would have given early warning of a life-threatening torrent of water further up the river; no sirens ever installed that would have warned Camp Mystic residents that their lives were in peril and they needed to get out immediately.
The investigation will look at other missteps and lost opportunities along the way that might have brought a different outcome at the 99-year-old Christian-themed, all-girls camp that served as a joyous rite of passage for generations of young Texans.
Prominent among them will be this week's revelation that the camp owner and director Dick Eastland, who lost his own life trying to ferry a group of his youngest campers to safety as the river rose towards a peak height of 37.5ft, waited more than an hour to issue an evacuation order after receiving a severe flood warning on his phone at 1.14am on 4 July.
Yet it is to the eternal regret of Moser, a former senior Nasa engineer who had studied flood monitoring and alert systems installed in other nearby counties, that money was never found or spent, either then or later, to replace or upgrade a broken mechanism born from a near-identical tragedy for the sole purpose of saving lives in the future.
'Not having the funds to accomplish it was not very satisfying to me but we tried,' Moser told NPR. 'That's all we could do. We didn't have the resources in the county operating budget to do that.'
Moser, who did not return a message from the Guardian seeking further comment, had advocated for sirens, a proposal dropped from the state grant application when it became clear some residents and commissioners opposed them.
'If sirens were there, clearly people would have known about it. Would it have saved everybody? I don't think so. This was an event that's probably one chance in a million,' he told the radio network.
At Camp Mystic, like elsewhere in the county, residents were reliant on an outdated and patchwork early warning system of alerts. Some were from the National Weather Service (NWS), which Eastland's family concedes he did receive. Other messages came from local authorities, some sent only after an inexplicable delay, which others along the Guadalupe's banks say they did not see in any case.
Inside the camp, with water rising fast, especially around dormitories closest to the river where the youngest campers, mostly aged eight and nine, were sleeping, there was chaos. Many of the teenage counselors left in charge of the dormitories were left to make instant life-or-death decisions on their own, having lost contact with adult supervisors.
According to two counselors interviewed in the days following the disaster, campers were not allowed to bring mobile phones, and the counselors were made to surrender theirs, leaving them cut off from any emergency alerts.
Eastland, who had run the camp with his family since the 1980s and was a past director of the Upper Guadalupe River Authority that pressed for the original warning and alert system, was familiar with the danger of flash flooding from heavy rain.
'I'm sure there will be other drownings,' Eastland told the Austin American-Statesman in 1990, reported by CNN. 'People don't heed the warnings.'
In a Washington Post report that contained harrowing first-hand testimony from girls who were there, parents of some who were rescued from Camp Mystic said it was Eastland and his staff who ignored warnings on the morning of the disaster.
Also under scrutiny will be why Eastland made, and was granted, repeated applications to remove dozens of Camp Mystic buildings from the Federal Emergency Management Agency's 100-year flood map, which allowed the camp to operate and expand in a known risk area.
A review by the Associated Press found that 15 of at least 30 exempted buildings were at the Camp Mystic Guadalupe site where most, if not all of the campers and counselors lost their lives.
Jeremy Porter, head of climate implications at First Street, a climate risk assessment and modelling company, said the dormitories were in a known flood zone, which records show had been swamped numerous times in the camp's near century of existence.
'People that ran the camp had the ability to understand that the risk was close by, the risk was in the area, and maybe adapt the buildings. And there was no action there,' he said.
'In fact there were letters of map amendments that were submitted instead.'
But Porter said it was hard to place blame on any single person or entity: 'A lot of that is just our overall risk psyche and understanding of what risk looks like, our expectation that these really rare events aren't going to affect us and they're not going to be as bad as we think they're going to be.
'The way we treat climate risk and flood risk in the country is really that, you know, if it happens, it'll be something we'll be able to rebuild, recover, and then it won't happen again for 100 years.'
The Guardian was unable to reach anybody at Camp Mystic for comment.
Donna Gable Hatch, a writer and former staff editor at the Kerrville Daily Times, said she believed lives would have been saved at Camp Mystic with an early warning system, but city and county officials were not responsible for its absence.
'If the funds had been made available in a timely and adequate manner, this catastrophe might have unfolded differently. But too often, those at the helm of small towns must wait for permission, wait for funding, wait for bureaucracy to catch up to reality,' she wrote in a guest editorial for her former employer.
'To accuse local leaders of negligence is to completely misunderstand who they are and what this place means. In Kerr county, heartbreak isn't abstract. It has a name. A face. It's a neighbor, a classmate, a church member or a childhood friend.
'The truth will come out. In time, we'll trace the chain of failure back to where it truly began – not in Kerrville, but in the halls of distant agencies who failed to act with the urgency that rural lives deserved.'
Solve the daily Crossword

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Politico
29 minutes ago
- Politico
Epstein's shadow reaches Illinois
Happy Wednesday, Illinois. You can find me in the lake today. It's gonna be hot, via NPR. TOP TALKER What began as a scandal confined to elite Beltway circles is seeping into the political consciousness of the Midwest — and Illinois Democrats are sure to exploit it. A revelation: Internal polling by the party shows the Jeffrey Epstein saga is gaining traction with everyday voters. Couple that with a growing swell of Epstein-related content across social media platforms. 'These aren't political people' posting about it, said Sabha Abour, a Democratic campaign consultant in Chicago and nearby suburbs. She said the issue resonates because 'it confirms that there are two systems of justice in this country: one is for the powerful, and one is for everyone else.' And while kitchen-table issues like health care, immigration and inflation will likely shape the 2026 midterms, the Epstein scandal might make voters question whether Republicans stand by their values. At least that's what Democrats are hoping. The GOP's response for now has been to duck and cover. U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson is sending the House home early for the August recess rather than risk a vote on disclosing the Epstein file — a move that raised more than a few eyebrows. President Donald Trump keeps trying to divert attention away from Epstein. And the Illinois GOP isn't responding at all. The issue is about transparency, said Gov. JB Pritzker at an unrelated press conference Tuesday. 'I don't know why' Trump has 'problems with being transparent,' the governor said. 'People are quite curious and suspicious, frankly, about why the president doesn't want to do what he promised he would do and what seems like an obvious thing — which is to just reveal what the truth is.' It's too early to say whether the Epstein case will sway voters in 2026, said Becky Carroll, the Chicago political strategist who's worked on national and local campaigns. 'Is this red meat for Democratic voters? Perhaps, but there are a lot of other things going on right now that are capturing the attention of voters and will continue to — like ICE raids and the gutting of Medicaid — that they are seeing, feeling and reading about every single day.' And a warning from Ron Holmes, another Chicago political consultant, cautioned that 'the Epstein files are certainly good click bait, but ultimately Illinois Democrats need to talk about what they're for heading into the next election cycle rather than' focusing on Trump. RELATED Democrats coast to coast are plotting how to capitalize on the Epstein controversy, via POLITICO House Dems find their mojo with the Epstein saga, by POLITICO's Rachael Bade Deflecting Epstein questions, Trump urges DOJ to 'go after' Obama, by POLITICO's Eli Stokols Epstein crisis forces Republicans to shut down House early, by POLITICO's Meredith Lee Hill THE BUZZ RULES OF CONDUCT: Mayor vows to curb smoking on the CTA after years of complaints: 'It has got to stop': Mayor Brandon Johnson issued an executive order that would dispatch city outreach teams to trains and buses to curtail smoking. Violators could be fined, by the Block Club's Quinn Myers and Mack Liederman. Johnson said the city plans to launch public awareness campaigns to deter smoking on trains. The order comes a month after Ald. Bill Conway (34th), a name that's popped up as a possible mayoral candidate in 2027, introduced his own resolution to City Council to pressure the CTA to deter riders who smoke on public transit.' If you are Bill Conway, Playbook would like to hear from you! Email: skapos@ WHERE'S JB At Venue SIX10 at 1 p.m. to deliver opening remarks at the Global Quantum Forum and then at 2 p.m. in the same location he'll announce a new IQMP tenant WHERE's BRANDON At St. Leonard's Ministries at 10:15 a.m. for the Shelter Infrastructure Initiative press conference — At 4520 South State Street at 2:30 p.m. for the Legends South groundbreaking, part of the redevelopment of the former Robert Taylor Homes site Where's Toni At Maggiano's Banquets at noon to give opening remarks at a City Club luncheon featuring Brookfield Zoo CEO Mike Adkesson Have a tip, suggestion, birthday, new job or complaint? Email skapos@ BUSINESS OF POLITICS — Senate race: Robin Kelly is drawing high-profile names to her Thursday fundraiser. Among them: Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett. Here are details with more names — Senate race: Juliana Stratton outlines LGBTQ+ rights platform and policy agenda in Senate bid, by Jake Wittich in the Windy City Times — Lake County Treasurer Holly Kim has hopes for statewide post: 'This isn't just the next step on the political ladder for me — it's a continuation of the work I've already been doing,' she told Charles Selle in the Tribune. — In IL:14: Rep. Lauren Underwood has massive fundraising lead primary and likely November challenger, by the Daily Herald's Russell Lissau — In IL-08: Christ Kallas and Junaid Ahmed, both Democrats running for this open seat, have signed on with the U.S. Term Limits movement to support an amendment to term limits in Congress, according to the nonpartisan organization. — In the Illinois General Assembly contests: James O'Brien, an attorney who's worked on the House Democratic staff and is an adviser for the Illinois Commerce Commission, is set to announce he's running for state representative in the 13th District Illinois House seat now held by Rep. Hoan Huynh, who's running for Congress. 'I've seen the good that government can do when it's at its best and having experienced candidates with a record of results is critical to making more of those moments a reality,' he said in a statement. O'Brien has also worked on school-funding reform legislation. THE STATEWIDES — Some ComEd customers seeing triple-digit bill increases as supply rate jump, heat wave converge: 'The spike in the wholesale cost of electricity, which ComEd buys at an annual auction and then passes through to its customers, paired with increased energy usage, added $67.28 month-over-month to the average June 30 bill, the utility said,' by the Tribune's Robert Channick — HIGHER-ED: Changes to federal student loans leave aspiring medical students scrambling to cover costs, by the Tribune's Kate Armanini — Local groups step up as undocumented immigrants lose state health coverage, by Borderless magazine's Tara Mobasher and Lucy Baptiste — Federal housing credit expansion could increase affordable rental units in Illinois, according to a report, via Capitol News' Ben Szalinski — Illinois' school system rates toward the top of this Wallet Hub study CHICAGO — CPS board members ask Pritzker, lawmakers to call special session on school funding: 'CPS is grappling with a $734 million deficit. Board members say schools across Illinois are facing budget troubles and need state help,' by WBEZ's Sarah Karp. — Due process: Ald. Andre Vasquez, chair of the Committee on Immigrant and Refugee Rights, will host a hearing Thursday in the City Council chambers to address potential due process violations and infringements on free speech rights by the Trump administration. — Chicago Housing Authority resident leaders voice opposition to Ald. Walter Burnett as potential next CEO, by the Tribune's Lizzie Kane — Pritzker, transportation leaders celebrate Union Station's centennial as Chicago-area transit fiscal cliff looms, by WTTW's Eunice Alpasan — Netflix sets Jussie Smollett documentary with 'new evidence': Alleged hate crime hoax 'might just be a true story,' by Variety's Ethan Shanfeld COOK COUNTY AND COLLARS — Arlington Heights board divided on public sleeping ban, by the Daily Herald's Christopher Placek — Lake Bluff, Lake Forest leaders discuss their communities' current infrastructure projects, by the Pioneer Press' Daniel I. Dorfman — Naperville's No. 19 on safest places to live in the U.S. list compiled by U.S. News & World Report, by the Naperville Sun's Carolyn Stein ILLINOIS' POPE — South Loop family gifts Pope Leo XIV a 'Da Pope' T-shirt: 'There's such a sense of pride': 'The Muñoz family waited two hours in the heat to meet the pope after Mass on Sunday at the Cathedral of Albano in Albano Laziale, a town outside Rome, near where Leo is spending a six-week summer break at the papal retreat,' by the Sun-Times' Selena Kuznikov. TAKING NAMES — Rahm Emanuel, the former ambassador to Japan, is scheduled to testify today before the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the U.S. and Chinese Communist Party. The hearing is titled 'United We Stand: Strategies to Counter PRC Economic Coercion Against Democracies.' Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi is a ranking member. The live broadcast starts at 10 a.m. Watch here — Antonio Romanucci, a founding partner of the national Romanucci & Blandin personal injury firm based in Chicago, has been awarded the Richard D. Hailey Distinguished Service Award by the American Association for Justice. It recognizes members of the association's board for their work. SPOTTED — A REAL MIXER: A who's-who from Chicago's hospitality industry packed new Gold Coast hotspot The Alston for state Sen. Sara Feigenholtz's 6th District reelection campaign. Host Committee members Sam Toia, CEO of the Illinois Restaurant Association, and Scott Weiner, whose Fifty/50 Group owns The Alston, spoke about Feigenholtz's work, including authoring the state's cocktails-to-go legislation during the pandemic. Spotted: Alds. Bennett Lawson and Brian Hopkins, Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas and Democratic Committee members Lucy Moog and Paul Rosenfeld. On the host committee: The Dearborn's Clodagh Lawless, Gibsons Restaurant Group's Liz Lombardo Stark, restaurateur Sam Sanchez, Manny's Deli's Danny Raskin, Vaughan Hospitality's Kevin Vaughan, Lucca Osteria's Steven Hartenstein, Eli's Cheesecake's Marc Schulman and entrepreneur and former Ald. Ameya Pawar. Reader Digest We asked what subject you could filibuster on for 12 hours. Janice Anderson: 'How cheap people are and they can't even admit it.' Matthew Beaudet: 'The rise and fall of cultures since antiquity.' Mimi Cowan: '19th century urban riots.' Jules Gray: ''The Godfather' movies parts one and two.' John Mark Hansen: 'I'm an academic and could go on about the history of Congress or the matrix algebra and its applications in the social sciences.' Colby Huff: 'Disney World, starting with the history of the parks, how Disney acquired all that land so cheaply, the evolution of each park and finishing with a couple of hours worth of tips and tricks to vacationing there today.' Ed Mazur: 'Railroads and their importance for the growth of Chicago's commerce, industry and population.' Ronald Michelotti: 'Major League Baseball with an emphasis on the stars I have witnessed playing our national pastime over these many years.' Joe Platt: 'How shorts, exposed shoulders and open-toed shoes are not appropriate for airplane travel.' Brent Pruim: 'Housing.' Steve Smith: 'Women's reproductive health.' John Straus: 'Alexis deToqueville's Democracy in America.' Michael Strautmanis: 'Each frame of 'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly' and why the western movie takes us on the hero's journey and creates the foundational story beats of so many of the pop culture movies we love. Superman meet Nat Love!' Timothy Thomas: 'World Wars I and II, including the time leading up to and their post war ramifications.' Patricia Ann Watson: 'The TV show 'Babylon 5' and human hierarchies.' Brent Zhorne: 'As a retired high school sociology teacher, I could talk about sociology and sociological phenomena for an entire semester. Twelve hours? Mere child's play!' NEXT QUESTION: What's the craziest thing you've seen riding the El? THE NATIONAL TAKE — Trump announces trade deal with Japan, by POLITICO's Daniel Desrochers, Ari Hawkins and Doug Palmer — White House eying education cuts for next funding clawback package, by POLITICO's Calen Razor, Juan Perez Jr. and Eli Stokols — Republicans want to rename Kennedy Center's opera house after Melania Trump, by POLITICO's Gregory Svirnovskiy TRIVIA TUESDAY's ANSWER: Congrats to Anders Lindall and Don Davis for correctly answering that 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom,' which is one of August Wilson's 'Pittsburgh Cycle' plays, is based in Chicago. TODAY's QUESTION: What is a traditional 'Chicago handshake'? Email your answer to: skapos@ HAPPY BIRTHDAY Former state Sen. Miguel del Valle, BOMA/Chicago Government Affairs Director Amy Masters, former AG official and a General Assembly candidate Adam Braun, attorney Sam Royko, PwC tax partner Jennifer Darling, Burson Corporate Affairs VP Stephani Englund, ABC 7 political reporter Craig Wall and former state Rep. Edward 'Eddie' Acevedo -30-


CBS News
12 hours ago
- CBS News
Three arrested in $1.5 million elder fraud scam with victims in North Texas and beyond, police say
A scam that allegedly defrauded more than 75 older Texans out of $1.5 million has led to the arrest of three men, McKinney police said. Prakash Krishnaraj, 58, is charged with making a false statement to obtain property. Christian Bolding, 31, and Eric Ell, 23, face charges of financial abuse of the elderly and making a false statement to obtain property or credit. All charges are felonies. Victims were reported in the North Texas cities of McKinney, Allen, Wylie and Frisco. "The scope of the fraud involved in this case suggests that the operation may be far more expansive than what has been uncovered so far," McKinney Police Chief Joe Ellenburg said. "This highlights the growing threat of financial exploitation targeting older adults. We are committed to working with partner agencies across Texas to stop these crimes and protect vulnerable populations." The arrests followed a six-month investigation. Operating under the names Precision Home Pros and Krishnaraj Construction, the suspects allegedly approached victims in retail stores and other public places, offering to lower their phone, cable and service bills. They installed low-cost streaming and security devices as part of the pitch. Police said the suspects then used electronic signature platforms to forge long-term loan agreements ranging from $13,000 to $32,500. Victims were unknowingly responsible for 20-year loans with interest. Funds were deposited into accounts controlled by the suspects, affiliated shell companies, or businesses linked to the scheme, while victims were left to repay the loans, police said.

a day ago
Hundreds were reported missing after Texas floods. Most of them were found safe
DALLAS -- Texas officials labored to account for more than 160 people originally reported missing along the Guadalupe River after the deadly July Fourth floods before ultimately concluding that most were safe and only three individuals still haven't been found, the top executive in the hardest-hit county said Monday. 'Most of them were tourists that came into town and left and went back home and didn't report that they were there,' Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly said at a special meeting of the county commissioner court. He called the process a 'Herculean effort." The flash floods killed at least 135 people in Texas, and most of the deaths were in Kerr County, where destructive, fast-moving water rose 26 feet (8 meters) on the Guadalupe River, washing away buildings and vehicles in the area about 60 miles (100 kilometers) northwest of San Antonio. The sharp revision in the number of missing by Kerr County officials on Saturday followed a familiar pattern in the often chaotic aftermath of large-scale disasters. Hundreds of people were reported missing in the initial days after the floods through a phone hotline and email address, which launched investigators on an 'exhaustive effort' to verify the status of each of those individuals, Kerrville police spokesperson Jonathan Lamb said. 'We understand how critical it is to report this information accurately — not only for the families affected but for the integrity of our emergency response as a whole,' Lamb said. Drastic changes in the missing count after a disaster aren't unusual. For instance, the death count from the 2023 Maui fire was eventually found to be just over 100 — far below the 1,100 initially feared missing. In 2017, a wildfire in Northern California's wine country killed more than 20 people, but most of the 100 people initially reported missing were located safe. The 2018 wildfire that largely destroyed the California town of Paradise ended up killing nearly 100 people, though Butte County investigators at one point had the names of more than 3,000 people who were not accounted for in the early days of the disaster. The names were whittled down when the list was published in the local paper, and many people realized for the first time that officials were looking for them. Texas' Hill Country is a popular tourist destination, where campers seek out spots along the Guadalupe River amid the rolling landscapes. Vacation cabins, RV parks and youth campgrounds fill the riverbanks and hills of Kerr County, including Camp Mystic, a century-old Christian summer camp for girls where at least 27 campers and counselors died in the floods. The flooding was far more severe than the 100-year event envisioned by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, experts said, and it moved so quickly in the middle of the night that it caught many off guard in Kerr County, which lacked a warning system. At a July 14 news conference, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott had lowered the number of still-missing in the state to about 100 and suggested that pinning down that number was difficult. In the days after the floods, officials had put the number of missing at about 170 statewide with all but about 10 coming from Kerr County alone. Campers, residents or people who registered at RV parks or hotels are easier to account for, Abbott said. Others may have been reported missing by a friend, family member or coworker. In Travis County, which includes Austin, the floods killed at least 10 people. The sheriff's office has said one person remains on their missing list but may be removed if they can verify sightings of the person. Kristen Dark, a spokesperson for the sheriff's office, said investigators work the missing person and decedent list 'just like we would work any other cases.' For instance, if someone reports that they haven't seen their neighbor, deputies might begin by reaching out to the neighbor's employer and family. 'They use all kinds of different avenues to see if they can find out either that the person hasn't been seen or that the person is alive and here's where they are,' she said.