After Camp Mystic, what parents can ask camps about extreme weather prep

Washington Post

08-07-2025

After the devastating flash floods swept through Kerr County, Texas, last week killing at least 27 campers and counselors at Mystic Camp, parents the country may be wondering: Is my child safe at summer camp?
Statistically, camp in the United States is very safe. As has long been the case, the most common injuries are cuts and broken bones that occur during regular camp activities. Recent national statistics aren't available, but New York state tallied that among the 900,000 campers last summer, 550 experienced reportable injuries. None were fatal.
But climate change, while making summers more intense, is altering the summer camp experience. Some camps are moving to restrict or cancel sports and outdoor activities during the hottest parts of the day to avoid heat stroke, replacing them with indoor, less-active alternatives. Camps in Minnesota have jury-rigged air filters and distributed N95 masks to reduce wildfire smoke exposure. In Ohio, some nights have been too hot for campfires.
As the world faces more frequent extreme weather, understanding a camp's risk, and how well it's prepared, will only become more vital. After all, traditional summer camps are, by design, exposed to nature — and natural disasters.
Jeff Rubin, a disaster-preparedness instructor and former emergency manager for Oregon's largest fire district, said he 'got a hollow feeling' when he saw the first reports of the flooding in Kerr County. As a young EMT in 1987, he had responded to another flood there, about 30 miles from Mystic Camp. In that incident, 10 teenagers from a Christian camp died when their bus and van were swamped by the Guadalupe River and its tributaries.
A tragedy like that, or what happened at Mystic Camp, shouldn't dissuade parents from sending their kids to camp, he said. It should encourage them to dig deep into how well a camp is prepared for extreme weather and other emergencies. 'Risk is a function of hazard and vulnerability,' he noted.
I spoke with experts and camp owners across the country about how to know if the camp you choose is safe.
Not going to camp has risks, too. Children's academic and health outcomes tend to decline over the summer break, according to a 2024 peer-reviewed study in the journal Children, with measurable decreases in cardiovascular fitness and physical activity. By contrast, research suggests that even a few weeks of camp confer striking benefits: Kids return home fitter, with reduced body mass index and waist circumference, and stronger social and emotional skills (they're even more likely to excel at school and less likely to commit crimes).
If you had to pick one form of extreme weather to worry about, though, it should be heat. It's the leading weather-driven cause of death in the United States — responsible for more deaths than hurricanes, tornadoes and wildfires combined.
'Heat is probably the most dangerous because it occurs the most frequently,' said Jeremy Porter, head of climate implications research at First Street Foundation, a climate-risk nonprofit organization. 'It's something anyone going to summer camp is going to have to deal with.'
Children are uniquely vulnerable: They absorb more heat from the environment and are less able to cool off because they sweat less and produce more heat while exercising. That makes the trend toward hotter, humid days potentially debilitating or even deadly for them.
Rich Moss, who owns Camp Lenox in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts with his wife, Stephanie, said hot days, now more frequent than a few decades ago, mean mandatory water breaks and moving indoors. 'In a funny way, we almost treat it as a rainy day,' he said. 'We bring them inside to get out of the sun.'
For other forms of extreme weather, it depends on the location, Porter said.
In the Northeast, extreme rainfall is worsening as the atmosphere warms. The West is seeing more frequent, severe wildfires. Southeastern and Gulf states like Texas are experiencing virtually unprecedented riverine flooding from slow-moving torrential storms. In the Appalachians, fires are burning where they rarely did before.
Government resources can give you a snapshot of the past: The Federal Emergency Management Agency's hazards map and county emergency plans (often called natural-hazard mitigation or emergency preparation plans) rank vulnerability to different hazards and emergency services preparation.
For more current risk assessments, First Street's free tool offers Zip-code level data for flood, fire, wind and heat risk. 'As a parent, you can get a really good understanding of the risks in those areas,' Porter said. 'If you don't know what you're looking for, these indicators can push you to ask more questions.'
Only half of parents in a national survey by Ipsos Public Affairs in 2022 said they were 'very confident' they could determine whether a camp was safe and healthy for their children.
But parents don't need to figure this out alone. Government agencies such as health departments inspect and certify summer camps for safety, similar to day cares, ensuring they meet minimum state standards. The American Camp Association has also certified about 4,000 camps — about 15 percent of the total in the United States — that follow the 'most up-to-date, research-based standards' for safety, including coordinating with local emergency-response professionals and conducting regular risk assessments for the camps.
Camps should inform parents, as well. At Camp Lenox, Rich and Stephanie Moss say they spend hours speaking with parents before their 350 campers arrive, sending out safety information and updating a text and email alert system — one they have not yet had to use — to reach parents in an emergency.
Ultimately, asking pointed questions of the staff and owners, Rubin said, gives you the best sense if they are trained and prepared for these risks.
'All of this involves work: a little focused web searching, maybe a phone call or two,' Rubin said. 'The benefit is asking focused rather than general questions of the camp.'
Instead of asking whether a camp is prepared for emergencies, he suggested asking how often campgrounds have flooded and what steps have been taken to protect against floodwaters.
'If they don't know how vulnerable they are to, say, flood, wildfire, wildfire smoke, earthquake or tsunami, or if they can't specify specific policies and procedures,' Rubin said, 'that'd be a red flag.'
Here are a few questions to ask before you enroll your child: