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Fox News
17-07-2025
- Climate
- Fox News
New questions raised about whether Camp Mystic director saw flood warning alert
As authorities try to piece together what happened during the deadly flooding at Camp Mystic in Hunt, Texas, new questions are emerging about how the camp owner tracked the storm and whether he saw the emergency alert. Richard "Dick" Eastland reportedly began taking action after more than two inches of rain fell along the Guadalupe River, according to the Associated Press, which cited Jeff Carr, a spokesperson for the family and the camp. Carr said Eastland had a "home weather station" and was monitoring the rainfall on July 4, the Associated Press reported. Despite portraying to the media that Eastland got the weather alerts about the flash flood, Carr told the Associated Press that no one in the family or camp staff could say whether the camp owner got the alert at 1:14 a.m., making the timeline of the tragedy murky. At 1:14 a.m. on July 4, the National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning for Kerr County, sending alerts to broadcast outlets, weather radios and cell phones. The warning was escalated to a flash flood emergency just under three hours later at 4:03 a.m. This apparent shift in narrative by Carr comes after some criticized Eastland for waiting to evacuate campers. The Washington Post reported on Monday, citing Carr, that the camp owner waited until 2:30 a.m. to begin evacuating campers, more than an hour after the initial alert went out. This prompted criticism over the camp's evacuation procedures. However, Carr pushed back on those raising concerns. Carr blamed communication failures, saying that cell phone service at Camp Mystic is spotty even in clear weather. "Communication was a huge deficiency," Carr told the Associated Press. "This community was hamstrung, nobody could communicate. The first responder, the first rescue personnel that showed up was a game warden." Carr told the Associated Press that Eastland and others began evacuating girls from the cabins closest to the overflowing river and moved them to the camp's recreation hall. The flooding at Camp Mystic killed 27 campers and counselors. At least 132 people died in the central Texas flooding and dozens remain missing in the Kerrville area.
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The Independent
17-07-2025
- Climate
- The Independent
Camp leader may not have seen urgent alert before deadly Texas flood, family says
Uncertainty surrounds whether the leader of Camp Mystic received a critical National Weather Service warning before deadly floods struck Texas, a spokesman for the camp's operators has revealed. The alert had triggered an emergency warning to phones in the area. Richard "Dick" Eastland, the owner of the camp, had been monitoring weather conditions, taking action after more than two inches of rain fell along the Guadalupe River on July 4, according to Jeff Carr, a spokesman for the family and the camp. Eastland reportedly possessed a "home weather station" and was actively tracking the downpour. However, Carr has now clarified that the timeline regarding Eastland's awareness of a 1a.m. emergency alert is less clear than initially suggested. While he had previously indicated Eastland received flash flood alerts, Carr told The Associated Press that no one in the family or camp staff can now definitively say whether the camp owner saw the urgent warning, despite initial assumptions. 'It was assumed that just because he had a cellphone on and shortly after that alert, he was calling his family on the walkie-talkies saying, 'Hey, we got two inches in the last hour. We need to get the canoes up. We got things to do,' ' Carr said. The new account by the family comes as Camp Mystic staff has come under scrutiny of their actions, what preventive measures were taken and the camp's emergency plan leading up to a during the catastrophic flood that has killed at least 132 people. The flash-flood warning that the National Weather Service issued at 1:14 a.m. on July 4 for Kerr County triggered an emergency alerts to broadcast outlets, weather radios and mobile phones. It warned of 'a dangerous and life-threatening situation.' The weather service extended the warning at 3:35 a.m. and escalated it to flash-flood emergency at 4:03 a.m. Eastland died while trying to rescue girls and was found in his Tahoe that was swept away by the floodwaters, Carr said. Even without a storm, the cellphone coverage at Camp Mystic is spotty at best, so campers and staff turn on their Wi-Fi, Carr said. He called ridiculous criticism that Eastland waited too long before beginning to evacuate the campers, which he said appears to have begun sometime between 2 a.m. and 2:30 a.m. 'Communication was a huge deficiency,' Carr said. "This community was hamstrung, nobody could communicate. The first responder, the first rescue personnel that showed up was a game warden.' According to Carr, Eastland and others started evacuating girls from cabins nearest the overflowing river and moved them to the camp's two-story recreation hall. Of the 10 cabins closest to the river, the recreation hall is the furthest at 865 feet (264 meters) with the closest cabin about 315 feet (96 meters), according to an Associated Press analysis of aerial imagery. To reach Senior Hill, which was on higher ground , they would have had to cross an overflowing creek, Carr said. At times the young campers were climbing hills in bare feet, he said. Some of the camp's buildings — which flooded — were in what the Federal Emergency Management Agency considered a 100-year flood plain. But in response to an appeal, FEMA in 2013 amended the county's flood map to remove 15 of the camp's buildings from the hazard area. Carr said there were 'legitimate' reasons for filing appeals and suggested that the maps may not always be accurate. Just before daybreak on the Fourth of July, destructive, fast-moving waters rose 26 feet (8 meters) on the Guadalupe River, washing away homes and vehicles. Crews in helicopters, boats and drones have been searching for victims. Officials say 97 people in the Kerrville area may still be missing.
New York Times
17-07-2025
- General
- New York Times
How Two Cabins Turned Into an Epicenter of Grief
The July 4 tragedy at Camp Mystic outside of Hunt, Texas, was concentrated at just two cabins where Mystic's youngest campers bunked and where a confluence of rising water from the river and a normally quiet creek swallowed the buildings before the girls could escape. Of the camp's 28 deaths, 15, including two teenage counselors, were at a cabin known as Bubble Inn, where no one survived, according to a new accounting of the fatalities by the camp. Eleven of the other girls who died had been in the cabin called Twins, a pair of adjoining buildings, said Jeff Carr, a Camp Mystic spokesman. Another fatality was the camp's longtime director, Dick Eastland, who died trying to rescue campers from Bubble Inn. Only one death at the camp — a camper from a nearby cabin called Jumble House — was unconnected to Bubble Inn or Twins. The new accounting underscores how focused the raging waters were at the nearly 100-year-old Christian retreat in the Texas Hill Country. The two beige stone cabins were enveloped by floodwaters that pushed in from opposite directions in the pre-dawn darkness, probably spawning eddies, trapping campers and confusing anyone who tried to save them from the swirling pools, experts say. A dozen Twins campers and their four counselors survived, Mr. Carr said. But most of the 8- and 9-year-olds in the two cabins, nestled among pecan and live oak trees, did not. Cypress Creek CAMP MYSTIC Twins Bubble Inn Cypress Creek CAMP MYSTIC Twins Bubble Inn Aerial imagery by Carter Johnston for The New York Times Guadalupe River Estimated flood depth 8+ feet Twins Bubble Inn CAMP MYSTIC Cypress Creek 4 to 8 ft. 2 to 4 ft. Guadalupe River Bubble Inn Estimated flood depth 8+ feet Twins Cypress Creek 4 to 8 ft. CAMP MYSTIC 2 to 4 ft. Sources: ICEYE flood analysis as of July 10; Aerial image via Vexcel Imaging Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Associated Press
17-07-2025
- Climate
- Associated Press
Camp Mystic leader may not have seen urgent alert before Texas flood, family spokesman says
The leader of Camp Mystic had been tracking the weather before the deadly Texas floods, but it is now unclear whether he saw an urgent warning from the National Weather Service that had triggered an emergency alert to phones in the area, a spokesman for camp's operators said Wednesday. Richard 'Dick' Eastland, the owner of Camp Mystic, began taking action after more than 2 inches of rain had fallen in the area along the Guadalupe River, said Jeff Carr, a spokesman for the family and the camp. He said Eastland had a 'home weather station' and was monitoring the rain on July 4. But after initially portraying to the media this week that Eastland got the weather alerts about a flash flood, Carr told The Associated Press that critical moment in the timeline of the tragedy isn't as clear as the family and staff first thought. No one in the family or camp staff, Carr said, could now say whether Eastland got the alert at 1:14 a.m. 'It was assumed that just because he had a cellphone on and shortly after that alert, he was calling his family on the walkie-talkies saying, 'Hey, we got two inches in the last hour. We need to get the canoes up. We got things to do,' ' Carr said. The new account by the family comes as Camp Mystic staff has come under scrutiny of their actions, what preventive measures were taken and the camp's emergency plan leading up to a during the catastrophic flood that has killed at least 132 people. The flash-flood warning that the National Weather Service issued at 1:14 a.m. on July 4 for Kerr County triggered an emergency alerts to broadcast outlets, weather radios and mobile phones. It warned of 'a dangerous and life-threatening situation.' The weather service extended the warning at 3:35 a.m. and escalated it to flash-flood emergency at 4:03 a.m. Eastland died while trying to rescue girls and was found in his Tahoe that was swept away by the floodwaters, Carr said. Even without a storm, the cellphone coverage at Camp Mystic is spotty at best, so campers and staff turn on their Wi-Fi, Carr said. He called ridiculous criticism that Eastland waited too long before beginning to evacuate the campers, which he said appears to have begun sometime between 2 a.m. and 2:30 a.m. 'Communication was a huge deficiency,' Carr said. 'This community was hamstrung, nobody could communicate. The first responder, the first rescue personnel that showed up was a game warden.' According to Carr, Eastland and others started evacuating girls from cabins nearest the overflowing river and moved them to the camp's two-story recreation hall. Of the 10 cabins closest to the river, the recreation hall is the furthest at 865 feet (264 meters) with the closest cabin about 315 feet (96 meters), according to an Associated Press analysis of aerial imagery. To reach Senior Hill, which was on higher ground , they would have had to cross an overflowing creek, Carr said. At times the young campers were climbing hills in bare feet, he said. Some of the camp's buildings — which flooded — were in what the Federal Emergency Management Agency considered a 100-year flood plain. But in response to an appeal, FEMA in 2013 amended the county's flood map to remove 15 of the camp's buildings from the hazard area. Carr said there were 'legitimate' reasons for filing appeals and suggested that the maps may not always be accurate. Just before daybreak on the Fourth of July, destructive, fast-moving waters rose 26 feet (8 meters) on the Guadalupe River, washing away homes and vehicles. Crews in helicopters, boats and drones have been searching for victims. Officials say 97 people in the Kerrville area may still be missing. ___ Associated Press writer Christopher Keller contributed to this report from Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Daily Mail
15-07-2025
- General
- Daily Mail
Camp Mystic director waited 45 minutes to start evacuating girls after getting Texas flood alert
The beloved director of Camp Mystic allegedly waited more than 45 minutes to begin evacuating children after receiving an emergency flash flood alert. Richard 'Dick' Eastland, 70, died while trying to rescue campers from the horrific flooding that swept through the private all-girls Christian camp in Texas on July 4. Eastland, who was co-owner of Camp Mystic in Hunt, Texas, got a National Weather Service warning about 'life-threatening' flash flooding on the Guadalupe River at 1:14am, a family spokesperson told ABC News. But apparently Eastland did not start evacuation campers to higher ground until close to 2:00 am, when floodwaters began rushing through the area. At 4:03am, the National Weather Service issued a much more urgent message. 'This is a FLASH FLOOD EMERGENCY for South-central Kerr County, including Hunt. This is a PARTICULARLY DANGEROUS SITUATION. SEEK HIGHER GROUND NOW!' the alert read. Tragically the evacuation came too late as 27 campers and counselors lost their lives in the flood. But the family member defended Eastland, saying there was no way of telling how bad the flooding would turn out to be. The 13 girls and two counselors were staying in Camp Mystic's Bubble Inn cabin when the catastrophic floods hit on Friday morning 'They had no information that indicated the magnitude of what was coming,' family representative Jeff Carr told ABC News. 'They got a standard run-of-the-mill NWS warning that they've seen dozens of times before.' Eastland's nephew, Gardner Eastland, confirmed Richard's death in a Facebook post. The camp director's wife, Tweety, was found safe at their home, according to Texas Public Radio. The Father-of-four died in a helicopter on the way to a Houston hospital, Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly told the Washington Post. The Eastlands have owned and operated Camp Mystic since 1974, and many viewed him as a father figure at the camp. 'It doesn't surprise me at all that his last act of kindness and sacrifice was working to save the lives of campers,' The Kerrville Daily Times guest columnist Paige Sumner said in a tribute to Eastland. 'Dick was the father figure to all of us while we were away from home at Camp Mystic for six weeks. 'He was the father of four amazing boys, but he had hundreds of girls each term who looked up to him like a dad. I would never have taken a fishing class if it wasn't taught by my new friend Dick.' The couple has 11 grandchildren, and several of their children and their partners help manage the camp. According to the camp website, the Eastland's oldest son, Richard, manages the camp's kitchen; their youngest son, Edward, and his wife are directors of Camp Mystic Guadalupe River. The couple attended the University of Texas in Austin and reside at the camp grounds. Eastland is the third generation from his family to run the all-girls Christian summer camp since its founding in 1926.
