Texas health officials failed to follow state law when they licensed Camp Mystic without making sure it had an evacuation plan, parents of nine children and counselors who died in the July 4 flood allege in a new federal lawsuit.
Camp Mystic’s emergency instructions directed kids to stay in their cabins during floods, even though Texas rules require youth camps to have evacuation plans for disasters, the lawsuit states.
“Young campers and counselors were killed because the camp had no plan,” the lawsuit said. “The camp is responsible, but so are the state officials who helped create this inexcusable risk to life by directing and executing a policy of non-compliance with Texas law.”
A spokesperson for the Texas Department of State Health Services said the agency does not comment on pending litigation. A lawyer representing Camp Mystic, which is not named as a party in this suit, could not immediately be reached Monday.
The camp’s current license is valid until March 6, according to the suit.
The families of nine Hill Country flooding victims filed the lawsuit in federal court on Monday, seeking damages and “all other relief that is equitable”. They are suing six DSHS officials, including Commissioner Jennifer Shuford, several others who oversee the youth camp program and the agency’s Camp Mystic inspector.
In the early morning July 4, heavy rain sent the Guadalupe River surging into the historic Central Texas camp. Staff only managed to evacuate five of 11 cabins in an area called “the flats” even though there had been enough time to get everyone out, the lawsuit alleges. Most of the girls died in two cabins there, built near the river.
In all, 27 Camp Mystic campers and counselors died in the flood. Camp Owner and Executive Director Dick Eastland also died while trying to evacuate one of the cabins.
A year before the flood, DSHS inspector Maricela Zamarripa reported the camp had a written disaster plan, the suit said. She had been at the property again just two days prior to last year’s flood. In her report filed two days after the flood, she again stated the camp had the necessary plan.
“The DSHS officials responsible for licensing youth camps deliberately looked the other way,” the families’ attorney, Paul Yetter, said in a written statement. “While Camp Mystic bears responsibility and is also being sued, state officials knew the camp’s emergency plan lacked a required evacuation component and still licensed the camp as safe.”
DSHS Deputy Commissioner for the Consumer Protection Division Timothy Stevenson testified to state lawmakers that the agency made sure emergency plans existed but did not ensure that they included plans to evacuate, the suit said — an approach the families argued violated both state law and the agency’s duty to protect their children in flash flood alley.
Two new state laws passed last year have further required camps to specify where to go in case of an evacuation, post evacuation routes in cabins and make sure those routes are illuminated at night. The agency meanwhile planned to raise its camp licensing fees.