After 28 people died at the private Christian girls' summer camp during last July's deadly flooding in the Hill Country, lawmakers questioned the merits of Camp Mystic's application for an operating license on Tuesday.
"I would have thought, after coming out of July of '25, that every 'I', every 'T' — everything on that application would have been pristine with all answers," state Sen. Charles Perry, a Lubbock Republican, said at a joint hearing of two legislative committees tasked with investigating the flood.
State health officials informed the camp last week that it may not be able to open this summer due to "insufficient" emergency plans. The camp's owners, the Eastland family, testified on Tuesday that they are working on correcting "deficiencies" in the plans.
"I believe you were referring to the description of activities that was uploaded," Edward Eastland told Perry. "I believe that description of activities was something that we had used years prior. It was a PDF, and it had references to the Guadalupe River, and that was — that was a mistake."
Perry, one of the authors of the Heaven's 27 Camp Safety Act, also called into question the Eastlands' future as operators of the camp.
"Legally, y'all probably get to stay in existence," Perry said. "But I will tell you ... whatever statute tweaks, whatever laws we make or whatever rules we have to devise, y'all will not be an operator next session, next season — if I can have anything to say with that."
On Monday, lawmakers heard hours of testimony from investigators who described an attitude of complacency and a lack of emergency preparedness at the camp.
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