Camp Mystic Delayed Evacuation Despite 'Life-Threatening' Flood Warning

The owner of Camp Mystic received a National Weather Service alert on his phone warning of imminent “life threatening flash flooding" along the Guadalupe River, but camp personnel did not begin evacuating children until at least 46 minutes later.

Twenty-five campers and two counselors died early on the morning of July 4th when floodwaters barreled through the Christian girls' camp, a beloved, 99-year-old retreat in Kerr County. The camp's owner and executive director, Dick Eastland, 70, died while trying to rescue campers.

The weather service sent the flash flood warning at 1:14 a.m. that morning as torrential rains pummeled the Texas Hill Country. Counselors and other camp personnel began evacuating campers between 2 a.m. and 2:30 a.m., said Jeff Carr, a spokesman for the Eastland family, who have run the camp for generations.

Carr said the time frame is an estimate offered by members of the family who were at the camp as the disaster unfolded. He said family members confirmed that Dick Eastland received the NWS warning on his phone.

In the NWS lexicon, a warning means dangerous weather is happening or is extremely likely to happen soon. Warnings are delivered on social media, by email and directly to cellphones enabled to receive them.

The Washington Post was first to report on the gap between the flood warning and the evacuation.

Carr said camp officials are still putting together a precise, detailed timeline of how the catastrophe unfolded.

Dick Eastland did not sit idle after receiving the NWS warning, Carr said.

“He got that alarm. He went out on to the property to assess. He called the rest of the family on the walkie talkies,” Carr told the San Antonio Express-News. “He was actively assessing conditions across the camp ... and things sort of ensued from there.”

More than 15 inches of rain fell on south and central Kerr County during the dark, early morning hours of July 4th. The deluge caused the Guadalupe River to rise 30 feet in 3½ hours.

At 1:40 a.m. that morning, the Guadalupe stood at 7.75 feet, its normal level. By 5:10 a.m., the river had crested at 37.52 feet — an all-time high.

The downpour far exceeded the NWS forecast for widespread rainfall of 1 to 3 inches, with isolated pockets getting 5 to 7 inches.

Camp Mystic sits on a bend in the south fork of the Guadalupe River, a few miles southwest of the town of Hunt and 18 miles west of Kerrville.

Children were asleep in cabins when the emergency began. The campsite lost power, and cellphone and wifi signals were unreliable.

Eastland’s wife, Tweety Eastland, 72, and other family members were at Camp Mystic along with Dick Eastland, Carr said,

Hundreds of other children staying at the campsite were evacuated. Some waded through the floodwaters to climb to higher ground and waited with counselors until help arrived.

Officials said the remains of 106 victims have been found in Kerr County since the flood swept through the area. More than 160 other people are still missing, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said.

Camp Mystic, which has served as a nondenominational Christian retreat for generations of girls, was established in 1926.

The camp, which can accommodate up to 750 children, had flooded many times before the July 4th disaster but without loss of life.

Parents had to sign a waiver of liability before sending their children to the camp. The 1,300-word document mentions floods only once, in a long list of possible risks that campers may encounter. It says nothing about the history of flooding at the site.

Campers weren’t allowed to bring cellphones, digital tablets, Apple watches or digital cameras to the retreat, according to Camp Mystic’s 10 pages of policies and procedures.