Camp Mystic nurse Liz Eastland faces license suspension after floods

Camp Mystic directors Mary Liz Eastland leaves after testifying at a joint House and Senate flood investigating committee hearing at the Capitol on Tuesday April 28, 2026. Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman The Texas Board of Nursing has revoked the nursing license of Camp Mystic’s health officer — and Eastland family member — after finding that her failure to implement preventive measures for campers during the deadly July 4 floods posed a “continuing and imminent threat to public welfare.” The board stated that Mary “Liz” Eastland, a member of the family that owns and operates Camp Mystic, “failed to develop and maintain adequate emergency plans and emergency training protocols for campers, staff and camp nurses.” It moved to temporarily suspend her nursing license under six charges, including failure to develop and maintain adequate emergency plans and training protocols for campers, staff and camp nurses; failure to implement emergency procedures during the flood; abandonment of campers and staff during the crisis; failure to report deaths to state health regulators within the required 24 hours; improper delegation of medical authority; and medication handling and HIPAA violations. Under the abandonment charge, the board accuses Eastland of having “abandoned the campers and staff when the camp site began to flood” by “evacuating herself and her children to higher ground without providing any assistance or direction.” A probable cause hearing will be held no later than 17 days after the suspension, which was issued Tuesday, according to CBS News, and a final hearing on the matter will take place no later than 61 days from then. ## Eastland appears before committee hearing Eastland admitted that she had not officially reported the 27 camp deaths of the girls now known as “Heaven’s 27,” who lost their lives in the floods. Eastland’s failure to report the deaths is in direct violation of the Texas administrative code, which requires camps to report deaths to state health regulators within 24 hours. At the hearing, Eastland reportedly said she could not recall exactly when she learned campers had died, saying it could have been a day or several days after the floods. Her father-in-law, camp director Richard “Dick” Eastland, also died in the floods. The testimony grew heated, with one of the lawyers representing the family repeatedly probing Eastland about claims that she only helped the campers with the Eastland name. She indicated her children were not campers. When pressed, she said she could only get to those campers, and the lawyer questioned her effort to find anybody else. Eastland said that she and her family would be willing to step back from operating the camp during the hearing as long as it was allowed to stay open, but didn’t indicate who would take over. It has since been announced that the camp will not reopen this summer.