A group of Camp Mystic’s youngest campers are either all dead or missing after floods in central Texas killed around 120 people and left 160 missing.
Bubble Inn, the cabin that hosted girls aged from 8 to 10, was the cabin that lost the most campers out of the 27 people killed at the all-girl’s Christian summer camp in Kerr County, Texas.
The cabin hosted 15 campers and two counselors. Almost a week after the flooding, 14 campers and one of the counselors were found dead along the banks of the Guadalupe River. One child and one counselor are still missing.
Camp Mystic’s co-director, Dick Eastland, reportedly died while trying to save the young girls.
“I really, truly think he went there because they’re the youngest,” Alex Loyd, the mother of two Camp Mystic girls told CNN. “These are first-time campers … you’re going to run to the babies, absolutely.”
Over 20 dead from Camp Mystic
At this time, it’s not clear if the girls, the counselors, and Eastland drowned in the cabin or outside while trying to escape.
Camp Mystic has a history of severe flooding that dates back to 1932, just 10 years after the camp opened.
Kerr County sits in the middle of "flash flood alley”, meaning that the area is no stranger to floods.
Floods once swept away cabins from the camp, and had to evacuate campers by canoe, according to a story from the Abilene Daily Reporter in 1932.
Eastland’s wife, Tweety, was even airlifted to the hospital in 1985 because floodwaters prevented them from reaching the hospital, CNN reported, citing local broadcasters.
Eastland had warned local officials for years about a catastrophe if the river flooded.
While he had successfully petitioned for a better alarm system in the 80s, the system was outdated a decade later.
It was also certainly outdated by the time floodwaters rose 20 feet in two hours last weekend, putting the girls in Bubble Inn at major risk. Camp Mystic’s youngest campers slept in cabins in low-lying, flat ground near the banks of the Guadalupe.
While there were several recent pushes to update Kerr’s emergency preparedness services, none ever passed.
Kerr county does not have an emergency alert system, though local leaders considered putting one in place in 2017. Local officials said that they did not think an emergency preparedness measure would go over well with citizens because of its cost.
A few short months ago, Texas legislators voted on House Bill 13, which would’ve created a statewide plan to improve Texas’s disaster response. It died in the state senate, and wouldn’t have taken effect if had passed until September 1.
Though flooding probably was not a concern when the camp was built, seeing as Kerr County probably didn’t have flood maps at the time, the federal government identified the cabins and camp structures closest to the Guadalupe were at the highest risk for flooding.
While the camp did build cabins on higher ground, it did not relocate the structures in the direct flood path of the river, CNN reported.
Remembering those lost
After the events, Eastland and other camp staffers are being hailed as heroes for trying to save the girls.
“The main thing I have to say is unending gratitude for the brave camp counselors who safely evacuated so many campers, and to the two camp counselors who gave their lives trying to protect my baby,” Dr. Patricia Bellows, the bereaved mother of Bubble Inn camper Margaret, told KTRK.
Eastland's grandson said that his impact will be felt for generations.
“If he wasn’t going to die of natural causes, this was the only other way—saving the girls that he so loved and cared for,” George Eastland, Dick’s grandson, wrote on Instagram. “Although he no longer walks this earth, his impact will never fade in the lives he touched.”