During a court hearing on Monday, the director of a Texas summer camp, where a tragic flood claimed 27 lives in 2025, revealed that he had not seen the official storm warning issued a day before the incident. Edward Eastland stated that the staff had not convened any meetings regarding the looming threat and failed to initiate an evacuation until it was too late.
The courtroom was filled with families of the victims as Eastland gave emotional testimony, outlining how the camp staff responded—or didn’t—as the Guadalupe River rose to unprecedented levels, trapping children and counselors in their cabins as the floodwaters surged in the darkness of the Fourth of July night.
“I wish we hadn’t held camp that summer,” he lamented toward the end of his testimony, acknowledging that earlier action could have saved lives but maintaining that the storm’s severity was unpredictable.
This hearing is part of an ongoing legal struggle between the camp’s ownership and the families of the victims, who have filed several lawsuits, including a request to preserve evidence regarding the damage to the campground.
Compounding the situation, Camp Mystic is set to reopen in two months. The camp’s organizers have applied to renew its license to operate on an elevated area that didn’t flood, with nearly 900 girls already signed up.
Eastland admitted there was no detailed written evacuation plan for flooding. He pondered how more campers could have survived if he, his father, Richard Eastland, and the camp’s safety director had decided to evacuate sooner. At that point, the water was dangerously high and moving rapidly.
He also acknowledged that basic steps—like using loudspeakers to inform campers and counselors to evacuate to higher ground—were neglected.
After the hearing, Cici Steward, whose 8-year-old daughter, Cirie, remains missing, asserted that the camp should be denied a permit to reopen. “They clearly can’t keep children safe,” she remarked.
Edward Eastland’s attorney, Mikal Watts, refrained from commenting immediately following the hearing.
I missed the warning and missed the opportunity to evacuate.
Eastland explained that he and his team had subscribed to an emergency alert system and were using weather apps, but he failed to see social media posts regarding flood watches from authorities just before the storm. He felt that the existing CodeRED alert system and weather app were adequate.
A warning from the National Weather Service on July 3 highlighted potential heavy rain causing flash flooding in low-lying areas—precisely where Camp Mystic is located. Eastland noted that, typically, his father oversees weather-related issues and believed that no meetings concerning alerts occurred that day.
The flood struck in the dead of night, resulting in the deaths of 25 campers, two teenage counselors, and his father, who was attempting to load a camper when the SUV was swept away. “I had no idea this was going to happen,” Eastland expressed.
“You’ve been warned,” said Brad Beckworth, representing the Steward family.
Eastland claims campus loudspeakers were not used to issue weather warnings
Around 10 p.m. on July 3, as campers settled in for the night, a section of a video was played over loudspeakers in the courtroom. Eastland went to bed around 11 p.m. without receiving a crucial flash flood warning at 1:14 a.m. He admitted he fell asleep after reading a warning involving potential flooding.
Before 2 a.m., his father contacted him, indicating heavy rain and the need to relocate canoes and equipment from the riverfront. Yet, no attempt was made to evacuate the cabin. “It just didn’t seem necessary at the time,” Eastland explained, feeling the cabin was safe at that moment.
His father called him at 3 a.m. to evacuate. A counselor later described the nightmarish conditions, recalling that she woke up amid the storm to see girls evacuating. As Eastland approached the now-flooded cabin, he informed her it was too late to leave and urged her to ride out the storm indoors. He attempted to guide the children away from rising waters before he too was overwhelmed.
Eastland recounted a chaotic scene where he braced himself against a cabin door while trying to catch two girls who jumped onto his back, just before both he and a counselor were thrown into a tree by the force of the flood.
“The water was rising above our heads. It was churning,” he recalled. Family members left the courtroom during the testimony, capturing video on their phones that included cries for help in the background.
Floods kill at least 136 people along the Guadalupe River
The catastrophic floods have claimed at least 136 lives across several miles of rivers, prompting scrutiny regarding how the situation escalated so severely.
Texas health regulators announced an investigation into numerous complaints lodged against the camp owners. Additionally, the Texas Rangers are involved in the inquiry concerning the alleged abandonment, although the specifics of the investigation remain unclear.
The hearing is expected to continue on Tuesday.
