Camp Mystic director says ‘we tried our hardest’ in deadly flood: ‘It wasn’t enough to save your daughters’

“Are you ready to take on 500-plus children?” for camp this summer, asked Lois Kolkhorst, a state senator. She added that the license “is a privilege to have”.

“We are ready,” Britt Eastland replied, adding that he believes Camp Mystic’s broader community will ultimately “be glad we had camp this summer”.

Another of the Eastland sons, Richard, said while the family doesn’t plan to open the camp if their license isn’t renewed, they would likely appeal if the decision goes against them.

Julie Sprunt Marshall, whose 9-year-old daughter was swept out of her cabin and rescued more than a mile down river, said the survivors continue to suffer trauma and the camp should not reopen.

“The camp will be conducting an incredibly dangerous experiment on children,” Marshall said, “testing what will happen with the first drop of rain, the first clap of thunder, at the first time a noise startles them awake”.

Investigators described the late camp director, Richard Eastland, as a patriarchal leader who “ruled” Camp Mystic and was “vigilant” about weather but did not have a solid evacuation plan in case of a flood.

“There was never any real training. There were never drills, no drills of any kind,” said Casey Garrett, one of the investigators. Each cabin had emergency guidelines posted but no radios, tool kits, ladders, life jackets, or any “real tools to accomplish any kind of emergency preparedness”.

Instead, the young campers were expected to shelter in place.

“How is that an evacuation plan? To stay there?” asked Morgan Meyer, a Republican state representative, according to CNN. “Please explain to me how telling someone to stay somewhere is an evacuation plan. That seems like the antithesis of an evacuation plan.”

Richard Eastland said his father’s biggest fear about flooding from the river “was the girls would be curious about them. He was terrified about people wandering down when we’re having a flood event.”

The family has said that the camp patriarch had advocated for a siren system along the river and he paid close attention to flood threats. Investigators have said that Eastland was obsessively checking weather apps on the night of July 4 but didn’t start an evacuation until 3am, almost two hours after the National Weather Service issued a flood warning at 1.14am.

An hour after the warning was issued, two counselors from cabins closest to the river told the front office to report flooding. But Eastland assessed it and told them to lay down some towels, according to the investigation.

Half an hour later Eastland reportedly decided to start evacuating the cabins closest to the river. But groundskeepers were ordered to move canoes and were not asked to participate in the evacuations.

“It’s pretty hard to understand why all these adults were here and lacked information. They had no idea what was going on,” Garrett told the panel. “They didn’t have specific assignments, weren’t told where to go. They stayed over in this area and did not take action. It’s a bit of a mystery why.”