AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — One of the directors of the all-girls Christian camp in the Texas Hill Country where 25 campers and two counselors were killed a in a 2025 flood offered a tearful apology Tuesday as state lawmakers questioned the owners' efforts to reopen in May.
Edward Eastland’s words came as dozens of the girls’ family members sat just feet behind him during the second day of a special legislative hearing in which state lawmakers posed tough questions about Camp Mystic's lack of emergency planning before the devastating July 4 flood. A report of findings is expected later this year.
“We tried our hardest that night. It wasn’t enough to save your daughters,” said Eastland, a camp director and a member of the family that owns the 100-year-old camp along the Guadalupe River. “I’m so sorry.”
Eastland said he and his father Richard Eastland were on the campsite that night, and that they made a desperate attempt to save the girls when they realized that heavy rain had created a raging flood that ripped through the camp on the banks of the Guadalupe River. Richard Eastland died in the flood and Edward survived only after being swept into a tree.
“These girls were our youngest campers and their amazing counselors who we watched grow up,” Eastland said. “The world was a better place with them in it and the anger at us for not being able to keep them safe is completely reasonable.”
The apology came at the outset of the hearing before he and several members of the Eastland family were questioned for about four hours by state lawmakers who at times said the family remained unprepared to reopen the camp and repeatedly questioned the lack of emergency training for staff last year. Legislators also questioned several of the decisions made during the flood that delayed an evacuation and ultimately cost lives.
Lawmakers press camp owners on emergency training
Britt Eastland, another director, said the camp will dramatically improve training for counselors and stage drills for campers to prepare for floods, fire, tornadoes and intruders. noted the camp’s previous lack of flood training as a critical problem that contributed to the deaths.
"All of these things should have been being done in the first place,” said Sen. Charles Perry.
The panel pressed the Eastlands on why they didn't make a last-ditch effort to get on the camp PA system and order everyone to head to higher ground.
Edward Eastland said it didn’t even occur to him to leave the girls they were trying to rescue to go back to the camp office and make such an announcement.
“Every minute was spent trying to get to the next cabin,” he said. “If we had a little more time, we could have gotten everybody out.”
Camp owners make plans to reopen
Camp Mystic’s owners in late May and have said they will only use the parts of the camp that didn’t flood. They expect nearly 900 attendees this summer. Those plans have angered victims’ families, and some prominent state officials have called for regulators to deny or delay renewal of the camp’s license, which is under review.
Another of the sons, named Richard Eastland after his father, said while the family doesn't plan to open the camp if their license isn't renewed, they would likely appeal if that was the state's decision.
“We will not open Cypress Lake if we do not have a license,” he said.
But that seemed to spark disagreement among the victims' family members. Britt Eastland quickly interjected that it would be a “family decision.”
The special legislative committee does not control the review of Camp Mystic’s license. Because the camp has applied to renew its previous license, it could reopen while its application is pending. If denied, it still could operate while its case is under appeal.
The Eastland family also said it’s still an open question whether they would eventually try to reopen the river camp. If they do, no campers would be placed in buildings that flooded.
“We’re praying about that every day. We don’t know what to do,” Britt Eastland said.
Camp's readiness to host girls questioned
Several lawmakers questioned how the camp could be ready to reopen this summer.
State regulators last week notified Camp Mystic of 22 deficiencies in its emergency plan. Mary Liz Eastland, the camp’s medical director, acknowledged Tuesday she has not officially reported last summer’s deaths to state health officers.
“Are you ready to take on 500-plus children,” for camp this summer, asked Sen. Lois Kolkhorst. She noted state agencies have shut down licensed residential living centers for a single death, let alone dozens.
“The license is a privilege to have," Kolkhorst said.
“We are ready,” Britt Eastland said, adding that he believes Camp Mystic’s broader community will ultimately “be glad we had camp this summer.”
That drew an audible gasp from some in the room, and several of the victims' family members walked out.
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. She asked the lawmakers to not let the camp open under the Eastland family “who failed our daughters.”
“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.”
