The director of Camp Mystic waited more than an hour after receiving a life-threatening flood alert before beginning to evacuate campers asleep in their cabins, his family confirmed through a spokesman.
Executive Director Richard “Dick” Eastland, 70, along with his wife, had been in charge of the beloved all-girls Christian summer camp in Hunt, Texas since the 1980s.
It’s located directly in the flood zone. But when the National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning for Kerr County at 1:14 a.m. on July 4, warning of “life-threatening flash flooding” near the Guadalupe River, little direction was given by the leadership of the camp.
Eastland did not order evacuations until 2:30 a.m., by which time torrential rains were already falling and the river was rapidly rising, according to family spokesman Jeff Carr, as reported by The Washington Post.
Instead, the director first used walkie-talkies to coordinate with his family members, many of whom worked at the camp, to “assess the situation.”
Interviews, detailed in the Post, with survivors and emergency personnel, describe a chaotic and delayed response that left teenage counselors scrambling in the dark as floodwaters surged through the camp, which lacked reliable cell service and had no backup power for its loudspeaker system once electricity went out.
The result was catastrophe. Twenty-seven campers and counselors died. Eastland himself drowned while trying to rescue some of the youngest girls at the camp.
“There should have been immediate action (by the leaders),” said Serena Aldrich, a lawyer, a parent and former camper whose two daughters survived.
“They should have been paying attention to those warnings and evacuated the camp,” she added. “The flooding is not a new thing. I don’t know if it’s ever been to epic proportions like that, but ignoring the warnings doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.”
Camp Mystic had been under a flood watch earlier that evening, but the 1:14 a.m. “life threatening” alert, which came without an official evacuation order, marked a significant escalation.
The National Weather Service does not have the authority to mandate evacuations. That responsibility falls to local officials. Kerr County authorities, however, did not use emergency alert systems to warn residents until more than two days later, The Post reported.
Whether Camp Mystic called 911 is still unclear. The local fire chief told the outlet he never received a call for help from the camp.
By the time the camp began evacuations, the Guadalupe River had already started its historic surge, eventually cresting at 37.5 feet, nearly a foot above its previous record.
Counselors were forced to make life-or-death decisions in waist- and chest-high water. They carried barefoot children through the darkness to higher ground while listening to cries for help from cabins closer the river.
Some girls were eventually rescued by helicopter. Others clung to trees or took shelter on rooftops for hours.
Camp staff did not officially contact most parents, until later that morning, according to emails obtained by the Post. The first communication from the camp to most parents came at 11:28 a.m.
By that time, many of the parents had grown hysterical over the harrowing images being shared on the news and across social media.
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