The families of six children and two counselors killed in a flooding disaster that struck a Texas summer camp for girls in July filed two separate lawsuits Monday against the camp’s owners and others, alleging negligence.
Twenty-seven children and counselors died in the July disaster in Kerr County, which was caused by slow-moving thunderstorms. More than 100 people died overall.
The two suits say the camp was located in a known flash flood area along the Guadalupe River. Lawyers for the families of five of the children and two counselors said it was “in a region known as ‘Flash Flood Alley.’”
“Camp Mystic has long operated in a high-risk flood zone. Despite this known danger, the petition asserts that the camp failed to adopt legally required evacuation plans, ignored repeated weather warnings, and implemented unsafe policies,” attorneys for the plaintiffs said.
The lawsuit also alleges camp staff prioritized protecting equipment rather than the lives of campers and counselors.
“With the river rising, the Camp chose to direct its groundskeepers to spend over an hour evacuating camp equipment, not its campers and counselors,” the suit says, adding that campers and counselors in two cabins were ordered to stay put even as others had been moved to higher ground 300 feet away.
“Finally, when it was too late, the Camp made a hopeless ‘rescue’ effort from its self-created disaster in which 25 campers, two counselors, and the Camp director died,” the suit says.
Jeff Ray, a lawyer for Camp Mystic, in a statement to NBC Dallas-Fort Worth Monday said that the magnitude of the flooding was unexpected. He said there was “misinformation” in the suits about the actions of Camp Mystic and Dick Eastland, the camp’s owner and director, who also died.
“We intend to demonstrate and prove that this sudden surge of floodwaters far exceeded any previous flood in the area by several magnitudes, that it was unexpected and that no adequate warning systems existed in the area,” Ray said.
The family of another child who was killed, 8-year-old Eloise “Lulu” Peck, filed a separate lawsuit Monday against Camp Mystic and others.
The suit alleges owners of the camp, which it says has been in the family for generations, knew as far back as 1932 that cabins “sat in the bullseye of potential flood waters from the Guadalupe River and never said a word about it to trusting parents.” Since that time, the suit says, the owners had been playing “Russian Roulette with the lives of the little girls.”
The lawsuit, filed by Eloise’s parents Timothy and Melissa Peck, seeks unspecified damages in excess of $1 million for wrongful death, mental pain and anguish and other causes.
“There is no greater trust than when a parent entrusts the care of their child to another. Parents don’t send their children to summer camp to die,” they said in the lawsuit.
Camp Mystic “and the people who ran it betrayed that trust,” they said.
During the early morning hours of July 4, the Guadalupe River in Kerr County rose over 20 feet in just a few hours, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration has said.
The Texas counties affected by the flash flooding had been experiencing drought since late 2021, the agency said. Drought conditions raise the risk that heavy rain will cause flash flooding because it hardens soils.
The remnants of Tropical Storm Barry, which had hit southeastern Mexico on June 29, had a circulation that merged with a trough and moisture from the Eastern Pacific to cause the thunderstorms, NASA has said.
Those factors created “a large, organized cluster of thunderstorms that remained nearly stationary over the Texas Hill Country from July 4 to 7,” NASA said. Around 11 inches fell in a few hours, and more than 20 inches fell in some areas overall.
More than 130 people died in the floods across six counties, according to a count of official reports conducted by NBC News. At least 117 died in Kerr County, where Camp Mystic is located, the county government said in August. Two people remained missing as of Aug. 8.
Camp Mystic said it plans to partially reopen next year with a monument to the victims.
“Our clients are devastated by the loss of Lulu,” Randy R. Howry, lawyer for the Pecks, said in a statement. “It was a terrible tragedy that could have been avoided. Camp Mystic must be held accountable for their failure to take care of Lulu and her friends.”
