(The Center Square) – Multiple parents are calling on the state of Texas to pull the operating license of Camp Mystic, where 25 campers and two counselors died in historic flooding last July 4.
As multiple investigations into the camp are ongoing, its owners, Eastland family members, told lawmakers they would appeal if the state denied its license and planned to continue operating. Several lawmakers said the camp had lost that privilege, The Center Square reported.
During the second day of testimony at a joint Texas Senate and House General Investigating Committee hearing, CiCi Steward, whose daughter Cile’s remainswere never found, said, “Camp Mystic was licensed by this state and entrusted by this state as a for profit business whose business was taking care of and protecting our children. The Eastland family swore to you that the camp was safe, prepared and ready. Now we know they lied to us,” she said, referring to answers the Eastlands gave to state Rep. Morgan Myer, R-Dallas. All three Eastland brothers and one of their wives, Mary Liz Eastland, admitted they did not have a current chain of command for an evacuation plan.
The camp’s late director, Dick Eastland, “enforced a culture of obedience so powerful that their staff, including the directors of the camp, and his children, were afraid to assist helpless children if it meant defying Dick’s orders,” Steward said, referring to testimony state investigators provided as part of their investigation. “While our children waited for rescue that would never come, the family obligated to protect them was improvising, sleeping or saving themselves and still none seemed to know where which Richard was that night,” she said. Investigators pointed to testimony of Richard Eastland, who said he was moving canoes instead of campers at 1:14 a.m. as flood water rose.
“The Eastlands have proven themselves incapable of protecting children. They made decisions for themselves that they admittedly denied for everyone else. The Eastlands are trying to bully their way into a license to operate camp in just a few weeks,” Steward said.
State Rep. Erin Gamez, D-Brownsville, raised concerns about this, The Center Square reported. The Eastlands plan to reopen the camp next month for six weeks, which they said would bring in an estimated $4 million in gross revenue. Their current application for a permit has 22 deficiencies, lawmakers said.
“The state of Texas cannot under any kind of scenario certify to a parent that this family is qualified to ever watch children again,” Steward said. “No camp will be safe for any child as long as the Eastlands are associated with it.”
The Stewards said they were forced to sue the Eastlands to stop them from destroying evidence and tearing down cabins while an active criminal investigation is underway.
“It took four days of hard-fought testimony, a judicial order twice commanding them to stop and even then, they’ve appealed it,” Steward said. “Camp Mystic’s own lawyer in front of me in open court approached my attorneys and told them they were going to ‘burn in hell.’ The lawyers of a Christian ministry camp told my lawyers that they’re going to ‘burn in hell’ for trying to help me find my daughter and learn the truth about what happened.”
Multiple parents, whose daughters survived, described the trauma they are still experiencing and called on the state to strip the camp’s license.
Dr. Julie Sprunt Marshall described how her daughter, McKenzie, saw “flashlights bobbing in the dark as other campers and counselors made their way toward Rec Hall and safety” as she and her cabinmates weren’t evacuated. She remembered Edward Eastland “crying out to the sky to stop the rain. The rain did not stop. The Eastlands’ prayers didn’t save the girls that night. [Their] prayers going forward are not an appropriate safety plan,” she said.
She also described how McKenzie’s bunk mates were “crying for their mothers” and wanting to go home before they were swept to their deaths. McKenzie survived after rushing flood waters pushed her out of her cabin’s window “in total darkness amid fast moving churning debris.” She “fought for her life as the current catapulted her downriver. She describes thinking this is what it is like to die. … The river pushed her under over and over again and she would hold her breath as long as she could. … She saw flashlights in the distance. She clung to a tree and began yelling ‘help.’” She and another camper were rescued by the Griffin family. They were later evacuated by helicopter.
The Griffins also testified about the rescue and the lack of response from the Eastlands. They texted Britt Eastland at 4:45 a.m. to tell him two of his campers had been found alive downriver and got no response. The Eastlands “made no effort to reunite our girls with their cabin mates nor did they provide updates to us about their location or well-being,” Marshall said. After the Griffins’ testimony, those in the hearing room stood and clapped, including lawmakers who said, “God bless the Griffin family.”
As a surgeon, Marshall raised multiple medical concerns. The surviving campers “should have been medically evaluated by the camp’s health officer, Mary Liz Eastland,” but weren’t. “She made no effort to do this. We were never called that day by the Eastland family.”
Mary Liz Eastland testified under oath that as the camp’s registered nurse and health officer she was required to be on site and on call but wasn’t. She also testified that she wasn’t signed up for code red alerts, didn’t go to the camp’s infirmary, didn’t call the nurses to warn them, didn’t instruct them to check on the cabins, didn’t call 911 and admitted to “abandoning” the campers on July 4. Marshall said she was asked to medically evaluate surviving campers “because the camp health officer was nowhere to be found.”
After the flood, Eastland “did not survey the camp for missing or injured children, … did not know that dead children were on the grounds” and “failed her statutory obligation to report camper deaths” to the state, Marshall added. State Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, told Mary Liz Eastland on Tuesday to follow the law and report the deaths.
