Texas board faults Camp Mystic leader for inaction during deadly flood
[May 22, 2026]
By JIM VERTUNO
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A Texas board has suspended the nursing license of
Camp Mystic’s co-director in a scathing order that accused her of not
helping children evacuate during last year’s catastrophic floods that
killed 25 girls and two teenage counselors.
It's one of the state’s first actions against a member of the family
that owns and operates the all-girls Christian camp since the July 4
flood. Last month, Camp Mystic canceled plans to reopen this summer in
the face of outrage from victims' parents.
Mary Liz Eastland, a registered nurse, served as the camp’s medical
officer. She has previously acknowledged in court that she never tried
to reach children and staff in the low-lying area of the camp as the
predawn flooding along the Guadalupe River worsened. Her father-in-law,
Camp Mystic owner Richard Eastland, also died in the flood.
Allowing Mary Liz Eastland to keep practicing nursing would constitute a
“continuing and imminent threat to public welfare," according to an
order signed Tuesday by Kristin Benton, executive director of the Texas
Board of Nursing.
Eastland “abandoned the campers and staff when the camp site began to
flood ... by evacuating herself and her children to higher ground
without providing any assistance or direction to all of the other
campers and staff,” the order reads.
Eastland rejects the findings and will fight the suspension, said Camp
Mystic attorney Joshua Fiveson. He said the board suspended her license
with less than a day’s notice of a hearing and without taking testimony
or conducting a full investigation.
“This is a sad day for Mrs. Eastland as well as every licensed nurse in
Texas,” Fiveson said. “This was an exercise in premature punishment.”
According to the order, the board will issue a final decision on her
license within two months.
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Camp director Mary Liz Eastland is questioned during a hearing on a
suit against Camp Mystic in the 459th State District Court in Austin
on April 14, 2026. (Mikayla Compton/Austin American-Statesman via
AP, File)
Since the flood, the Eastland family has come under intensifying
criticism from families of the victims and Texas lawmakers. Several
families have filed lawsuits against the Eastlands, who for months
forged ahead with plans to reopen before ultimately backing down.
In April, legislative hearings laid bare the camp’s lack of detailed
planning for a flood emergency, reliance on poorly trained staff and
missed chances to evacuate children from the cabins near the river.
Mary Liz Eastland recounted during the hearings her steps that night
when she and her children left their house to join her
mother-in-law. She described water pouring into the house and
breaking a window to escape. The family was able to get to higher
ground.
She and other staff gathered survivors for a head count, checking
names against cabin rosters. She said she could not pass through the
rising floodwaters to get to the campers closest to the Guadalupe
River.
Eastland was also pressed as to why, as the camp’s chief medical
officer, she did not try to call or alert other medical staff to get
to the campers before disaster struck. When asked if the other staff
could have helped with the camp evacuation, she said, “Maybe so.”
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