Camp Mystic files for bankruptcy after catastrophic Texas floods killed
28 people at the girls' camp
[June 25, 2026]
By JAMIE STENGLE and KATHY McCORMACK
DALLAS (AP) — Camp Mystic filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization
on Wednesday, nearly a year after catastrophic floods killed 25 campers
and two teenage counselors at the Christian camp for girls along the
Guadalupe River in Texas.
Camp Mystic has been under increasing pressure since the July 4
disaster. Owners had planned to reopen the Texas Hill Country camp this
summer for its 100th anniversary but reversed course in April amid
outrage from victims’ families and lawmakers. Victims' families filed
lawsuits accusing the camp of failing to protect the girls as the
powerful floodwaters approached.
Camp Mystic’s owner, Richard Eastland, also died in the flood.
The camp listed its debt at more than $10 million, according to the
filing made in federal bankruptcy court in Houston. An attorney for Camp
Mystic has not responded to an email and a phone message seeking
comment.
“Bankruptcy will not stop all responsible parties from being held
accountable,” Paul Yetter, a lawyer who represents multiple families of
campers and counselors who died at Camp Mystic, said in a statement.
“These innocent girls deserve justice.”
For decades, Camp Mystic was a summer staple and an institution for
generations of families, who dropped off their girls at the sleepaway
camp to ride horses, canoe, fish and attend Bible studies. Other summer
camps in Kerr County, west of Austin, did not take on such devastating
flooding and in some cases have reopened.
All told, the destructive flooding killed at least 136 people along a
several-mile stretch of the river, raising questions about how things
went so terribly wrong.
In the aftermath of the tragedy, the Eastland family spent months
determined to reopen the camp this summer, pointing to enhanced safety
measures that included flood warning river monitors and putting two-way
radios enabled with national weather alerts in every cabin.
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Rescue workers are seen on land and on a boat as they search for
missing people near Camp Mystic along the Guadalupe River after a
flash flood swept through the area Sunday, July 6, 2025, in Hunt,
Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)
By the spring, Camp Mystic's attorney said it was ready to reopen
for business for nearly 900 campers.
But assurances of safety did not convince victims' families and some
Texas lawmakers. State regulators found nearly two dozen
deficiencies in the emergency operations plan submitted by the
owners, including in proposals for flood warning evacuations and
safety training.
The decision not to reopen followed weeks of testimony in court
hearings and legislative investigations that laid bare the camp’s
lack of detailed planning for a flood emergency and its reliance on
poorly trained staff.
Families of the victims packed the hearings, some wearing “Heaven’s
27” pins with photographs of their daughters. They listened to the
details of missed flood warning signs, the descriptions of the flood
and the decision to leave the girls in their cabins until it was too
late. Testimony included video of the raging floodwaters as a girl
repeatedly screamed “help!” somewhere in the distance.
Before halting the reopening plans, Camp Mystic invited journalists
and lawmakers to review safety improvements at the camp and promised
that no camp activities would take place in the low-lying area that
was devastated by the flood. The Eastland family also stressed that
hundreds of families wanted to return.
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McCormack contributed to this report from Concord, New Hampshire.
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