Camp Mystic director offers tearful apology to victims' families during
legislative hearing
[April 29, 2026]
By JIM VERTUNO
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — One of the directors of the all-girls Christian
camp in the Texas Hill Country where 25 campers and two counselors were
killed a in a 2025 flood offered a tearful apology Tuesday as state
lawmakers questioned the owners' efforts to reopen in May.
Edward Eastland’s words came as dozens of the girls’ family members sat
just feet behind him during the second day of a special legislative
hearing in which state lawmakers posed tough questions about Camp
Mystic's lack of emergency planning before the devastating July 4 flood.
A report of findings is expected later this year.
“We tried our hardest that night. It wasn’t enough to save your
daughters,” said Eastland, a camp director and a member of the family
that owns the 100-year-old camp along the Guadalupe River. “I’m so
sorry.”
Eastland said he and his father Richard Eastland were on the campsite
that night, and that they made a desperate attempt to save the girls
when they realized that heavy rain had created a raging flood that
ripped through the camp on the banks of the Guadalupe River. Richard
Eastland died in the flood and Edward survived only after being swept
into a tree.
“These girls were our youngest campers and their amazing counselors who
we watched grow up,” Eastland said. “The world was a better place with
them in it and the anger at us for not being able to keep them safe is
completely reasonable.”
The apology came at the outset of the hearing before he and several
members of the Eastland family were questioned for about four hours by
state lawmakers who at times said the family remained unprepared to
reopen the camp and repeatedly questioned the lack of emergency training
for staff last year. Legislators also questioned several of the
decisions made during the flood that delayed an evacuation and
ultimately cost lives.
Lawmakers press camp owners on emergency training
Britt Eastland, another director, said the camp will dramatically
improve training for counselors and stage drills for campers to prepare
for floods, fire, tornadoes and intruders. Legislative investigators on
Monday noted the camp’s previous lack of flood training as a critical
problem that contributed to the deaths.
"All of these things should have been being done in the first place,”
said Sen. Charles Perry.
The panel pressed the Eastlands on why they didn't make a last-ditch
effort to get on the camp PA system and order everyone to head to higher
ground.
Edward Eastland said it didn’t even occur to him to leave the girls they
were trying to rescue to go back to the camp office and make such an
announcement.
“Every minute was spent trying to get to the next cabin,” he said. “If
we had a little more time, we could have gotten everybody out.”
Camp owners make plans to reopen
Camp Mystic’s owners want to reopen in late May and have said they will
only use the parts of the camp that didn’t flood. They expect nearly 900
attendees this summer. Those plans have angered victims’ families, and
some prominent state officials have called for regulators to deny or
delay renewal of the camp’s license, which is under review.
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Camp Mystic is shown in Hunt, Texas on Wednesday, July 9, 2025. (AP
Photo/Ashley Landis)
Another of the sons, named Richard Eastland after his father, said
while the family doesn't plan to open the camp if their license
isn't renewed, they would likely appeal if that was the state's
decision.
“We will not open Cypress Lake if we do not have a license,” he
said.
But that seemed to spark disagreement among the victims' family
members. Britt Eastland quickly interjected that it would be a
“family decision.”
The special legislative committee does not control the review of
Camp Mystic’s license. Because the camp has applied to renew its
previous license, it could reopen while its application is pending.
If denied, it still could operate while its case is under appeal.
The Eastland family also said it’s still an open question whether
they would eventually try to reopen the river camp. If they do, no
campers would be placed in buildings that flooded.
“We’re praying about that every day. We don’t know what to do,”
Britt Eastland said.
Camp's readiness to host girls questioned
Several lawmakers questioned how the camp could be ready to reopen
this summer.
State regulators last week notified Camp Mystic of 22 deficiencies
in its emergency plan. Mary Liz Eastland, the camp’s medical
director, acknowledged Tuesday she has not officially reported last
summer’s deaths to state health officers.
“Are you ready to take on 500-plus children,” for camp this summer,
asked Sen. Lois Kolkhorst. She noted state agencies have shut down
licensed residential living centers for a single death, let alone
dozens.
“The license is a privilege to have," Kolkhorst said.
“We are ready,” Britt Eastland said, adding that he believes Camp
Mystic’s broader community will ultimately “be glad we had camp this
summer.”
That drew an audible gasp from some in the room, and several of the
victims' family members walked out.
Julie Sprunt Marshall, whose 9-year-old daughter was swept out of
her cabin and rescued more than a mile down river, said the
survivors continue to suffer trauma. She asked the lawmakers to not
let the camp open under the Eastland family “who failed our
daughters.”
“The camp will be conducting an incredibly dangerous experiment on
children," Marshall said, “testing what will happen with the first
drop of rain, the first clap of thunder, at the first time a noise
startles them awake.”
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