Devastated families of young campers who died when floodwaters ravished an all-girls sleepaway camp in Texas over the summer have filed two lawsuits accusing it of neglect.
The suits filed on Monday in Travis County allege that the camp management knew of the flooding dangers and neglected to inform parents about the risks, or take actions to mitigate the disaster, the Austin American-Statesman reports.
Both suits argue that the deaths of 25 campers and two counselors was preventable, with one claiming that the deadly floods was a ‘self-created disaster.’
‘There is no greater trust than when a parent entrusts the care of their child to another,’ reads the petition filed on behalf of the family of eight-year-old Eloise ‘Lulu’ Peck.
‘Camp Mystic and the people who ran it betrayed that trust,’ it continues. ‘Camp Mystic’s shocking betrayal of that trust caused the horrific, tragic and needless deaths of 27 innocent young girls, including Eloise “Lulu” Peck.
‘This case seeks accountability for that betrayal and to send a message to other camps – protect the kids in your care.’
Both that lawsuit and another suit filed on behalf of five other campers and the two deceased counselors name camp owners Dick and Tweety Eastman, Camp Mystic and several of its entities as defendants.
Britt Eastland, Dick’s son, is also named as the Eastland family representative following his father’s death during the Fourth of July floods.
The multifamily lawsuit also includes Eastland’s other son, Edward, and his wife, Mary Liz, as defendants.
On the Fourth of July, water rose nearly 30 feet on the Guadalupe River, washing away homes and vehicles and some of Camp Mystic’s buildings
Grieving families of campers who were killed when deadly floods swept through a Texas sleepaway camp have filed two separate lawsuits against the camp
It was filed on behalf of the families of Anna Margaret Bellows, Lila Bonner, Chloe Childress, Molly DeWitt, Katherine Ferruzzo, Lainey Landrey and Blakely McCrory.
Childress and Ferruzzo were counselors, while the others were campers.
‘Today, campers Margaret, Lila, Molly, Lainey and Blakely should be third-graders and counselors Chloe and Katherine should be freshmen at the University of Texas,’ the suit says. ‘They are all gone.’
In both lawsuits, families argue that camp personnel knew the area was prone to flooding – but did nothing to mitigate the risks before the Guadalupe River rose from 14 feet to nearly 30 feet in just an hour.
The Peck lawsuit noted that over the past century, there were at least three incidents in which floodwaters prompted evacuations, damaged buildings or swept away personal items and vehicles belonging to Mystic campers and staff.
Tweety Eastland even had to be airlifted to a hospital in 1985 to give birth after a flood cut off road access, the multifamily suit notes, according to The New York Times.
By 2011, the Federal Emergency Management Agency determined that much of the camp lay within a 100-year flood zone, meaning that there was a one percent chance in any given year that it would be flooded, the lawsuits state.
But, the lawsuits argue, the Eastland family – which has owned the property since 1939 – leveraged appeals to have the designations removed from some of the buildings.
FEMA then amended the flood maps in 2013, 2019 and 2020, removing camp-owned structures along the Guadalupe River and Cypress Lake from the designated flood zone, according to the lawsuit filed by the Peck family.
Dick and Tweety Eastman (center) are named as defendants in both lawsuits, and their son serving as the family representative
Camp Mystic was overrun by floodwater from the Guadalupe River on July 4
‘Camp Mystic’s requests to amend the FEMA map were an attempt to hide the risk from the public, including the campers and their parents, avoid the requirement to carry flood insurance, lower the camp’s insurance premiums and pave the way for expanding structures under less costly regulations,’ the suit alleges.
The lawsuit brought by other families similarly portrays the Eastlands as eager to cut corners and preserve the illusion of safety, while building ‘true generational wealth’ from the camp’s low overhead costs and millions of dollars in annual revenue.
It argues that the Eastland family changed the structure of the camp’s ownership to protect the family’s land, calling the companies named in the lawsuit a ‘web of corporate entities’ that were created to separate camp ownership from land ownership even though the Eastlands maintained control over cabin location and layout – leaving some in deadly flood zones.
Still, the Pecks argued, Dick Eastland was aware that the county’s flood warning systems were unreliable as a member of the board for the Upper Guadalupe River Authority.
He had even advocated for a new warning system just before the deadly July floods, but did not take any steps to ensure that Camp Mystic had its own warning system, the lawsuit claims.
Eastland also allegedly failed to create an emergency preparedness plan, the other suit argues, and told counselors that the threat of a flood was minimal as camp management reassured them that ‘all cabins are constructed on high, safe locations.’
Then, when camp management first became aware of the risks of flooding early in the afternoon on July 3, they decided not to evacuate the camp, the multifamily suit alleges.
When the floodwaters started rushing in in the early morning hours the next day, the suit claims that Dick and Edward Eastland told campers and counselors to ‘stay put because that’s the plan’ as they spent an hour securing the camp’s equipment.
In doing so, the suit argues the camp leadership squandered a crucial moment following the National Weather Service’s warning about ‘life-threatening flash flooding’ at 1.14am.
Eloise Peck, Anna Margaret Bellows, Lila Bonner, Lainey Landry and Molly DeWitt were campers in the Bubble Inn cabin – where nobody survived the flooding – and Chloe Childress and Katherine Ferruzzo were their counselors
The lawsuits claim the girls were told to stay in their cabins and not evacuate. A cabin is pictured here following the floods
Camp management also allegedly dismissed counselors’ early pleas for help, and only ‘made a hopeless “rescue” effort from its self-created disaster’ when it was already too late, the multifamily suit alleges.
It says that Dick and Edward Eastland started evacuating some cabins to the two-story Rec Hall – but were only able to evacuate five of 11 cabins in the flood zone.
Eventually, some counselors decided on their own to evacuate their campers, the suit claims.
As they ran, the counselors said they could hear screams for help from other cabins – including the Bubble Inn and the Twins cabins which were left unevacuated despite being located just 300 feet from the Rec Hall.
‘The camp has no explanation for why it failed to tell the Bubble Inn and Twin girls to walk to Rec Hall at that same time,’ the suit argues. ‘It would have saved the lives of 27 young girls.’
Peck, Bellows, Bonner, Landry and DeWitt were campers in the Bubble Inn – where nobody survived the flooding – and Childress and Ferruzzo were their counselors.
McCrory, meanwhile, was a camper in the Twins cabins.
A person looks at damage to the main building at Camp Mystic along the banks of the Guadalupe River
Over the past century, there were at least three incidents in which floodwaters prompted evacuations, damaged buildings or swept away personal items and vehicles belonging to Mystic campers and staff, one of the lawsuits states
The lawsuit goes on to note that Dick Eastman and multiple campers’ bodies were found the next day in a Chevrolet Tahoe that had been swept away. Counselors had claimed all of the occupants of the Bubble Inn were inside the vehicle.
Eastland was hailed by some of the camp’s supporters as a hero who died trying to save children during what the camp called a ‘1,000-year weather event’ in the aftermath.
But the multifamily suit argues he was ‘grossly negligent’ for loading the children into a vehicle in waist-deep and then neck-deep water and attempting to drive, noting that experts – including the Upper Guadalupe River Authority – advise against driving in floods.
The petition also outlines a similar situation in the nearby Twins cabins, where it says Edward attempted to bring the girls to safety before he and several campers were swept away.
They held onto a tree until morning, while other campers floated by and were unable to grab the tree limb, according to the suit.
A total of 11 campers from the Twins cabins died that day.
The situation only grew worse for the parents when camp leaders failed to clearly communicate to the families in the aftermath, the suit argues.
It alleges that camp administrators knew multiple campers had died, but only told the parents at 11.30am the next day that their daughters were ‘unaccounted for.’
The families then did not find out about their children’s untimely passing until late in the evening.
Making matters worse, the multifamily suit states that the Eastland family was insensitive in their communications in the months following the tragedy – and even used Childress and Ferruzzo’s names to recruit counselors for next summer.
Twenty-five campers and two counselors died in the Fourth of July floods
Each suit seeks more than $1 million in damages under Texas’ Wrongful Death Act, citing the mental anguish of the families and the physical and mental pain the victims sustained leading up to their deaths, along with funeral expenses and the loss of household services.
The exact amount of damages would be decided by a jury trial, which also seeks to establish that Camp Mystic was in a region known as ‘Flash Flood Alley.’
Paul Yetter, an attorney representing the families in the multifamily suit, told KXAN it is ‘about transparency, responsibility and ensuring no other family experiences what these parents will now suffer the rest of their lives.’
But Camp Mystic’s lawyer Jeff Ray said he and his legal team ‘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.
‘We disagree with several accusations and misinformation in the legal filings regarding the actions of Camp Mystic and Dick Eastland, who lost his life as well,’ he continued.
‘We will thoroughly respond to these accusations in due course.’
Lawyer Mikal Watts, who is assisting with the camp’s defense, also told the Statesman: ‘I believe deep in my heart that [the Eastlands] had nothing to do with why those girls, and frankly their patriarch, died and I’m ready to demonstrate that.
‘I could try this case tomorrow and convince a jury that this camp had nothing to do with why these girls died,’ he insisted.
Meanwhile, Camp Mystic issued its own simple statement, saying: ‘We continue to pray for the grieving families and ask for God’s healing and comfort.’
