AUSTIN, Texas — The security guard at Camp Mystic in Texas the night of last year’s deadly flood acknowledged Wednesday that if a general evacuation order came early in the storm, lives could’ve been saved.
Glenn Juenke, who helped move some girls to a two-story building before getting trapped inside a cabin himself, also saved a group of campers when he told them to run to higher ground as floodwaters rose.
He testified at the end of a three-day hearing in a legal fight between the camp operators, who want to reopen the all-girls Christian camp in the summer, and families of some of the victims who died in the July 4 flood that swept through the Guadalupe River in the predawn hours.
Juenke, called as a witness for the camp operators, said it was his decision to tell a group of campers to scramble on foot up a hillside as floodwaters rose, and that it was not an order from camp directors or authorities.
He did not recall camp operators ever training the campers, counselors and staff on where to go in case an emergency evacuation was needed.
The camp’s plan to reopen has angered families of the girls who were killed, and the camp license is still under review by state health regulators. A judge last month ordered the camp to preserve damaged areas as evidence for pending lawsuits. That ruling is under appeal.
The hearing has produced the most extensive details from camp operators of what happened in the flood, including missed chances to prepare for the storm, and the delayed decisions to evacuate.
Describing the storm that came roaring through camp, Juenke said he first joined camp directors Dick and Edward Eastland in driving some of the girls away from their cabins. But Juenke later abandoned his truck when the water level rose too high for him to drive.
Now on foot, Juenke ordered a group of young girls to run to higher ground. He returned to another cabin where he was soon trapped in waist-deep water. Storage trunks were tossed around by the current before they were sucked out and away.
Juenke ordered the girls in the cabin to get on air mattresses, and they stayed floating there for several hours.
“It was a long night. We were getting bitten by fire ants. There were spiders…. The girls did everything I told them to do,” Juenke said. None of the girls in that cabin died.
He said they emerged around dawn. He then met up with Catie Eastland, one of the camp directors, near the two-story recreation building where about a hundred girls had escaped the flood.
“I said y’all could have had a million different evacuation plans, nothing would have worked,” Juenke testified.
Lawyers for the families have zeroed in on the lack of a detailed evacuation plan and the failure to send orders to get out of the cabins. A short emergency notice posted in cabins, one that had passed state inspection just two days earlier, had told campers to stay in their cabins until given instructions by staff.
In all, 25 campers and two teenage counselors were killed. Camp co-owner Dick Eastland also died.
“You can blame it on Mother Nature or God almighty, but if anyone had used the speakers or walkie-talkie and told them to leave before 3 [a.m.], they would’ve survived,” said Brad Beckworth, an attorney for the family of Cile Steward, 8, the only camper whose body still has not been recovered.
Juenke defended his actions and those of the staff that night.
“We did everything we could do in the time that we had,” he said.
Vertuno writes for the Associated Press.
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