Tears and Testimony as Camp Mystic Reckons With Its Flood Response

A Texas judge was listening to testimony this week over how Camp Mystic responded last summer to floods that killed at least 116 people and prompted a wave of lawsuits and investigations over the camp’s handling of the catastrophe.

The hearing was part of a lawsuit was filed by the family of Cile Steward, 8, the only girl at the camp whose body has not been found. At least 28 Camp Mystic campers, counselors and staff died after floods devastated the camp on July 4.

Mary Liz Eastland, a camp director along with her husband, Edward Eastland, took the stand Tuesday to testify on how conditions in the early hours of July 4 made it difficult to help the campers.

“There was nothing to try,” Ms. Eastland said. “I didn’t have any means to get a hold of them. There was nothing to try to get a hold of them.”

When asked if she tried to scream so the campers could have heard her, Ms. Eastland said she did not.

“You couldn’t have heard a scream,” she said.

The lawsuit filed by the Steward family is one of several filed against Camp Mystic alleging negligence over its response to the flooding and questioning its severe weather preparedness. The camp’s response that day has also prompted the Texas Rangers, an investigative law enforcement agency for the state, to look into hundreds of complaints against the camp.

The opening of the hearing on Monday was emotional at times as Mr. Eastland teared up when questioned.

Mr. Eastland said that he did not see storm warnings the day before the flood, and that he had not met with workers at the camp to discuss the possibility of flooding. Mr. Eastland said that he went to bed at 11 p.m. on July 3, and that he missed a flash flood warning issued by the National Weather Service at 1:14 a.m. the following day.

Mr. Eastland recalled efforts to save campers in the early hours of July 4.

“I grabbed two girls, and there was a third one I didn’t grab,” Mr. Eastland said, adding that another girl jumped on his back. “I don’t know who it was, but they put their arms around my neck before we got washed out, and the water came up over my head very quickly.”

“That part of the whole night has been a big blur for me,” Mr. Eastland added.

During the hearing on Monday, Brad Beckworth, a lawyer representing the family of Cile Steward, asked Mr. Eastland if Cile was one of the girls with him when he was swept out by floodwaters.

“I don’t know,” Mr. Eastland said through tears.

Mr. Eastland said that he did not recall seeing Cile as the floodwaters rose and that he did not know what she had been wearing. Mr. Eastland’s father, Dick Eastland, was the camp’s longtime director, who died trying to rescue children during the flooding.

The hearing this week was expected to continue through Wednesday. After the hearing, Judge Maya Guerra Gamble of Travis County District Court is expected to rule on whether a temporary injunction, which required officials at Camp Mystic to cordon off flooded parts of the camp by the Guadalupe River to preserve evidence, will stand. Camp Mystic is scheduled to reopen in May.

Jesus Jiménez is a Times reporter covering North Texas. He is based in Dallas.

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