Two months after the July 4 floods that devastated central Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott on Friday signed a package of summer camp safety laws that proponents say would have prevented many deaths in the camps and campgrounds that line the Guadalupe River.
Of the more than 130 victims of the disaster, 27 were young campers and counselors at a single summer retreat, Camp Mystic. The camp housed its youngest campers in cabins only a short walk from the river, which quickly overflowed and merged with a nearby creek in the dead of night.
The new laws require youth camps in the state to build new cabins and move existing ones away from dangerous floodplains, and to operate emergency warning systems and public address systems that are functional even if the internet goes out, among other provisions.
“Camp safety is now law in the great state of Texas,” Mr. Abbott said at the signing ceremony in Austin.
Dozens of family members of the girls who died attended the ceremony at the governor’s mansion, with some breaking down in tears as the governor signed the legislation.
“All of them lost their lives, but they have now given their lives for others in the future,” said Matthew Childress, the father of Chloe Childress, a counselor who died.
Mr. Childress and the other parents who drafted suggestions for the bill and met with lawmakers in Austin in recent weeks emphasized that one of their priorities was enacting changes in time for next year’s summer camp season.
“We are pro-camp,” Mr. Childress said.
The reforms faced pushback from several summer camps operating near Camp Mystic. But ultimately the camp safety measures passed the State House and Senate overwhelmingly. The Senate’s vote on Wednesday was unanimous.
The swift bipartisan achievement in an otherwise contentious special legislative session followed an effort by a coalition of parents of some of the 27 campers and counselors who died at Camp Mystic. Calling themselves “Heaven’s 27,” they initially came together in grief, but soon began discussing potential reforms.
“They made this happen in about three weeks,” Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said in an interview after the signing. He made an impromptu suggestion at the signing that portraits of the two counselors who died, Ms. Childress and Katherine Ferruzzo, should hang in the Capitol, one in the Senate and one in the House.
At a hearing in front of a State Senate committee on disaster preparedness and flooding in August, several parents described their daughters’ deaths as a result of complacency and incompetence.
“Cile’s life ended not because of an unavoidable act of nature but because of preventable failures,” said Cici Williams Steward, whose daughter Cile is the only Mystic victim whose body has not been recovered.
The region of central Texas where the floods descended this summer is known as Flash Flood Alley. It is also a popular vacation and camping destination. Kerr County, which experienced the brunt of the damage, is home to more than a dozen summer camps for young people.
But Camp Mystic was the only camp where children died. Many families in the wealthy parts of Dallas, Houston and Austin had sent their daughters to the all-girls camp for two or three generations. “Mystic girls” spent monthlong sessions fishing, dancing and playing games.
The leaders of some other summer camps in Kerr County argued that the cost of rebuilding or moving cabins out of the floodplain would be prohibitively expensive and could cause some of them to close.
“The combination of devastating floods and the heavy financial burden proposed under new state regulations presents an impossible challenge,” the owners of Camp Waldemar, Camp Stewart and Vista Camps wrote in letters to legislators.
The Eastland family, which owns and operates Camp Mystic, issued a statement in August in support of the legislation, “especially the creation of detection and warning systems that would have saved lives on July 4.”
Dick Eastland, patriarch of the family and the camp’s executive director, died in the flooding. The family has said little about what exactly went wrong that night, even as they have hinted online that they may reopen the camp, which would celebrate its 100th anniversary next year.
Camp Mystic experienced episodes of serious summer flooding in the past, including some that damaged structures and required evacuations. In 2011, the Federal Emergency Management Agency placed much of the camp within a 100-year flood zone, an area considered to be at high risk of flooding. But the camp successfully challenged those designations, which would have limited renovation projects and required flood insurance.
The legislation signed Friday prohibits the state from issuing a license to any camp with cabins built in a floodplain. It also requires camps to plan for and post clear evacuation routes in each cabin.
Carrie Hanna spent 14 summers at Camp Mystic as a camper and a counselor. She sent her two oldest daughters to camp there this summer, including her 8-year-old, Hadley, who was attending for the first time.
Hadley’s first few days at camp were happy ones, as far as Ms. Hanna and her husband, Doug, have been able to piece together. She excelled at a game called “steal the bacon,” and caught two large fish in the river.
On the night of July 4, she was swept out of her cabin, where she had been instructed to stay in place, the Hannas said.
“If this legislation would have been in place, they would be here today,” Mr. Hanna said of the girls who died that night. “They would have been playing cards on top of the hill, or making s’mores.”
Ruth Graham is a national reporter, based in Dallas, covering religion, faith and values for The Times.
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