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Posted
11 minutes ago, Chopper said:

It's never the right day to answer difficult questions that demand your personal accountability or action. What you're not recognizing is that many of the answers -- like hey city manager what the fuck were you doing during the hours after the flood warning was issued -- are known to those people. It takes longer to bitch about being asked about it than it would to answer the damn question. What they do is dodge and then there's NEVER an answer. Learn the pattern. 

Is it the city managers responsibility to answer questions about notifying a camp in a town not named Kerrville 2 towns over? I have no idea and neither do you. But it doesn’t need to be answered today, in a press conference, asked by Morgan Chesky the city manager’s high school classmate.

Posted
3 minutes ago, Texas Fight said:

Is it the city managers responsibility to answer questions about notifying a camp in a town not named Kerrville 2 towns over? I have no idea and neither do you. But it doesn’t need to be answered today, in a press conference, asked by Morgan Chesky the city manager’s high school classmate.

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Posted
1 minute ago, DDD Dad said:

Look, if you're going to just throw out hyperbolic and ridiculous exaggerations of the types of questions that have been asked you're going on ignore.  I've tried to be sympathetic to you, but this sort of doubling down reflects that you're not engaging in good faith.

He made it until Monday or Tuesday before I put him on mine. The wild and irrational lashing out at posters trying to wrap their minds around how the fuck it got so bad and why just became too much. 

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Posted (edited)
34 minutes ago, Horn of Gabriel said:

 

My take is cynical but warranted.  Uvalde was just a few years ago and I'm still waiting on real consequences for our DPS heroes who stood outside in violation of their training and policy while that dude massacred a bunch of kids.

Shit man, not even consequences at this point, just a release of the full reports/investigation which TexasOurTexas has blocked and the state Supreme Court backed. 
 

 

26 minutes ago, Texas Fight said:

Is it fair? Fuck yeah it’s fair. Who is saying no one wants to get to the bottom of this?

Do you think 6 days after, while a significant amount of people are still missing, is the best time to get these answers?  So “we might learn how to avoid a similar recurrence”? Right now? 

You want the camps and local authorities to drop what they are doing in recover/rescue, letting families in to get belongings, dealing with 1 million arrangements I can’t even imagine? Or, would you rather them respond to interrogatories, discovery requests, depositions, etc…. RIGHT NOW?  You honestly believe RIGHT NOW is a good time to interview the 18 year old counselor or the 10 year old camper on the events that happened that night? Or the wife of the camp director who died in the flood? Today?
 

Tweety, the is DDD Dad,  I am really needing to know how to prevent this from happening again. I know your camp is fucked to hell and you had 27 kids die over the weekend, oh and your husband is dead, but I need this information TODAY!!!  

It matters partly bc we all know damn well months later when asked hard questions what they were doing at x time they’ll bullshit “I don’t recall” 

Edited by bluto
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Posted
13 minutes ago, Texas Fight said:

You honestly think a twice daily press conference updating on daily progress of an on-going emergency response, is the best time to get these answers?  
 
Sherriff, this is DDD Dad, I really need you to sit down and review all of your commissioner meeting minute from 2017 and be prepared to answer on the record questions at the 5pm presser. Would you also respond to all of my FOIA filings for any emails containing these key words search by tomorrow morning at 8am? We don’t want to hear about how many bodies you found or provide the public on any updates. The families with dead children aren’t dealing with funeral arrangements, 9000 condolence texts, getting their child’s possessions, what they really want is your voting record on sirens. TODAY! Thanks.

you seem to be forgetting that no warning whatsoever seems to have reached the camp or town until at least 5AM on July 4th. Fuck talking about voting records, I would like to know if the ball was dropped or if everything went to plan. Because that's a pretty important distinction and thing to know.

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Posted (edited)
46 minutes ago, Skipper said:

One of my best friend's daughter was at the camp when this happened and is safe and I've talked to him about it this week.  His wife went to camp there, was a counselor etc.  as were other family members.  They are also close to the family.  But from what I gather the dad's that are not as attached emotionally to the camp and able to look at this a little more objectively are pretty incensed at the situation and don't think it's going to go well once litigators dive into all of this.  He sent me a breakdown of projected revenue based on what they pay + number of camps and sessions, etc.   There was certainly plenty of profit available to improve safety and risk management and there is certainly a view in hindsight that it was lacking.  I'll probably hear more once we're able to grab a beer and discuss in more detail, but just throwing out there to say that criticism started to grow is not limited to those of us reading about it all on the internet.  There are some very connected people that lost kids or grandkids that I doubt just write this off as a tragedy that couldn't have been prevented.

Yeah the 2011 article had the Eastlands making about 200k from the camp seemingly in profit distribution above any salary, and other family getting 20k annual dividends. 

And yeah the location of any cabins in the floodplain or close to the river is problematic, let alone for young girls. And that seemingly should have prompted some extra vigilance in flood conditions. 

Edited by TwiceHorn
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Posted
15 minutes ago, DDD Dad said:

Look, you're just throwing out hyperbolic and ridiculous exaggerations of the types of questions that have been asked.  I've tried to be sympathetic to you, but this sort of doubling down reflects that you're not engaging in good faith.

Go watch Morgan Chesky ask the mayor this exact thing in the press conference from yesterday. He specifically asked about voting records and sirens from before the mayor was in office. 

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Posted
1 minute ago, TwiceHorn said:

Yeah the 2011 article had the Eastlands making about 200k from the camp seemingly in profit distribution above any salary, and other family getting 20k annual dividends. 

Based on numbers sent to me that had to be increased significantly based on current camp tuition rates.  I'm sure the full numbers will probably come out over time.  

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Posted
10 minutes ago, bluto said:

Shit man, not even consequences at this point, just a release of the full reports/investigation which TexasOurTexas has blocked and the state Supreme Court backed. 
 

 

It matters partly bc we all know damn well months later when asked hard questions what they were doing at x time they’ll bullshit “I don’t recall” 

Bro, all of this will be in logs, timestamps, texts, emails, warning notifications, dispatches, radio (audio recordings), voting records, minutes, etc…. They couldn’t hide from it if they tried. 
 

Trying to get these answers, as DDD Dad put it, “to keep this from reoccurring again” by asking these things in a press conference during the emergency response is not your answer.  

Posted
14 minutes ago, Captainant said:

you seem to be forgetting that no warning whatsoever seems to have reached the camp or town until at least 5AM on July 4th. Fuck talking about voting records, I would like to know if the ball was dropped or if everything went to plan. Because that's a pretty important distinction and thing to know.

I agree 100%. The press is asking about voting records and money for sirens.

Posted (edited)
36 minutes ago, HalfSack Horn said:

And then they shut down the press conferences after 3-5 questions that they don’t even answer other than “we will get back on that” or “you’re in my city and I’m in charge” 

I've stopped watching them. It's clearly amateur hour when the Kerrville/Kerr County folks are up there. I expect the fuddy-duddy "cowboy" mayor from Kerrville to be worthless. They know they fucked up bad. The governor of Texas should not. Director of Homeland Security should not.

 

51 minutes ago, Horn of Gabriel said:

I agree by all accounts the owner was a good guy and died trying to save those girls.  People have short attention spans and reach for the easiest answer so the blame will fall to him.  The county, state, and definitely the federal people like Noem know this and will ride out the storm pointing fingers until the next tragedy hits and the public moves on.  By then they'll have their stories straight on who to blame like Trump was already blaming Biden on this, like c'mon.

The level of negligence/culpability with regard to Mystic vs. the RM pros who checked them off vs. the county vs. the state doesn't really matter; Mystic in its current form is done.  Even if they did everything "right" they're going to get sued into the ground and there is no way they have the assets for a long fight over 30 wrongful death suits. They'll end up liquidating and selling the land.  Kerr County will install a few sirens so they can say they did something, and that will probably be the extent of it.

My take is cynical but warranted.  Uvalde was just a few years ago and I'm still waiting on real consequences for our DPS heroes who stood outside in violation of their training and policy while that dude massacred a bunch of kids.

I'd call that a win if they can get a system where sirens go in down there. I bet sirens would've saved every last one of the Mystic girls who drowned.

 

58 minutes ago, Skipper said:

One of my best friend's daughter was at the camp when this happened and is safe and I've talked to him about it this week.  His wife went to camp there, was a counselor etc.  as were other family members.  They are also close to the family.  But from what I gather the dad's that are not as attached emotionally to the camp and able to look at this a little more objectively are pretty incensed at the situation and don't think it's going to go well once litigators dive into all of this.  He sent me a breakdown of projected revenue based on what they pay + number of camps and sessions, etc.   There was certainly plenty of profit available to improve safety and risk management and there is certainly a view in hindsight that it was lacking.  I'll probably hear more once we're able to grab a beer and discuss in more detail, but just throwing out there to say that criticism started to grow is not limited to those of us reading about it all on the internet.  There are some very connected people that lost kids or grandkids that I doubt just write this off as a tragedy that couldn't have been prevented.

When we dropped by to see our friend and his wife, we were there less than 10 minutes and he said they're gonna sue the shit out of somebody before this is done. His wife is a Park Cities lifer and went to Mystic for many, many years. Lots and lots of loyalty to Mystic. Rest assured, Mystic is done.

Edited by C-Man
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Posted (edited)
12 minutes ago, Texas Fight said:

Go watch Morgan Chesky ask the mayor this exact thing in the press conference from yesterday. He specifically asked about voting records and sirens from before the mayor was in office. 

"I really need you to sit down and review all of your commissioner meeting minute from 2017 and be prepared to answer on the record questions at the 5pm presser. Would you also respond to all of my FOIA filings for any emails containing these key words search by tomorrow morning at 8am? We don’t want to hear about how many bodies you found or provide the public on any updates. The families with dead children aren’t dealing with funeral arrangements, 9000 condolence texts, getting their child’s possessions, what they really want is your voting record on sirens. TODAY!"

Yeah, I saw that presser and that is not what he asked.  I'm done responding to you.

What he asked:

"Mr. Mayor, records show that the concept of flood warnings has been discussed at least two dozen times by the county.  What's the biggest reason that these systems have not gone into place at this point?"

(non) Answer:

"You and I grew up here.  And I wasn't in office for those discussions, frankly I'm more interested in the future than the past.  What I can say is that the Governor, Lt. Governor, and the Speaker of the Texas House have all provided us support and have all said this is a priority for the upcoming special session...yada, yada, yada."

Edited by DDD Dad
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Posted
3 minutes ago, Hank Kingsley said:

Oh no, the horror! Politicians get unfair questions all the time, and they have agency to respond accordingly. Why you're so upset about it in this particular case is curious. 

Being a mayor is a hard and often times thankless job. This dude signed up for it. Stop treating him like a victim. 

 

The fuddy-duddy "Howdy Doody" mayor thought his entire time in office would be cutting ribbons and riding in parades. He's wholly unqualified to be the face/POC of one of the biggest tragedies in state (US) history. Twenty-seven girls from well-to-do Texas families are gone forever and he looks like an incompetent clown in the PC's. What a dope.

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Posted
2 minutes ago, Hank Kingsley said:

Oh no, the horror! Politicians get unfair questions all the time, and they have agency to respond accordingly. Why you're so upset about it in this particular case is curious. 

 

Morgan Chesky is a Kerrville homer. He was called on by the mayor. He asked a question about voting records and sirens. 
 

My point, is we all want the answers on what happened. What really happened. We aren’t going to get them from these press conferences 3, 4, 7 days after the event and during the ongoing emergency response. If really want these answers, from the camps, officials, government, they will come in a different forum (discovery, FOIA, depositions) and will take more than 3,4,5 days to get it.

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Posted
2 minutes ago, Texas Fight said:

Morgan Chesky is a Kerrville homer. He was called on by the mayor. He asked a question about voting records and sirens. 
 

My point, is we all want the answers on what happened. What really happened. We aren’t going to get them from these press conferences 3, 4, 7 days after the event and during the ongoing emergency response. If really want these answers, from the camps, officials, government, they will come in a different forum (discovery, FOIA, depositions) and will take more than 3,4,5 days to get it.

It is really strange to get all worked up over a completely reasonable question. And the completely reasonable answer may just be "I don't know right now, but will look into after the on-going emergency is handled". But yes, asking in real time is always better than asking months or years later. 

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Posted
12 minutes ago, Texas Fight said:

Bro, all of this will be in logs, timestamps, texts, emails, warning notifications, dispatches, radio (audio recordings), voting records, minutes, etc…. They couldn’t hide from it if they tried. 
 

Trying to get these answers, as DDD Dad put it, “to keep this from reoccurring again” by asking these things in a press conference during the emergency response is not your answer.  

Bro, but bro! Those texts and emails are exactly what the Supreme Court blocked from release in the Uvalde case. 
 

Starting to think you have some LEO dna running through your veins. 

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Posted
12 minutes ago, Hank Kingsley said:

Oh no, the horror! Politicians get unfair questions all the time, and they have agency to respond accordingly. Why you're so upset about it in this particular case is curious. 

Being a mayor is a hard and often times thankless job. This dude signed up for it. Stop treating him like a victim. 

 

Some people really do not like when elected officials are forced to be accountable. 

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Posted
1 minute ago, Texas Fight said:

Morgan Chesky is a Kerrville homer. He was called on by the mayor. He asked a question about voting records and sirens. 
 

My point, is we all want the answers on what happened. What really happened. We aren’t going to get them from these press conferences 3, 4, 7 days after the event and during the ongoing emergency response. If really want these answers, from the camps, officials, government, they will come in a different forum (discovery, FOIA, depositions) and will take more than 3,4,5 days to get it.

So fucking what. It's part of the job. When the shit hits the fan at work, do you cry about how unfair it is, or act like a man? Where does the mayor's feelings rank on the unfairness scale compared to 200+ innocent people dead? 

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Posted
2 minutes ago, SydneyCarton said:

First, Yes, I do think the best time to ask the questions out there is anytime after the event until it's as long as it takes to get the fucking answers. The American public has the attention span of a gnat, and people won't give a fuck in 3-6 months. 
 

Not only that, but pressing them now doesn't allow these officials time to create bullshit excuses and narratives. Truth >>>>> decorum. 

 

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Posted
29 minutes ago, DDD Dad said:

 

What he asked:

"Mr. Mayor, records show that the concept of flood warnings has been discussed at least two dozen times by the county.  What's the biggest reason that these systems have not gone into place at this point?"

(non) Answer:

"You and I grew up here.  And I wasn't in office for those discussions, frankly I'm more interested in the future than the past.  What I can say is that the Governor, Lt. Governor, and the Speaker of the Texas House have all provided us support and have all said this is a priority for the upcoming special session...yada, yada, yada."

Thanks for the exact quote. It’s the perfect example of a question to the wrong guy at wrong time. If you don’t agree, how do you think a mayor, who wasn’t in office during those votes, should have answered? Should he have just shared hearsay? 
 

maybe something like, “Morgan, great question. I read on surly some snippets of a vote 9 years ago and some ridiculous comments about crazy people my preseasons made that look horrible right now considering what has happened. I’m glad I wasnt in office then.”

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Posted
1 hour ago, Chopper said:

I agree but Wimberly flood wasn't that long ago.

THIS.  I keep hearing people saying, "this hasn't happened to the Guadalupe up here in a long time" but everyone in these river communities knows what happened on the Blanco 10 years ago.  We can't use ignorance as an excuse.  They were talking about it in 2016.  They just didn't like where the money was coming from and the inconvenience of sirens.

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Posted
44 minutes ago, C-Man said:

When we dropped by to see our friend and his wife, we were there less than 10 minutes and he said they're gonna sue the shit out of somebody before this is done. His wife is a Park Cities lifer and went to Mystic for many, many years. Lots and lots of loyalty to Mystic. Rest assured, Mystic is done.

The message I received was equally as blunt about how this will play out. I get the sense that for my buddy and other dad's with surviving daughters the mindset is going back and forth between incredible sense of relief/feeling lucky and disbelief/anger at the level of negligence involved at all levels including the camp itself.

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Posted
9 minutes ago, bluto said:

Or maybe meet the question head on if the truth really is “those proposals have not occurred during my time as mayor so I can’t speak to what prior administrations did”… goddam it ain’t that hard, just be honest and sincere. And if the answer is I don’t know at this time, but it’s something we’re going to investigate fully then just say that… but the bitch fit and tough guy bs should result in a public ass whipping even if they are old as fuck. 

This.

Posted
8 minutes ago, TexArcher said:

So, to sum up, the richest state in the Union cannot afford to make sure people don't die in flash floods (which have been known to occur pretty much every summer), cannot afford to make sure people don't die in freezing conditions (which have been known to occur pretty much every winter), and cannot afford to place in the top half of state education rankings.

But we can afford gazillions of dollars to block Central Americans from coming here to paint our houses and bus our tables.  And we can give gazillions of dollars in tax breaks to crypto bros.

What a fucking embarrassment this place is.  

 

dumpster-fire-burn.gif

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Posted
9 minutes ago, TexArcher said:

So, to sum up, the richest state in the Union cannot afford to make sure people don't die in flash floods (which have been known to occur pretty much every summer), cannot afford to make sure people don't die in freezing conditions (which have been known to occur pretty much every winter), and cannot afford to place in the top half of state education rankings.

But we can afford gazillions of dollars to block Central Americans from coming here to paint our houses and bus our tables.  And we can give gazillions of dollars in tax breaks to crypto bros.

What a fucking embarrassment this place is.  

 

Hey now, you forgot millions upon millions to bus immigrants to other states, against their will, to own the libs. 

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Posted
16 minutes ago, bluto said:

Or maybe meet the question head on if the truth really is “those proposals have not occurred during my time as mayor so I can’t speak to what prior administrations did”… goddam it ain’t that hard, just be honest and sincere. And if the answer is I don’t know at this time, but it’s something we’re going to investigate fully then just say that… but the bitch fit and tough guy bs should result in a public ass whipping even if they are old as fuck. 

Nope, welcome to our society of "no accountability"

not my fault

I don't know them

That was before my time, so you can't blame me

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Posted

This is the FEMA definition of a Regulated Floodway and we've talked about many cabins being in the floodway.  Someone here said that expansion of the camp inside of the regulated floodway took place in 2018 or 2019.  So, now the question is... who approved the expansion?  I know older cabins were in this area and probably grandfathered in but what about the new construction?  I can't find anything anything about the expansion.  I did see some regulations were put in place in 2020 but have no idea how restrictive they were.  Also, did Kerr County have the incentive to stifle camps which brough much-needed revenue to the county?  https://www.hccommunityjournal.com/article_e896fb60-6e8a-11e8-9faa-4b90402265f8.html

Found this as well - https://www.papercitymag.com/culture/texas-best-summer-camps-mystic-waldemer-vista/ - those camps looked beautiful.  

 

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Posted
3 minutes ago, Js1 said:

Nope, welcome to our society of "no accountability"

not my fault

I don't know them

That was before my time, so you can't blame me

I can't recall. And if I could, I don't take personal responsibility. And if I did, it wouldn't have been wrong. And if it was wrong, the media is lying about it.

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Posted
4 minutes ago, Saint Tacky said:

Why wasn’t someone at Camp Mystic awake and monitoring conditions that night? In the aftermath, there have been references to a longtime maintenance staffer who, in years past, would stay up overnight during storms to monitor the river. When did that practice stop—and more importantly, why? Maybe it didn’t. Maybe someone was there and fell asleep to the droning of a weather radio. But if that’s true, it only compounds the tragedy. The cabins along the riverbank were known to be vulnerable, even under less extreme circumstances. And when you're housing 750 children on a property with limited elevation, that should demand not just caution, but heightened, even obsessive vigilance—especially during storms. That level of care shouldn’t be optional. It should be institutionalized.

 

This was posted earlier this morning and is the first and only time I've seen a reference to someone in charge of security, but it's only one sentence. If you know of a source with more details, please provide a link or quote because that question has been bugging the shit out of me since Saturday.

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Posted
38 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

 

 

 

 

 


Man, quotes the whole sequence, but this is the answer. Start asking questions now. If you don’t know the answer, “we’re looking into it” is a fine answer. But you start NOW.
Competent failure analysis is the #1 way to avoid future failures. There isn’t even a close second. Failure analysis, in detail, asking hard questions, is non-negotiable.

But let’s be honest, this is what Texas Fight is lobbying for: avoid full accountability, because his “team” is the only one in the crosshairs (because they’re the team that’s been in charge of literally everything in Texas for over a generation). Avoiding responsibility is a religious rite for them, and they won’t be denied that holy privilege.
Thankfully, we still have SOME actual press that says “fuck your feelings” and will dog and get some truth: Texas Tribune, etc.
Texas Fight doesn’t want that. He’ll rage against it for as long and hard as he can. But this one is too big to duck. But don’t worry, even when we find that the failures are because of total political and cultural rot, nothing will change. The party in charge will GAIN votes, and we’ll get more of the same, for at least another generation.

 

 

 

 

 

Fucking nailed it….again.

Great post.

Posted

So there's a security office at the entrance, and an office listed near the rec hall.  I'm curious if the security officer was stationed at the gate (off to the left of this map) or at the office itself.  If he was at the gate, by the time he saw anything, the cabins were maybe 15-30 seconds from being hit by the water.  If he was in the office labeled in the pic below, he would have been at higher elevation than the campers and futher offset from them, and again, even less heads up for the impending wall of water.  Unless he was listening actively to the weather radio, they were fucked.  Again, that area is a major cell deadzone, so radio or TV would probably be the best bet for receiving any alerts.

And curious, did the security guard survive, or did he get swept away?

camp-mystic-flood-map-texas-107757863_1671e6.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&w=1024

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Posted
17 minutes ago, Saint Tacky said:

My heart tell me the Eastlands were good people. People who loved the camp and the children entrusted to them. And if Mr. Eastland were here today, I believe he'd be doing the exact opposite of what we’ve seen from city, county, and state leaders. He would raise his hand and say: “I’m sorry. I should have done better.

Just look at the difference between someone like Mr. Eastland and Ingram City Councilman Raymond Howard. One died in his car on what amounted to a suicide mission to save several young women. The other stood on the bank and shouted to a child being swept downriver to “grab a tree or something.” Both bore responsibility—one as a camp owner, the other as an elected official who ignored ample warning—and both failed to meet the standard of care expected of them. Their failures didn’t start when the river rose; they began long before the first drops of rain.

Why wasn’t someone at Camp Mystic awake and monitoring conditions that night? In the aftermath, there have been references to a longtime maintenance staffer who, in years past, would stay up overnight during storms to monitor the river. When did that practice stop—and more importantly, why? Maybe it didn’t. Maybe someone was there and fell asleep to the droning of a weather radio. But if that’s true, it only compounds the tragedy. The cabins along the riverbank were known to be vulnerable, even under less extreme circumstances. And when you're housing 750 children on a property with limited elevation, that should demand not just caution, but heightened, even obsessive vigilance—especially during storms. That level of care shouldn’t be optional. It should be institutionalized.

I haven’t even started allocating accountability to county or state officials. But after six days, I’ve grown weary of the deflections, the self-pity, and the contempt for legitimate questions from the media and the public. This isn’t about politics. It’s about basic human decency. It's about wanting to know why so many people—so many children—died.

Evasion and hostility aren’t damage control. They’re accelerants. We shouldn't still be asking for answers. We should be demanding them. Not just for the sake of accountability, but out of respect for Aidan Heartfield, Chloe Childress, Jane Ragsdale, Hanna and Rebecca Lawrence, and the many others who lost their lives.

Because the truth is owed—to them, to their families, and in particular, to every parent of a child that isn't coming home. 

Perfectly said. 💔

Posted (edited)
13 minutes ago, bolverk said:

 

This was posted earlier this morning and is the first and only time I've seen a reference to someone in charge of security, but it's only one sentence. If you know of a source with more details, please provide a link or quote because that question has been bugging the shit out of me since Saturday.

Here is the WSJ article referencing the maintenance worker (sorry for the pay wall). In the article on Camp Mystic, alumna Amy Hudson—who spent 14 years at the camp beginning in 1980—recounts that during her time: “J.C. Mattox, the longtime maintenance man, would stand watch during a storm to monitor the river.”

'How a Flash Flood Turned Camp Mystic Into a Disaster Zone'

Edited by Saint Tacky
Pay Wall
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Posted
1 minute ago, Saint Tacky said:

Here is the WSJ article referencing the maintenance worker.

'How a Flash Flood Turned Camp Mystic Into a Disaster Zone'

Quoting since it's behind the paywall

 

Quote
How a Flash Flood Turned Camp Mystic Into a Disaster Zone -- WSJ

By Joshua Chaffin, Scott Calvert, Jim Carlton and Patience Haggin

(Wall Street Journal) -- It was a Monday afternoon, June 30, and Dick and Tweety Eastland were in their customary place at this time of year: welcoming another crop of girls to the summer camp in Hunt, Texas, that their family has presided over for most of its 99 years.

The previous day, girls had reached Camp Mystic's main campus for the start of the summer's second term. Now it was opening day at its sister campus just down the road, Camp Mystic Cypress Lake.

The excitement swelled as the four-hour bus ride from Houston progressed, Christy Colby Heno, a chaperone, recalled, until the girls would scan the Hill Country brush in search of the familiar "M-Y-S-T-I-C" letters standing atop Sky High mountain.

A tunnel of counselors greeted the new campers when the bus at last arrived, with Dick and Tweety in the thick of it all. "Oh, my God," Heno said. "Their faces when they get off the bus!"

Heno ate lunch in the dining hall with a couple who have been a part of her life ever since she was a homesick 12-year-old in her first summer at Mystic in 1979. She would return for 15 summers -- including as a staffer -- before sending her own daughters to Mystic. They chitchatted about life as they snacked on the same fare as the campers: turkey wraps, fruit salad and tater tots.

"It was just like every other camp drop-off," she said.

But a few days later, Mystic would send an extraordinary note to "Camp Mystic Families."

"If your daughter is not accounted for you have been notified," it read in part. "If you have not been personally contacted then your daughter is accounted for."

"Please continue to pray."

'The river is beautiful, but you have to respect it'

For the past century, summer camps have spread along the winding Guadalupe River, offering a respite from the heat among groves of pecan, cypress and live oak trees.

The typically placid Guadalupe has always posed a threat at times of heavy rainfall. The Hill Country's rocky ground absorbs little water, and its narrow canyons act as funnels. As early as 1932, flooding forced Camp Mystic to close temporarily and destroyed cottages at other camps, according to one newspaper account.

In a 1987 flood, 10 teenagers attending a church camp in a neighboring county died during an attempted evacuation. A year later, Mystic delayed the arrival of four buses bringing campers from Dallas and Houston after flooding left a bridge impassable. By 1990, Dick Eastland was praising the safety benefits of the county's then-new flood-warning system, which sent alerts to beepers.

"With this new system, we should gain more time," he told the Austin American-Statesman. "The river is beautiful, but you have to respect it."

Amy Hudson, who spent 14 years at Mystic, beginning in 1980, and then sent her four daughters, recalled that flooding was part of the pre-camp training she and other counselors received at the beginning of each camp season. She also remembered occasions when J.C. Mattox, the longtime maintenance man, would stand watch during a storm to monitor the river.

Yet for generations of campers, flooding was an inconvenience at most, or part of inside jokes from past Mystic days. When the camp posted photos on Instagram of "a little flooding" in 2018, a Mystic alum chimed in: "I'll never forget when we got stuck on senior hill one year due to flooding and Criders had to bring all of senior hill hamburgers for lunch."

Wrote another: "Memories of 'X-treme Closing' 1st Term 2010!!!"

Storm warnings

As the holiday weekend approached last week, the specter of flooding hung over the Guadalupe, where cabins, RV parks and summer camps buzzed with festive groups.

Using National Weather Service data, the Texas Division of Emergency Management was looking at a forecast of 3 to 6 inches of rain, Nim Kidd, chief of the agency, recalled in a news conference this week..

"However, some of those models showed numbers that were higher than that, " he said, "which caused us to activate additional resources and have them in the area just in case."

On Wednesday, July 2, TDEM said in a press-release that it had activated state emergency-response resources. Its notice warned, "Heavy rainfall with the potential to cause flash flooding is anticipated across West Texas and the Hill Country."

By the next day, Thursday, the agency said it had raised the readiness level of the state emergency-operations center to "escalated response." Officials had pre-positioned assets including swiftwater rescue boat squads, helicopters with hoisting capabilities, a tactical marine unit, and high-profile vehicles to aid stranded motorists.

Emergency-response teams were in Kerr County at noon that day, Kidd said.

The night everything changed

On July 3, the water was clear and the river was a playground. But the forecast was growing darker. At 1:18 p.m., the National Weather Service office for Austin and San Antonio issued a flood watch for portions of south-central Texas through Friday morning, with forecast amounts of one to 3 inches and up to 7 inches possible in isolated pockets.

But by 6:10 p.m., the weather service said flash flooding was likely across central Texas overnight.

At 1:14 a.m., July 4, when most people were asleep, it issued a flash-flood warning for Kerr County with "catastrophic" potential for loss of life. The weather service said such alerts automatically trigger wireless emergency alerts on enabled mobile devices.

At the Presbyterian Mo-Ranch Assembly, a conference center and summer camp, 7 miles from Camp Mystic, a worker who lives close to the river noticed rising water levels. The staff decided to act. Sometime between 2:30 and 4 a.m., a group of 70 children and their chaperones attending a conference were moved to higher ground, said Tim Huchton, Mo-Ranch's chief executive.

"Just to make sure that we were going to stay safe with them," Huchton said.

Lorena Guillen, owner of the Blue Oak RV Park and Howdy's Restaurant, on the banks of the Guadalupe, drove her truck down to check the river.

"It was just raining, you know, like nothing," she said. "We did have a warning, a flash flood warning, but this...is very, very normal for the Hill Country."

Guillen said she called the Kerr County Sheriff's department at 2:08 a.m. to ask if she needed to evacuate and was told they had no information.

"And I said, 'OK, well, if they don't have any information,' I went to bed." An hour later, she awoke to rescue lights. "And at that point, the water was already 10 feet up."

She went door-to-door, knocking on RVs, trying to wake people. All 33 of them would be washed away.

Cars were floating past with people inside yelling for help. "It was pitch black, so all you see was the lights floating and people screaming and banging against the window and honking," she said.

At 3:32 a.m., the Kerr County Sheriff's Office posted on social media: "DANGEROUS FLOODING NOW on the Guadalupe River in Hunt, in western Kerr County. This flood wave will continue downstream. If you are near the water, move to higher ground immediately. Stay clear of low water crossings -- turn around, don't drown!"

Sirens had gone off in a neighboring county, but Kerr County didn't have an outdoor warning system.

Chaos in the cabins

At Mystic, girls bonded in cabins with names like the Giggle Box and Bubble Inn. There were nighttime devotionals and bedtime by 10:15 p.m., according to a schedule posted online.

Now, in the predawn darkness, program director Elizabeth Sweet awoke and helped evacuate campers, she said in a since-deleted Instagram post. "By 4 a.m. I was on a roof with the water right up to me," she wrote.

Paloma Puente, 19, was working her first summer as a counselor at Camp Mystic, when the flash flood hit "and chaos struck almost instantaneously," her friend, Neybia Hernandez, said in a GoFundMe she set up to help replace lost belongings. Puente and some other counselors, Hernandez wrote, guided 17 young girls -- many screaming in fear -- to safety as the cabin filled with water.

They went "through windows, through the chest high water," she said. "Paloma didn't stop until she knew every single one of her girls was okay."

Callie McAlary, 16, who had gone to bed unfazed by what seemed like a typical thunderstorm, recalled in a televised interview that, "water's coming up, and you have kids running just trying to get to other cabins, trying to get to safety."

Though her cabin on Senior Hill didn't flood, she feared it soon would. So she put on her nametag. "In my head, I was saying if something does happen and I do get swept away," she said, "at least I'll have my name on my body."

Devastation at dawn

As the sun rose on the Fourth of July, Mystic families began getting word of the catastrophic floods. Social media soon lighted up with photos of missing Mystic campers, some 8 or 9 years old.

On Instagram, one woman pleaded to her missing daughter: "Please call Mom."

Parents received an email from Camp Mystic about the catastrophic floods.

"We are working with search and rescue currently. The highway has washed away so we are struggling to get more help. Please continue to pray and send any help if you have contacts to do so."

Family members gathered at a local elementary school in an agonizing wait for updates. The names of children who were found were announced over a speaker in the school's gymnasium.

Two members of Congress posted that their daughters or granddaughters were there and had survived.

A camper named Harper, 14, survived, but her sisters, twins Hanna and Rebecca, both 8 years old, perished in the flood. They had just finished second grade at University Park Elementary School in Dallas.

"We are devastated that the bond we shared with them, and that they shared with each other, is now frozen in time," said their father, Dallas lawyer John Lawrence. Their grandfather described it as "an unimaginable time for all of us."

On Sunday morning, talk began to spread that Dick Eastland had also perished. It was later confirmed he died trying to drive several girls to safety when his vehicle was carried away by the floodwaters. It was, to many, tragically fitting.

"For decades he and his wife Tweety poured his life into loving and developing girls and women of character. Thank you," Rep. August Pfluger (R., Texas) posted on X.

The news has devastated generations of Mystic women, who came to the camp as children and then became bonded for life to the Eastlands. The couple would attend their weddings, turn up for the births of their children, and in Hudson's case, the death of her husband. "They're the people who showed up for everything," she said, adding: "Lots of conversations were probably had with Tweety that weren't even broached with our mothers."

As they sorted through grief and shock, there was also a search for explanations -- meteorological, bureaucratic, even biblical -- as to how such a catastrophe had laid waste to such a cherished place and so many young lives.

There were also hints of recrimination.

On Monday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.), called for an investigation into whether "staffing shortages at key local National Weather Service" stations had played a role.

Hudson, who owns a condominium near the river, was more philosophical. "There have been floods down there forever," she said. "But this was nothing anyone has ever seen."

So, too, was Gay Donnell Willis, a Mystic alum who is now a member of the Dallas city council -- a job in which she has confronted the challenge of trying to augment sewer drains and other infrastructure to cope with more intense weather. "You just can't keep up with the way it seems to rain differently these days," she said.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) -- who had picked up his own daughter from a nearby summer camp last week -- said he hopes new procedures will be put in place to evacuate people in the event of disastrous flash flooding.

"Everyone would agree, in hindsight," Cruz said, "if we could go back and do it again, we would evacuate."

 

  • Hook 'Em 2
Posted
15 minutes ago, bolverk said:

 

This was posted earlier this morning and is the first and only time I've seen a reference to someone in charge of security, but it's only one sentence. If you know of a source with more details, please provide a link or quote because that question has been bugging the shit out of me since Saturday.

image.thumb.png.722f1c1ceabf13689bf480caf41c8ee2.png

Google Glenn Juenke.

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