Families of 15 Camp Mystic flood victims file lawsuits claiming gross negligence after 27 girls and counselors died

The families of 13 girls and two counsellors who died in the catastrophic flooding that swept through Camp Mystic this summer are suing the Texas camp and its owners, accusing them of gross negligence, according to four lawsuits filed this week.

The flurry of litigation marks the first wave of legal action by victims’ families against the all-girls Christian camp since 25 girls and two counsellors died in the July 4 disaster.

Many of the youngest victims were housed in the cabins closest to the Guadalupe River, which swelled to a deadly torrent amid epic rainfall and flooding. Richard “Dick” Eastland, who co-owned Camp Mystic with his wife, Tweety, died trying to save some of the girls, a family spokesperson has said.

One lawsuit was filed by the families of five campers and two counsellors who perished: Anna Margaret Bellows, Lila Bonner, Chloe Childress, Molly DeWitt, Katherine Ferruzzo, Lainey Landry and Blakely McCrory.

A second lawsuit was filed by the family of eight-year-old Eloise “Lulu” Peck.

A third was filed by the family of nine-year-old Ellen Getten.

And a fourth was filed by the families of six other campers: Virginia Naylor, Hadley Hanna, Virginia Hollis, Jane Hunt, Lucy Dillon and Kellyanne Lytal.

The defendants in each lawsuit include Camp Mystic and members of the Eastland family, which owns the 99-year-old camp in Kerr County.

“Tragically, due to lack of planning, the absence of any evacuation plans, lack of training, inadequate warning systems, and other acts and omissions of recklessness and gross negligence, Plaintiffs’ daughters suffered terrifying, brutal, and horrific deaths,” the lawsuit filed by the families of the six campers says.

While Camp Mystic sympathizes with the grieving families, “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,” camp counsel Jeff Ray said in a statement.

What the lawsuits allege

The lawsuit filed by the families of five campers and two counsellors claims Camp Mystic didn’t have adequate safety plans and prioritized money over safety.

“Today, campers Margaret, Lila, Molly, Lainey, and Blakely should be third graders, and counsellors Chloe and Katherine should be freshmen at the University of Texas. They all are gone,” the lawsuit states.

“These young girls died because a for-profit camp put profit over safety,” the filing says. “The Camp chose to house young girls in cabins sitting in flood-prone areas, despite the risk, to avoid the cost of relocating the cabins.”

On the morning of July 4, “the Camp chose to take no steps to protect its campers and counsellors while it knew a storm and ‘life threatening flash flooding’ were approaching,” the lawsuit states.

“Instead, with the river rising, the Camp chose to direct its groundskeepers to spend over an hour evacuating camp equipment, not its campers and counsellors,” the filing says.

The Camp “chose to order its campers and counsellors to remain in the Bubble Inn and Twins cabins while the flood waters overwhelmed the camp,” it continued. “Finally, when it was too late, the Camp made a hopeless ‘rescue’ effort from its self-created disaster in which 25 campers, two counsellors, and the Camp director died.”

The lawsuit filed by the family of Eloise “Lulu” Peck accused Camp Mystic of “gross negligence” by “failing to implement modern safety measures or update its own flood protocols in light of known dangers.”

“Defendants knew that camp facilities were located in a flood zone, knew of the history of flash flooding in Kerr County, knew of repeated prior flood events at the Camp, and received warnings from family members about flood risk.”

Another lawsuit was filed by the parents of Ellen, one of the youngest girls at the camp and who was housed at Bubble Inn cabin.

The camp’s directors should have known about emergency alerts in the area before the calamitous flooding and should have been on “high alert,” the lawsuit claims.

But there was no plan to evacuate campers until 12 hours after a flash flood warning, the lawsuit alleges. That plan was “wholly inadequate and purposefully left some of the youngest children in Bubble Inn completely stranded without instruction, direction, or adult emergency assistance before their tragic deaths,” the third lawsuit says.

The lawsuit filed by the families of six girls slammed “Camp Mystic’s so-called ‘Emergency Instructions.’” A wrinkled copy of those instructions was found in a counsellor’s flooded trunk.

Under the “Floods” section, the instructions say “Campers and counsellors NEVER wander away from your cabin” and “All cabins are constructed on high, safe locations.”

“Tragically, the last two sentences of Camp Mystic’s instructions caused the loss of Plaintiffs’ children’s lives,” that lawsuit says.

“To instruct children to stay in a cabin with rising flood waters was ultimately a death sentence. Further, to state that ‘[a]ll cabins are constructed on high, safe ground’ was patently false, misleading [and] created a false sense of safety.”

Photos from inside one cabin show “the water rose so close to the ceiling (5 ¾ inches) [that] the girls ran out of air space and were tragically swept into the raging flood waters,” the lawsuit states. Eight-year-old Lucy “did not make it out of the cabin where she lost her life.”

All four lawsuits seek a jury trial in Travis County District Court and compensation for “mental anguish,” among other damages.

The first three lawsuits each seek more than US$1 million in damages. The fourth suit does not specify an amount.

The camp responds

The flooding killed at least 136 people across the region as parts of the Guadalupe River rose from about three feet (0.9 metres) to almost 30 feet (9.1 metres) in just 45 minutes.

The horrific flood was “unprecedented,” Ray said. “We 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.”

CNN has also reached out to Camp Mystic attorney Mikal Watts for comment on the lawsuits.

In an interview with CNN last month, Watts addressed some of the questions and concerns that had been raised by families.

He said the first warning came at 1:14 a.m., but “there’s some question as to who got it and who didn’t, because this is a very remote area with limited cell phone coverage.”

At 1:47 a.m., Dick Eastland and his son Edward “immediately convened the ground crew and started securing equipment, started coming up with a plan at about 2” a.m., Watts said.

“At about 2:19, we got the first information that one of the houses was having water coming,” he said.

Before 3 a.m., “there was a very orderly evacuation process of 10 different camps or cabins,” Watts said, noting camp leaders helped evacuate 166 girls.

But a photo in the lawsuit filed by the six families – which attorneys say was timestamped at 3:26 a.m. – showed some campers wading in floodwater to get to higher ground.

Watts challenged the notion that evacuating children during flash flooding is always the best option.

“You shelter in place. That’s first and foremost what you ought to do,” Watts said.

“Do not take nine-year-old girls who weigh 63 pounds on average into raging floodwaters. They’re going to get washed away.”

Anger and grief lead to change

The deaths at Camp Mystic have led to sharp questions from parents and lawmakers about the camp’s safety and evacuation plan in an area known to flood on a regular basis.

“Obvious commonsense safety measures were absent,” said CiCi Williams Steward, the mother of eight-year-old Cile, who remains missing.

In September, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed tougher camp safety laws that require local governments to install outdoor sirens and warning systems in flood-prone areas.

Camp Mystic has announced plans to partially reopen next summer for its 100th anniversary. The section of the camp close to the Guadalupe River will remain closed. The more recent expansion, which sits uphill and was not damaged in the flooding, will reopen.

The news stunned Steward, who still doesn’t know where her daughter is.

“Camp Mystic is pressing ahead with reopening, even if it means inviting girls to swim in the same river that may potentially still hold my daughter’s body,” she said.