Posted on 07/09/2025 6:37:23 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
A Texas summer camp had a state-mandated emergency plan in place before devastating flash floods took the lives of dozens of campers and staff, state records confirm.
A state health report dated July 2 — two days before the flooding emergency began — showed Camp Mystic passed its annual inspection to maintain its state youth camp license.
Inspectors in Texas visit licensed camps annually and check for a variety of health and safety measures, from first aid kits and flotation devices, to staff background checks and the sanitation of kitchens and bathrooms.
On July 2, a state health inspector on site at Camp Mystic answered “Yes” to the question, “Is there a written plan of procedures to be implemented in case of a disaster, serious accident, epidemic, or fatality formulated and posted in the camp’s administrative on-site office or location?”
The inspector also confirmed staff and volunteers were made aware of the emergency plan, that the camp documented it had trained or briefed staff and volunteers on those procedures, and that the camp had a telephone available for emergency use.
Records reviewed by Scripps News show inspectors found Camp Mystic had an emergency plan in place as required by state law in each of its annual inspections going back at least to 2021. Camps are required to include procedures for emergency shelter and for evacuation in their plans.
Scripps News contacted Camp Mystic on Wednesday morning, requesting the camp’s emergency plan. However, Scripps News has not yet heard back. It’s still unclear whether the plan was followed when disaster struck.
Lara Anton, a spokesperson for the State Department of Health Services, told Scripps News inspectors do not scrutinize the substance of summer camp emergency plans, and the state does not obtain copies of the plans.
(Excerpt) Read more at scrippsnews.com ...
Yes. It could have been much worse.
I speak from personal experience. I guarantee that if they had both male and female adults (1 pair for each cabin, correct?) that things would have been much worse.
Despite the targeting of the Chief for what appear to be valid reasons, how many died due to the delay ?
There is only one plan.
Do not run straight away from the onrushing water. Run or swim to the nearest SIDE. As fast as you can.
Men have better survivor skills. And those leaders were young and inexperienced at actual survivor. They needed some time tested ADULTS....male and female.
I'm 80...with plenty of personal experience. You have something against males??
No matter....It's all so sad.
I made a similar point on another forum. Some asshat responded that I was happy they had a 96% success rate.
I still have questions about the reaction and response. But I think I may have been hasty on assigning blame. Someone got nearly all of those kids to safety.
Damn the number of times I’ve seen that be true!
One wonders why so many parents left it to chance.
Do we absolutely know that? Because 27 missing or fatalities among 700 implies to me someone took action. Maybe late but they got nearly everyone out.
We need less talk about blame and more about responsibility.
Who bore the ultimate responsibility for ensuring those kids got out of harm’s way?
Hint: It wasn’t the people running the camps.
Looking for blame article... It passed inspection how could this have happened.
Maybe a responsibly to warn. But in execution it is the people in the camps who carry out the emergency plan.
Thank you for being a voice of reason among a crowd of armchair Generals.
I daresay none of them have ever been camp director. I have been so for camps ranging from 20-30 to over 250 people.
Trying to prognosticate the weather is one of the hardest things. In my case, the kids were in tents not cabins.
For those of you who haven’t had the responsibility, your opinion is meaningless.
A lot of the blame goes to the media, particularly weather “forecasters.” They hype up every cloudy day as a major weather event then add all kinds of new scary names like Derecho, BOMB Cyclone etc. to get the population living in fear. It has the opposite effect. We ignore their doomsayer “warnings’ because most of them turn out to be nothing.
If a camp director evacuated camp every time there was the chance of a weather event, it would be mass pandemonium and would completely ruin camp for everyone.
Our protocol was that camp would stand down for 30 minutes after lightning was sighted. We had a couple times, we were at 28 minutes then there was another single bolt of lightning miles away. Unnnngggghhh
While it was certainly the wise approach, it threw off our entire schedule. Program areas needed time to set back up, especially the rifle and shotgun areas that were completely put away for the storm.
This camp had a very professional staff and a good reputation.
My kids also do camp volunteer work. Three are involved at a Christian camp this week. One is ending her counseling session, one is beginning as a session director himself and the third will be helping on kitchen staff.
“All you need to do is monitor it day and night/24/365 for the next 100 years..”
Nope. Those radios just sit there and do nothing until there’s an alert. All you have to do is make sure it’s on. I think I’d have one nearby if I lived or worked in a place called flood alley.
My 15 year old NOAA emergency radio works just fine and recently woke me from a sound sleep when tornadoes were in the vicinity. Lack of warnings weren’t a problem and sure an emergency plan is great, but people have to act on those warnings and implement the plan. Sadly it appears that warnings weren’t heeded and evacuations not made.
After seeing the video of how fast the water rose in that river, I don’t see how anyone could be held at fault.
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