Camp Mystic’s medical officer, Mary Liz Eastland, told a courtroom this week that she still has not officially reported the deaths from last year’s July 4 predawn flood to the Texas state health agency that regulates camps, even as the camp seeks permission to reopen and state scrutiny continues.
Eastland testified during legal proceedings in a dispute between the camp operators and families of victims who have filed lawsuits. The hearing, which has lasted two days, has focused on whether damaged areas should be preserved as evidence, with families arguing that the evidence should remain intact while the licensing process and investigations move forward.
Eastland said Texas administrative rules require camp deaths to be reported to the state health regulators within 24 hours, and that she had not made that report. She told the court that she did not think of the requirement in the immediate aftermath of the flood and also had not done so before Camp Mystic’s March 31 application to reopen.
She testified that she could not recall exactly when she learned the campers had died, saying it could have been a day or several days after the flood. The testimony was heard as part of the broader evidentiary dispute tied to the flood that killed 27 girls at the all-girls Christian camp, along with two teenage counselors, on the Guadalupe River.
When questioned about whether she should formally report the deaths now, with the camp’s license application pending, Eastland said, “I guess so,” according to the account of her testimony in court. It was unclear to the court whether the failure to report would affect the license renewal review, with details about the camp’s application and safety plan described in the reporting as including flood-plain maps and officers’ listings while the safety plan itself remains shielded from public view.
State officials said they will visit Camp Mystic during the license review, and the Texas health agency also said it is reviewing hundreds of complaints filed against the camp. The agency has said it invited the Texas Rangers investigative unit to help, and that state lawmakers are conducting a separate investigation of the flood. In response to questions in the proceedings, the agency said Tuesday that “DSHS will consider any findings from the inspection and investigation when making the determination on the renewal application.”
The camp’s effort to reopen part of the property this summer and host nearly 900 girls has drawn anger from the victims’ families. The family of Cile Steward, the only camper still missing, filed the lawsuit that prompted the hearing, and the family has said Camp Mystic should not be allowed to reopen under the continued leadership of the Eastland family.
Eastland’s testimony followed testimony earlier in the proceedings from her husband, Edward Eastland, who spent hours under questioning Monday and Tuesday about missed weather warnings, the delayed decision to evacuate, and attempts to save children as water surged through the camp. In that testimony, he described grabbing two girls and another who jumped on his back before they were washed away.
In court on Tuesday, attorneys also questioned Mary Liz Eastland about what she did during the early moments of the storm. While she testified about escaping with her family to higher ground and about seeing survivors at sunrise—“seeing girls in trees,” as she described it—she acknowledged that she had not tried to reach the low-lying areas to evacuate campers in the early moments, saying she could not pass through the rising floodwaters. She was also pressed about why, as the camp’s chief medical officer, she did not try to call or alert other medical staff to reach campers before the disaster struck.
Steward family attorney Christina Yarnell said Eastland knew the property and the flood lines, and argued in court that she abandoned Cile Steward. Defense attorney Mikal Watts described Edward Eastland’s testimony as heroic, saying, “A genuine hero testified today.”