Eastland’s remarks came as state lawmakers used the second day of a special legislative hearing to press the Eastland family and other camp directors on why they believed Camp Mystic could reopen after the July 4, 2025, flood that killed 25 girls and two counselors. Dozens of victims’ family members sat close behind Eastland as he addressed the room, which had already heard testimony the prior day about the camp’s emergency planning and the decisions made during the flood.
“I’m so sorry,” Eastland said, adding, “We tried our hardest that night. It wasn’t enough to save your daughters.” He described the moments of the disaster by saying he and his father were on the property and that heavy rain had created a raging flood that ripped through the camp along the Guadalupe River. Eastland said his father Richard Eastland died in the flood, and that Eastland survived only after being swept into a tree.
Eastland told lawmakers that the girls and their counselors were the youngest campers at Camp Mystic and that he watched them grow up. He also said the anger at the family for not being able to keep the girls safe was “completely reasonable,” while describing the victims as people “who we watched grow up” and that “the world was a better place with them in it.” He said he and other family members remained in the camp that night trying to get to the next cabin during the flooding rather than moving back to a camp office to issue an announcement.
During questioning, lawmakers repeatedly pressed on whether camp staff were prepared to respond in an emergency, including whether a last-ditch effort to use the camp’s public address system could have been made to order campers to higher ground. Eastland said he did not even think to leave the girls he and others were trying to rescue to make such an announcement. “Every minute was spent trying to get to the next cabin,” he said, adding, “If we had a little more time, we could have gotten everybody out.”
Britt Eastland told lawmakers that Camp Mystic plans to dramatically improve training for counselors and stage drills for campers to prepare for floods, fire, tornadoes and intruders. Lawmakers also cited a prior lack of flood training as a critical problem that contributed to the deaths, and Sen. Charles Perry said, “All of these things should have been being done in the first place.” Perry and other lawmakers also questioned specific actions during the flood that they said delayed evacuation.
Camp owners have said they want to reopen in late May and plan to use only parts of the camp that did not flood, with expectations of nearly 900 attendees this summer. The prospect of reopening has angered victims’ families and prompted some prominent state officials to call for regulators to delay or deny renewal of Camp Mystic’s license, which is under review. Another Eastland son, named Richard Eastland after his father, said the family would not open the camp if the license were not renewed, adding, “We will not open Cypress Lake if we do not have a license,” and said the family would likely appeal if the state decided against renewal.
Lawmakers also questioned whether the camp is prepared to host children again after the disaster. Sen. Lois Kolkhorst said state agencies have shut down licensed residential living centers for a single death, and she asked whether Camp Mystic is ready to take on “500-plus children” this summer. Britt Eastland said the camp was ready, adding that he believed the broader community would ultimately “be glad we had camp this summer,” which drew an audible gasp from people in the room. Several victims’ family members left shortly afterward.
Julie Sprunt Marshall, whose 9-year-old daughter was swept out of her cabin and rescued more than a mile down the river, told lawmakers that survivors continue to suffer trauma. She asked the lawmakers to not let Camp Mystic open under the Eastland family, saying the family “failed our daughters,” and she said the camp would be running “an incredibly dangerous experiment on children.” “Testing what will happen with the first drop of rain, the first clap of thunder, at the first time a noise startles them awake,” Marshall said.
The hearing highlighted that Texas regulators notified Camp Mystic last week of 22 deficiencies in its emergency plan. Mary Liz Eastland, the camp’s medical director, acknowledged Tuesday that she had not officially reported last summer’s deaths to state health officers. Lawmakers said the deficiencies and reporting gaps are part of why the camp’s readiness to reopen is under scrutiny even as the special committee does not control the license review itself.
Camp Mystic owners also said it remains an open question whether they would eventually try to reopen the river camp, and they said any future use of flooded buildings would not include placing campers in structures that were damaged by the flood. Britt Eastland told lawmakers, “We’re praying about that every day. We don’t know what to do.”