AUSTIN, Texas — The medical officer for the Texas summer camp where 27 girls were killed in a flood last year testified Tuesday she still has not officially reported the deaths to the state health agency that regulates camps and is reviewing its application to reopen this summer.
Mary Liz Eastland, a member of the family that owns and operates Camp Mystic, was questioned in a legal fight between the camp operators and families of victims who have filed lawsuits and want the camp to preserve damaged areas as evidence. The hearing over the past two days has produced the most extensive details from camp operators of what happened in the July 4 predawn flood on the Guadalupe River, and the delayed decisions to evacuate until it was too late.
While the deaths of 25 campers and two teenage counselors at the all-girls Christian camp have been widely reported and are not in question, the Texas administrative code requires camps to report deaths to state health regulators within 24 hours.
“I did not think of this requirement in the moments happening after the flood,” Eastland said, adding she also had not done so leading up to camp’s March 31 application to reopen.
Eastland could not recall exactly when she learned campers had died, saying it could have been a day, or several days, after the flood. Richard Eastland, her father-in-law, also was killed.
When pressed if she should formally report the deaths now with the camp license pending, Mary Liz Eastland said, “I guess so.”
It was unclear if the failure to report would affect the camp’s license application. A copy of the camp’s application includes lists of camp officers and flood plain maps. Operators are also required to submit a detailed safety plan, but that is shielded from public view.
State regulators will visit the camp during the license review. The agency has also said it is reviewing hundreds of complaints filed against the camp and has invited the Texas Rangers investigative unit to help. State lawmakers also are conducting a separate investigation of the flood.
“DSHS will consider any findings from the inspection and investigation when making the determination on the renewal application,” the agency said Tuesday.
The camp’s plan to reopen part of the campus this summer and host nearly 900 girls has outraged families of the girls killed. The family of 8-year-old Cile Steward, the only camper still missing, filed the lawsuit that prompted this week’s hearing.
The Steward family has said the camp should not be allowed to reopen under the continued leadership of the Eastland family. Separately, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has said no license should be issued until all the investigations are complete.
Mary Liz Eastland’s testimony came after her husband Edward Eastland spent hours under questioning Monday and Tuesday about missed weather warnings, the delayed decision to evacuate, and desperate attempts to save children as the water ripped through the camp with enough force to create rapids that swirled around the cabins.
He tearfully described grabbing two girls and another who jumped on his back before they were all washed away.
“A genuine hero testified today,” said Mikal Watts, one of the attorneys for the Eastlands. “He told a gripping story of saving lives in an unprecedented tsunami. I am proud to represent Edward Eastland and his family.”
Mary Liz Eastland recounted her steps that night when she and her children left their house to join her mother-in-law. She described water pouring into the house and breaking a window to escape. The family was able to get to higher ground.
She also described what she saw at sunrise when she went toward the river bank, “seeing girls in trees.” She and other staff gathered survivors for a head count, checking names against cabin rosters.
“I had to figure out who we had and didn’t have at that point,” she said.
But she also acknowledged never trying to get to the low-lying areas to evacuate campers in the early moments of the storm, saying she could not pass through the rising floodwaters. She was also pressed as to why, as the camp’s chief medical officer, did she not try to call or alert other medical staff to get to the campers before disaster struck.
Steward family attorney Christina Yarnell noted Eastland had been at Camp Mystic as a camper, counselor or staff member since 2002.
“You knew the property. You knew the flood lines. You knew access points,” Yarnell said. “Your children knew them. These were first-year campers … Cile needed your help and you abandoned her, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” Eastland said.
