The Wednesday hearings were the first time loved ones of Camp Mystic victims publicly testified.
SAN ANTONIO — Parents of the 27 girls and staffers who died when floodwaters overwhelmed Camp Mystic the morning of July 4 spoke publicly before Texas lawmakers for the first time Wednesday. The testimony quickly lead to tears on both sides of the hearing.
“She was not protected. She was not safe,” Lacy Virginia Hollis said of her daughter, Virginia. “Because she died, along with 26 other girls. I was not there to protect her.”
The Senate Disaster Preparedness and Flooding Select Committee was meeting specifically to advance Senate Bill 1, which would create a comprehensive set of new safety requirements for youth camps.
Many of the parents told senators Wednesday they support the bill.
“I do hope that this legislation can help protect other daughters and sons in Texas,” Hollis said.
“My daughter should still be here, her death was 100% preventable,” added Clarke Baker, the father of a Mystic victim. “Complacency, among other things, led to the deaths of 27 amazing, innocent, beautiful girls.”
In total, 25 campers and two counselors were killed in the flooding at Camp Mystic. Among those, 15 were in the Bubble Inn cabin, which housed the youngest campers. Another five campers from the Twins 2 cabin were killed. Those two cabins were among the closest to the river banks.
The parents of 8-year-old Hadley Hanna testified in support of the bill to strengthen regulations for riverside camps. Hadley was one of five girls in the Twins 2 cabin. Their older daughter, Harper, was also at camp and was rescued.
“I promised her she would be safe and OK. I told her camp was the safest place she could be and camp was a place she could make new friends and learn new things,” said her mother, Carrie Hanna. “She not only wasn’t safe. She died.”
Hanna said she received very poor communication about what had happened to her daughter.
“On Saturday, July 5, I made Doug drive me out to camp. We had gone 24 hours with basically zero information and I needed to yell for Hadley and all of the girls who were missing,” Hanna said. “As we drove to camp, we saw no one in the water, no boats, people nothing. They were all on the side of the roads.”
Harper’s father, Douglas Hanna, also spoke and urged lawmakers to honor the victims by passing the proposed bill.
“We are asking for common sense legislation that holds camps to the same standards as other places we send our kids, like daycare and school,” Doug Hanna said. “When you send your kids to camp, you expect to pick them up. You don’t expect them to leave camp in a black hawk. You don’t expect them to be swept away in the middle of the night in floodwaters.”
What’s next for the legislation?
SB1, proposed by committee Chairman Charles Perry, contains multiple layers of requirements that would attempt to make sure no child was swept away again.
Perry said the latest version of the bill would include the following campground safety requirements:
- Camp operators would be required to create an emergency plan, that included flooding evacuations, and would be required to provide that plan to county emergency management coordinators as well as the state.
- Camps would be required to have an emergency preparedness coordinator.
- Camps would need to conduct an annual training drill for staffers and volunteers.
- Camps would be required to maintain operable radios capable of providing real-time weather alerts issued by the National Weather Service in each cabin.
- Camps would be required to have an internet connection to receive emergency alerts and communicate with the public.
- Youth camps with cabins in a 100-year floodplain would not be able to renew their license with the Texas Department of State Health Services.
- Texas Department of State Health Services must keep a database of the licenses and post those online.
- In the event of a flood warning (or flash flood warning) camp operators would be legally required to move campers to higher ground immediately.
Perry said he hoped to see SB1 on the Senate floor by Thursday evening for approval.
Similar legislation was advanced by the Texas Senate on Aug. 12. But further progress was stymied as dozens of Texas House Democrats fled the state amid the redistricting fight, breaking quorum and preventing votes from being taken.
Michael McCown, who lost his daughter Linnie McCown at Camp Mystic, also urged leaders to pass the new regulations and told lawmakers Camp Mystic failed to protect the girls.
“We trusted Camp Mystic with her precious life but that trust was broken in the most devastating way. The camp had a heightened duty of care and they failed to perform,” McCown said. “That failure cost 25 campers and two young counselors their lives. No one had to die that day .”
A spokesperson for Camp Mystic told KENS 5 on Wednesday that they were “heartbroken” over the loss of life there, adding they were still in the recovery process and wouldn’t comment specifically on SB1.
“The safety and wellbeing of every camper is our priority, and our policies and practices are designed to ensure a safe and supportive environment,” they said. “Camp Mystic supports legislative efforts that will make camps and communities along the Guadalupe River safer.”
More than 700 girls were at the camp on July 4; among those killed were young girls from all across Texas as well as Mystic’s director, Dick Eastland, who died trying to save campers.
An 8-year-old Camp Mystic girl from Austin, Cile Steward, is one of two flooding victims still unaccounted for in Kerr County.