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 are speaking publicly before Texas lawmakers for the first time, according to a coalition representing the victims’ loved ones.
The website for the Campaign for Camp Safety says the group was launched by Camp Mystic families and is “seeking action to ensure all children are safe at camps in Texas moving forward.” Campers’ loved ones appeared before the Senate Disaster Preparedness and Flooding Select Committee on Wednesday as lawmakers consider a bill to safeguard children’s camps in Texas.
In total, 25 campers and two counselors were killed in the July 4 flood 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,” her mother, Carrie Hanna said. “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.”
Her 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.”
Michael McCown, who lost his daughter, Linnie McCown at Camp Mystic, also urged leaders to pass the new regulations.
“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 .”
More than 700 girls were at the camp that day; 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, where the flooding killed more than 100 people.
The Texas Legislature is considering flood-related legislation for a second straight special session in Austin. Senate Bill 1, for instance, seeks to comprehensively improve safeguards at camps by requiring emergency plans for natural disasters; prohibiting camps from operating in designated floodplains; and mandating that camps streamline procedures to notify families in case of emergencies.
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.
SB1 “incorporates significant feedback received from the families of the children lost at Camp Mystic,” according to the bill’s analysis.
“Our children’s lives were cut short because the safeguards in place were not enough,” a Campaign for Camp Safety spokesperson is quoted as saying in a press release. “We are asking lawmakers to make sure no other family ever has to endure the pain we have lived with every day since July 4.”
The committee meets at 10 a.m. Wednesday, which is when the public hearings are scheduled to take place.
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