Camp Mystic has filed for bankruptcy nearly a year after catastrophic flooding in Texas killed 28 campers and staff members.
The all-girls Christian summer camp sought Chapter 11 protection on June 24, according to a petition submitted in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas. The filing, obtained by Oxygen, lists the camp’s liabilities at between $10 million and $50 million.
The bankruptcy filing temporarily halts five civil lawsuits brought against the camp by parents whose children died in the severe flooding.
“Bankruptcy will not stop all responsible parties from being held accountable,” Paul Yetter, an attorney representing seven families of campers who died, said in a June 24 statement, according to the Associated Press. “These innocent girls deserve justice.”
Attorneys for the family of Cile Steward, who was 8 years old when she died, also condemned the timing of the filing, saying, “The timing, just before the one-year anniversary, is a despicable gut punch to families already bracing to grieve their daughters under a canopy of Fourth of July fireworks.”
“A bankruptcy may reorganize their debts,” the family’s legal team told CBS19. “It cannot reorganize the truth.”
The Chapter 11 petition marks the latest development in the fallout from the deadly disaster.
On July 4, 2025, relentless rainfall sent a devastating flash flood through areas along the Guadalupe River, killing at least 135 people. The dead included 25 Camp Mystic campers, ages 8 to 10, two teenage staff members and the camp’s director, Richard “Dick” Eastland.
According to a June 18 report by Texas legislative investigators, the 100-year-old camp fell short of adequately preparing for the storm and failed to timely evacuate.
The report concluded that the camp did not properly train staff for emergencies, including assigning each staffer specific responsibilities, while also lacking a written emergency plan with “procedures for emergency shelter and for evacuation of each occupied building and the facility.”
Instead, the plan directed campers to simply shelter in place during a flood and “to await further instruction,” per the report. Meanwhile, communication was hindered by walkie-talkies not being distributed to each cabin and the camp’s cell phone ban.
Any sort of plan, stated the report, would have “been known only by the camp’s co-executive director, Dick Eastland,” who died while attempting to rescue campers during the flood.
A notably terrifying scene began at 1:14 a.m. when Dick woke up his son, camp co-director Edward Eastland, to help secure boats and other camp equipment, though the pair perceived no flood risk to the buildings, according to the report.
Meanwhile, teen counselors in cabins closest to the Guadalupe River ignored directions to stay inside, according to the report, instead running to the main office to say that water had entered the structures and to ask for help.
However, Dick said the water was runoff from a nearby hill, and not the river, according to the report, and instructed counselors to soak it up with towels. When the guardhouse started flooding, he began a series of evacuation orders.
Despite his efforts, the flood claimed the lives of more than two dozen campers and staff, including Dick himself.
The bankruptcy filing follows widespread backlash to the camp’s initial plan to resume operations at another property this summer, while also building a memorial dedicated to the lost lives.
“The families of deceased Camp Mystic campers and counselors were not consulted about and did not approve this memorial,” Blake Bonner, whose 9-year-old daughter Lila Bonner died in the tragedy, said in a September statement, according to the New York Times.
The camp ultimately withdrew its application, according to The Texas Tribune.
A spokesperson for Camp Mystic did not immediately reply to a request for comment from Oxygen.
