Texas has implemented a series of new camper safety laws following the tragic loss of 27 children in devastating flash floods at Camp Mystic in Kerr County on July 4.

The legislation, signed on Friday by Governor Greg Abbott, introduces tougher safety and emergency preparedness requirements for youth camps throughout the state to help avert similar disasters.

The three new bills, signed during a ceremony at the Governor’s Mansion, with Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, bill authors, and the victims’ families present, set forth new requirements for emergency planning, camp licensing, and flood warning systems.

‘Every child who goes to camp should come home to their families,’ Abbott said on Friday. 

‘No parent should ever have to outlive their child or endure this kind of loss.’

The laws were introduced two months after unprecedented rainfall led to deadly flooding in Texas Hill Country, claiming more than 130 lives, including those of 27 campers and counselors at the all-girls Camp Mystic on the Guadalupe River.

House Bill 1, known as the Youth CAMPER Act, mandates camps to create and annually revise emergency response plans, offer evacuation training for staff and campers, inform parents if camp facilities are situated in floodplains, and synchronize those emergency plans with local emergency services.

While, Senate Bill 1, or the Heaven’s 27 Camp Safety Act, bars the state from licensing youth camps that operate cabins within FEMA-designated floodplains, except under limited circumstances.

It also mandates annual emergency planning and training and creates a publicly accessible online registry of licensed camps to improve oversight and transparency.

The third piece of new legislation, Senate Bill 3, creates a grant program through the Office of the Governor that will provide financial support to cities and counties for the installation of early-warning sirens in areas vulnerable to flash flooding.

Camps must also install emergency alert systems, have rooftop ladders in cabins located in 100-year flood zones, and relocate cabins out of floodplains – all of which will be enforced by the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS).

The bills passed both chambers of the Legislature with bipartisan support, however, four House Republicans – Brian Harrison, David Lowe, Mike Olcott, and Wesley Virdell – voted against the legislation. 

The laws were pushed forward following weeks of emotional testimony from families of the victims, emergency responders, and camp operators, where many parents expressed frustrations over a ‘lack of preparedness and oversight.’

‘Our children’s lives were cut short because the safeguards in place were not enough,’ a spokesperson for the Campaign for Camp Safety said. 

‘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.’

CiCi Williams Steward, whose 8-year-old daughter Cile was in attendance at Camp Mystic during the catastrophic flooding and remains missing, criticized the lack of safety protocols.

‘Obvious commonsense safety measures were absent. Protocols that should have been in place were ignored,’ Steward said. ‘She was stolen from her family, from her future, from the world she lit up with her independence and spunk.’

Camp Mystic has voiced support for the newly-minted legislation. 

In a statement, the all-girls summer camp said it would revise planning and procedures based on what it called a ‘catastrophic 1,000-year weather event,’ and affirmed it would never again use cabins that had previously taken on floodwaters.

All cabin floors, the statement noted, were already built outside the 100-year floodplain.

While many youth camps have backed the new regulations, some have expressed concerns over the financial burden. Three long-standing Kerr County camps warned that compliance costs could jeopardize their operations.

‘The combination of devastating floods and the heavy financial burden proposed under new state regulations presents an impossible challenge,’ the camps wrote. 

‘The costs of compliance must be met with partnership and support, not mandates that dismantle the very institutions that have nurtured children for over a century.’

Still, lawmakers insisted the changes were necessary.

‘As we move forward, let us commit not only to fixing what has been broken but also to ensuring that the memory of our fallen Texans drives us to better prepare for the future,’ Senator Pete Flores, vice chair of the Senate Select Committee on Disaster Preparedness, said.

Many of the families in attendance at Friday’s signing wore buttons reading ‘Heaven’s 27’ in honor of their children.

Ryan DeWitt, who lost his 9-year-old daughter Molly, said the legislation should represent the floor, not the ceiling, of camp safety.

‘What’s being laid out in this bill should be the bare minimum for what these camps should be looking to implement.’

Johnny Stevens, who lost his 8-year-old daughter Mary Barrett Stevens, said the families’ advocacy was a way to honor their children.

‘We would have been doing a massive disservice to our daughters for not running with this and seeing this through. The Heaven’s 27 family is a way for us to never, ever let the world forget these girls,’ DeWitt said.

The new laws will be in effect before the next summer camp season begins.