The families of nine girls who tragically lost their lives in a flash flood at Camp Mystic on July 4, 2025, have initiated a federal civil rights lawsuit against six Texas health officials. They claim that state regulators failed to enforce crucial evacuation plan standards required for licensed youth camps.
This legal action, submitted on Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, Austin Division, targets both current and former officials from the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS). Among those named is Commissioner Jennifer Shuford, who is being sued in her personal capacity. The families argue that by licensing and renewing Camp Mystic’s operation, despite alleged nonadherence to state safety regulations, the officials infringed upon the girls’ constitutional rights.
The devastating flash flood claimed the lives of 27 campers and counselors as it swept through the historic Hill Country camp along the Guadalupe River, a region notorious for its susceptibility to sudden floods. The camp’s owner and Executive Director, Dick Eastland, also perished while trying to evacuate a cabin during the disaster, according to earlier reports.
Beyond the civil rights allegations, the lawsuit includes two Fourteenth Amendment substantive due process claims: one based on a “state-created danger” theory and the other concerning bodily integrity. The families are also pursuing damages under Texas’s wrongful death and survival statutes through this federal lawsuit.
Debris covers the area of Camp Mystic in Hunt, Texas, on July 7, 2025, after a catastrophic flash flood hit the region. (AP Photo/Eli Hartman)
While Camp Mystic itself is not a defendant in this specific case, it is involved in separate legal proceedings related to the flooding incident.
According to the complaint, Texas regulations require licensed youth camps to maintain a written disaster plan including procedures for the evacuation of each occupied building, with the plan posted in cabins and staff trained on it. The rule is described in the filing as mandatory rather than discretionary.
The lawsuit alleges DSHS adopted a longstanding internal practice of verifying only that a camp had some form of “emergency plan,” without confirming that the plan included evacuation procedures for each building.
Camp Mystic’s written flood instructions, cited in the complaint, told campers and counselors to “stay in cabins unless told otherwise.” Plaintiffs characterize that language as a “stay put” policy inconsistent with state evacuation requirements.
This aerial photo shows damage to Camp Mystic from flash floods along the Guadalupe River, in Hunt, Texas, July 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
The complaint alleges that inspector Maricela Torres Zamarripa conducted annual inspections of Camp Mystic from at least 2015 through 2025. It highlights a July 5, 2024, inspection report that found “no deficiency” and alleges DSHS renewed the camp’s license for the following year based on that inspection. The camp’s current license is valid until March 6, according to the suit.Â
The filing further alleges that Zamarripa visited the camp again on July 2, 2025 — two days before the flood — and that an inspection report dated July 6, 2025, also recorded “no deficiency,” even after the disaster.
According to the complaint, heavy rainfall began July 3, 2025, and a “life-threatening” flash flood warning was received by 1:14 a.m. on July 4. The lawsuit states that camp leadership initially instructed girls to remain in their cabins in accordance with the written policy.
The families allege that staff evacuated five of 11 cabins in an area known as “the flats,” a low-lying section near the river, while six cabins were not evacuated. The complaint states that most of the girls who died were housed in two cabins in that area. Evacuation efforts are described in the filing as chaotic and improvised.
Under their “state-created danger” claim, the families allege regulators created or worsened the risk by licensing and renewing the camp despite alleged regulatory violations, thereby giving parents what the complaint describes as a false sense of security.
Under the bodily integrity claim, plaintiffs argue that by licensing the camp and allegedly failing to enforce evacuation requirements, state officials effectively approved a setup that placed the girls in cabins without required evacuation protections.
Camp Mystic Director Dick Eastland died while trying to save campers during flooding in July 2025. (Reuters/Sergio Flores; LeslieEastland/Facebook)
The case raises broader legal questions about whether regulatory non-enforcement can amount to a constitutional violation and how qualified immunity protections may apply.
Fox News Digital reached out to the Texas Department of State Health Services and an attorney for the families, but neither immediately responded.
In the wake of the disaster, Texas lawmakers passed new legislation requiring camps to specify evacuation destinations, post evacuation routes inside cabins and ensure those routes are illuminated at night.
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