Camp Mystic is being sued following a deadly flood that killed multiple people in Texas. Families have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the camp, alleging negligence. In total, families of seven campers and camp counselors filed the suit.
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Located in Hunt, Texas, Camp Mystic was at the center of a deadly flood. The lawsuit claims the camp ignored the risks of flood and also safety rules.
The families of Anna Margaret Bellows, Lila Bonner, Chloe Childress, Molly DeWitt, Katherine Ferruzzo, Lainey Landry and Blakely McCrory filed suit against the camp. All the girls died in the resulting flood.
“Today, campers Margaret, Lila, Molly, Lainey, and Blakely should be third graders, and counselors Chloe and Katherine should be freshmen at the University of Texas. They all are gone,” the lawsuit states.
“These young girls died because a for-profit camp put profit over safety,” the filing says. “The Camp chose to house young girls in cabins sitting in flood-prone areas, despite the risk, to avoid the cost of relocating the cabins. The Camp chose not to make plans to safely evacuate its campers and counselors from those cabins, despite state rules requiring evacuation plans, and not to spend time and money on safety training and tools.”
Camp Mystic Lawsuit
The lawsuit claims Camp Mystic “chose to house young girls in flood-prone areas to avoid the cost of relocating cabins.” It also claims the camp failed to have an evacuation plan in case of a flood.
“Just such a tragedy hit our State on July 4, 2025,” the lawsuit reads. “When 25 campers and two counselors needlessly and tragically died in the floodwaters at Camp Mystic.”
According to the lawsuit, Camp Mystic’s then-director Richard Eastland told the Austin-American Statesman in 1990, “I’m sure there will be other drownings. People don’t heed the warnings.”
The Guadalupe River swelled in Texas causing deadly floods. However, the lawsuit claims the camp ignored weather alerts as well as concerns from staff members prior to the flood. Counselors allegedly wanted to evacuate the low-lying cabins. However, leadership allegedly declined the evacuation plans.
“These terrifying last moments and then deaths were proximately caused by the negligence and gross negligence of Defendants,” the filing says.
“Defendants knew that camp facilities were located in a flood zone, knew of the history of flash flooding in Kerr County, knew of repeated prior flood events at the Camp, and received warnings from family members about flood risk.”