Judge grants partial injunction against Camp Mystic, blocks office use for Cypress Lake reopening

(Editor’s note: This story is updated to correct that the judge is Maya Guerra Gamble.)

A Travis County district judge granted a temporary injunction Tuesday against Camp Mystic, ordering the preservation of specific cabins where campers died in the July 4, 2025 flood and barring any use of the Guadalupe River campus — including running administrative operations for the camp’s planned Cypress Lake summer reopening.

Judge Maya Guerra Gamble of the 459th Judicial District issued the ruling after a day-long hearing in the Steward family’s wrongful death lawsuit. Her order took effect immediately, she said, even as attorneys work on final written language.

The injunction bars defendants from altering, demolishing, repairing, remodeling, reconstructing, or removing any structure or physical feature of seven specific cabins where minor campers were housed the night of the flood: Twins 1, Twins 2, Bubble Inn, Bug House, Look Inn, Hangout, and Jumble House.

Guerra Gamble also enjoined any modification of the main office building, the rec hall, and the commissary — including a newly constructed exterior staircase on the commissary — requiring that existing water lines, communication systems, and structural elevations remain in place for forensic inspection. She added that those spaces cannot be used until further order of the court.

The order further prohibits reshaping the topography or using heavy machinery to modify terrain surrounding the Twins 1, Twins 2, and Bubble Inn cabin clusters, or altering any access routes from those cabins to higher ground.

In a significant practical consequence for the camp’s reopening plans, Mangrum ruled that Camp Mystic cannot use the Guadalupe River main office to support operations at its Cypress Lake facility. Camp director Edward Eastland had testified that the office would be needed for overflow administrative space as the camp expands Cypress Lake sessions to accommodate former Guadalupe River campers.

“My injunction does include not using the Guadalupe campsite for any purpose until further order of the court,” Guerra Gamble said. “So that means if you currently use the main office to run the Cypress site, you’re going to have to move those people out.”

She declined to restrict the camp’s commercial operations more broadly, calling that language in the proposed order “a little bit broad.”

Guerra Gamble directed attorneys to draft a physical separation plan between the Guadalupe River campus and the Cypress Lake facility, and said she wants the final order to include a map with a line clearly delineating the two portions of the property. She said the order would specify who may access the Guadalupe site and for what purposes.

The judge signaled she intends to move the case aggressively. She said she plans to convene the parties across the multiple Camp Mystic cases filed in Travis County to develop a coordinated discovery plan — one that balances plaintiffs’ evidentiary needs against the property rights of the Eastland family.

“We are not going to have discovery go on for years and years and years in this case or any of the other Camp Mystic cases filed in Travis County,” Mangrum said. “We are going to move as efficiently as justice allows.”

The hearing featured extended argument from Camp Mystic attorney Mikal Watts, who contended the July 4 flood was an unprecedented event no warning system could have anticipated, and cross-examination of Edward Eastland by plaintiffs’ attorney Bradley Beckworth of Nix Patterson. Eastland acknowledged under oath that he could not confirm the existence of a written flood evacuation plan and that no one was monitoring the camp’s security camera feeds the night of the flood.

The case is Steward v. Camp Mystic LLC et al., Cause No. D-1-GN-26-000758, in the 200th Judicial District Court of Travis County.