MIKAL WATTS: Camp Mystic failed no one. My mission is to prove this

By profession, I am a plaintiff’s lawyer. So when the July 4 floods killed 119 people in my home county – Kerr County – I began investigating, seeking fault I could use in bringing lawsuits for the victims. But an important impediment quickly became obvious to me – the facts of what actually happened. Because facts matter, I have now agreed to defend pro bono Camp Mystic and its owners, the Eastland family, in the lawsuits that soon will be coming their way.

I extend my heartfelt condolences to all of the grieving families who lost loved ones to the horrific torrent early that morning. I supported – as did the Eastland family – the tireless efforts of the Senate Select Committee on Disaster Preparedness and Flooding and the work of its members to learn what happened in order to fashion better laws to prevent it from happening again. I know because I was there and testified to the committee, and I learned in real time along with the members of that committee exactly what happened and why.

We learned that floods have happened – in 1932, in 1978, in 1987 and in 2025 – and that they will happen again. We cannot prevent hurricanes from stalling after landfall and depositing massive quantities of rain. It is a meteorological certainty that storms will bring floods again.

We learned that Hays County commissioners sought and obtained funding for flood detection devices since installed above where the Blanco River flooded in 2015. Kerr County commissioners also took note, identifying a similar flooding risk along State Highway 39 running along the Guadalupe River between Hunt, Texas, and Camp Mystic. They sought and obtained bids to install early-warning flood detection devices and an automated siren system. They sought grants to pay for the system’s $5 million cost, but saw that request rejected by the state of Texas.

We learned that the flood detection devices presently used were insufficient in number, and that those flood detection devices rely on 1950s technology that detects only river elevation, rather than presently available devices that also detect water velocity and so more accurately predict when a flash flood is coming.

We learned that the devices actually installed were put in the wrong locations – they were downstream in the Guadalupe River, rather than upstream as well, in the large creeks feeding into the river. A flash flood warning sent at 1:14 a.m. simply was not enough for Camp Mystic to act in time.

We learned that existing flood meters were rendered practically useless by human error because they were not linked to an automated siren warning system. The system did send a signal to employees of the National Weather Service. However, Kerr County officials testified that they were not aware of the warnings until later in the morning of July 4.

We learned that though cell phone alerts are an excellent add-on to sirens, they are not a substitute for them. This is because rivers run through valleys they have carved over time, valleys that swallow otherwise available cell signals. Anyone who has ever driven the road adjacent to the Guadalupe River between Hunt and Camp Mystic learns quickly that there is no available cell service. With no cell coverage, there is no warning – unless we also have sirens.

Had such a system been installed, using technology that has been available now for decades, those at Camp Mystic would have heard a warning siren long before the flood ever reached the camp. People at riverfront properties – including the 119 who died – would have been given the audible warning they needed with plenty of time to evacuate to higher ground long before the raging waters arrived.

The Eastlands have sent a letter to the members of the newly formed Senate and House General Investigating Committees on the July 2025 Flooding Events inviting them to tour Camp Mystic in person. In addition, tours for the families have occurred and continue to occur. When they do come, they learn what our investigation has revealed.

First, no cabins were located within FEMA’s 100-year floodplain. Though some Camp Mystic buildings had been included in the 2011 flood-plain map, those maps were corrected and amended in 2013 through a process known as a Letter of Map Amendment to recognize that finished floor elevations of those buildings are above the 100-year base flood elevation.

The cabins where the campers and counselors perished were more than 8.5 feet above the elevation of FEMA’s 100-year flood plain, yet the surge left a water mark eight feet above the floor of their cabins.

Second, the water level was unprecedented. We know the water levels reached during the 1932 flood, the 1978 flood and the 1987 flood. Those levels were nowhere close to the water levels experienced on July 4, 2025. Several local officials have called it “a thousand-year flood event.”

Third, no girls were left in cabins located down near the river. In truth, a multitude of girls were successfully evacuated from cabins much closer to the river than the cabins where those lost were staying — all of them above FEMA’s 100-year flood plain.

Fourth, Dick Eastland and his son Edward successfully evacuated scores of girls to higher ground, starting with the most vulnerable locations closest to the river and working their way up in elevation. After saving most of the girls, the Eastlands turned to three cabins farther up from the river, one called Bubble Inn and two connected cabins called Twins One and Twins Two.

Dick Eastland was trying to save girls by evacuating them from Bubble Inn when his Chevy Tahoe was swept away. Edward Eastland traversed waist-deep currents to help the girls in Twins One and Twins Two. In rising chest-high water, he too was swept away. These waters were high enough and moving fast enough to carry away a sport-utility vehicle and a full-grown adult. Had these young girls been told to run for it in the midst of a dark maelstrom, instead of being evacuated by the Eastlands, many more lives might have been lost that morning.

The Eastlands stand ready to work with investigators to make sure the causes of the Camp Mystic tragedy are known and to make sure that future campers and counselors will be safe. Owners of camps across Kerr County and across Texas are doing the same.

Investigations lead to facts. Facts lead to cause, and the facts here demonstrate that this is one of those occasions where no one is to blame. As U.S. Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan once said, “You are entitled to your own opinion, but you are not entitled to your own set of facts.” Because the facts here demonstrate that neither the Eastlands nor their faithful employees at Camp Mystic caused campers’ deaths, I am ready to work for free to help them get this truth out for all to see.

Mikal Watts is a plaintiff’s lawyer who lives in Mountain Home. He is defending Camp Mystic pro bono.