Camp Mystic passed state inspection two days before deadly flood

[struggle4progress]

by: Josh Hinkle, David Barer, Kelly Wiley, Arezow Doost
Posted: Jul 8, 2025 / 03:17 PM CDT
Updated: Jul 8, 2025 / 05:41 PM CDT

... Among the questions swirling is the level of readiness at the camp for such an event. While experts have said this specific weather pattern would have been difficult to forecast fully, newly-obtained Department of State Health Services inspection records indicate the camp was following guidelines and rules for safety and awareness – including having an emergency plan in place.

According to DSHS, youth camps are required to maintain such plans. An agency spokesperson told KXAN it does not maintain copies of those plans, but camps are required to post plans clearly in every building. Written plans are required to include disasters including flooding, and procedures for emergency shelter and for evacuation of each occupied building.

“DSHS reviews the camp’s emergency plans onsite during their annual inspection for the correct elements listed in the Texas Administrative Code,” the DSHS spokesperson added ...

DSHS also checked if the camp had required emergency plans, including written plans in case of a disaster posted at the camp’s administrative office or location. The camp was also required to notify staff and volunteers of the emergency plan and document training. All those items were answered “yes” each year and received DSHS approval, according to the last three years of reports ...

https://www.kxan.com/investigations/camp-mystic-passed-state-inspection-two-days-before-deadly-flood/

Safe? Winky wink. Noddy nod. Say no more. Say no more

[Prairie Gates]

1. Sounds like a half-assed state inspection

[BigMin28]

3. A Texas inspection

The state recently did away with auto safety inspections, with the exception of an emissions test for the more populous counties. They trust everyone to make sure their vehicle is in proper working order.

[dem4decades]

2. You can have an evacuation plan, but you need a system in place to activate it in a timely fashion.

Again, this flood was a monster, but given the forecast, perhaps an error on the side of safety should have been the plan. With the Governor trashing anyone with questions, I wonder if a real in-depth investigation will be done.

[NH Ethylene]

4. No plan they may have had in place could have saved them.

The only thing that could have prevented this tragedy is if they had word of the water rising in time to enact any such plans.

Local authorities should have contacted all these camps and ordered them to be evacuated when it became clear - in the middle of the night when everyone was sleeping! - that there was a high flood danger. And that's if they even knew in time themselves.

Perhaps the one thing we can blame with certainty is the refusal of lawmakers in Texas to invest in flood sensors that could have provided early warning.

[struggle4progress]

6. summer camp near Mystic had 'no warning' about rising waters but were able to safely evacuate

https://nypost.com/2025/07/08/us-news/mo-ranch-summer-camp-safely-evacuated-70-staying-along-river-ahead-of-deadly-flooding/

[NH Ethylene]

10. I read somewhere that he woke up at 1 am and saw the water rising.

It sounded just lucky to me.

That article makes it sound like there was no info to or from local authorities. I guess we'll find out more as time goes on.

[EdmondDantes_]

5. There's a lot of ways this could be interpreted

The first is that while there may have been a plan that met the requirements, if the camp counselors weren't trained on it, the plan is useless. And then if the kids weren't trained on it, that's another source of disruption.

Secondly the emergency happened in the middle of the night, being woken in the middle of the night makes it hard to be functioning optimally.

Third the standards might just not be sufficient, Texas isn't big on regulations. So the plan might have passed, but not been enough due to the requirements being too low. Or the requirements were written for the expected flooding 20 years ago and climate change has caused worse disasters than anticipated.

Fourth the warnings may have come to late to matter. It's hard to outrun rushing water, and then if you're in the water, it's strong enough to knock houses off foundations, that's a lot of power to resist.

And even if the plan was good, everyone was trained on it, the warning came in time, there's still the "everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face" factor. It's really easy to say what you'd do in an emergency, but in the moment, without having been tested, sometimes you just crack under pressure. If you're responsible for a bunch of kids and you see one get swept off, you should let that kid go to save the rest but that goes against our instincts.

[Renew Deal]

8. All true

One more factor is that the plans might not have been designed for THIS emergency.

[Renew Deal]

7. I don't see anything saying or proving they didn't have the plans

So I don't know what the point of your wink and nod act is.

[stopdiggin]

9. I'm with you here. Sad to see that some of our number seem to be

more than comfortable with the (speculative?) finger wagging, and piling on ... So much for not 'exploiting' tragedy. Eh?