A year ago, a deadly flood took over Camp Mystic, a Christian youth camp in Central Texas, on July 4, 2025. Over 28 people died in the flood, 25 of whom were campers who were children. Many of the families who lost their children to the tragedy have filed several lawsuits against Camp Mystic, and the camp isn’t reopening for summer 2026.
One of the reasons it’s not opening is because of the lack of safety measures and staff training that let the flood take so many lives. The fathers of Camp Mystic flood victims have now opened up about the tragedy and spoken about safety measures that should have been taken.
The fathers of the Camp Mystic tragedy victims call for stronger camp safety measures
Camp Mystic sits in the Texas Hill Country, a region that is prone to flooding due to its steep terrain and incredibly thin soil layers that cannot absorb water. The camp had an emergency plan, as required by Texas law, but there is no evidence that campers or staff were trained to handle a flood or other disasters.
Camp Mystic was also not accredited by the American Camp Association, which recommends disaster training. By 2025, several camp buildings were located in a high-risk flood zone, raising questions about whether enough safety measures were in place. While these don’t prove negligence, they highly suggest it.
The Camp Mystic flood took place on July 4, 2025, when record-breaking torrential rains caused the Guadalupe River to rise over 37 feet. Despite getting a flood warning at 1:14 am, Dick Eastland, the camp’s director, did not begin evacuation until around 2:30 am. That one hour delay and the lack of trained staff took the lives of 28 people. So far, only one body has been recovered.
A year after the Camp Mystic tragedy, Ryan DeWitt and Matthew Childress, the fathers who both lost their daughters in the flood, spoke to CBS News about their tragic loss and addressed safety measures that should be the standard at summer camps. Matthew Childress stated that after the incident, their only goal has been to find out what exactly happened before the flood, when the flood took over, and its immediate aftermath.
Matthew Childress then expressed his pain, saying,
“The pain associated with losing a child is indescribable.”
He then went on to add that as parents of the victims of the Camp Mystic tragedy, they are working hard to ensure that no other parent goes through the same tragedy. Both fathers stated that they are grateful for how well private investigation has revealed everything that happened and that the truth is finally out.
However, the work is far from over. DeWitt and Childress are two of the many parents who have been working tirelessly to ensure that camps across multiple states in the USA have proper safety measures in place. They also hope to someday make the changes effective nationwide. When asked about what value they think their work has brought in, Childress said,
“I think first and foremost the parents know the questions to ask. It’s about education. We’ve now been able to educate parents on the questions they need to ask of those camps. What policies, procedures, plans they have in place. That’s part of the one of the things that we continue to blame ourselves from a guilt perspective is we didn’t ask those questions. I didn’t know that I needed to ask those questions.”
DeWitt added,
“It took something like this for people to take a hard look at this industry. And make no mistake, we think camp is a great place for kids. It takes them away from their screens, takes them away from technology, it gets them out of their normal routine.”
He continued,
“Um, but let’s make sure that we’re taking them out of their normal routine into a place where they’re safe and where the staff understands safety, understands emergency evacuation, understands the weight of taking someone else’s child and being responsible for their well-being.”
They also stated that they hope their work towards ensuring proper safety for children in camps never ends. It is not that they want to clutch on to their grief forever, but the fathers hope that parents look into every existing system children are exposed to and make sure they are safe. According to them, the work is only beginning, and they hope to bring in more awareness and changes.
DeWitt and Childress ended the conversation expressing gratitude regarding the fact that the only reason the investigation came so far is because all the families of the Camp Mystic victims came together to fight for justice. They have all formed a family-like group now, unfortunately tied together by the same tragedy, but they are people who understand each other very well.
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Edited by Riddhee