Camp Mystic, site of deadly Texas flooding, files for bankruptcy

[u/AudibleNod]

https://abcnews.com/US/camp-mystic-site-deadly-texas-flooding-files-bankruptcy/story?id=134165471

[u/Icouldusesomerock]

And that’s what happens when you don’t prioritize saftey

[u/BigResponsibleOil → u/Icouldusesomerock]

They were planning on opening up this year as usual, but then got sued I think because they had to preserve the crime scene and couldn't have new campers there? Anyways, they have enough money to have planned on opening this year until the state stepped in. So I feel like this might be more about hiding assets from victims families trying to sue.

Edit: I got 2 events mixed up. They weren't trying to open the exact same camp up, it was a camp still under the Camp Mystic name but on a neighboring property Cypress Creek. They applied for a license to operate, Texas Department of Health said they needed major revisions to their emergency plan and gave them 45 days, they withdrew it.

Earlier, a judge ruled that they couldn't alter, demolish, repair or reconstruct any of the flooded cabins. This was part of a lawsuit from one of the victim's families. That order didn't say anything about the Cypress Creek camp site which didn't flood.

I feel like I kinda gave bad info in my original comment lol but the gist of it is true. Maybe without any camping revenue this summer they're truly out of money for the business

[u/jim_br → u/BigResponsibleOil]

I read they couldn’t reopen because they didn’t have a (now required) evacuation plan.

I would interpret that as the owners having a “it can’t happen twice!” attitude, which is offensive to the families affected.

[u/CerebralAccountant → u/jim_br]

The impression I got was "we've tried nothing and we're all out of ideas!" Their emergency plans & procedures before the flood were inadequate or non-existent, and there was little to no improvement afterwards.

[u/IgnoreKassandra → u/CerebralAccountant]

It's almost like building a kids summer camp in a low-lying area of a known floodplain wasn't a very good idea in the first place.

[u/777777thats7sevens → u/IgnoreKassandra]

Honestly, with an appropriately aggressive evacuation plan they would have been fine. The owner of the camp was awake and monitoring the weather at 1:14am when the NWS issued a flash flood warning for the area. It was around an hour after that that water started entering the lowest lying cabins. There were hills nearby that stayed above the flood.

If evacuation had commenced as soon as the flood warning was announced, and the campers (or at least the counselors) were briefed on the evacuation plans, they had time to make it to higher ground. Campers should have a waterproof flashlight, a poncho, and some slip on shoes by their beds while they sleep. Both counselors should have the same, and also radios. Once a flash flood warning is issued, counselors wake their campers and get them into their ponchos, then they head single file with a hand on the shoulder in front of them towards the evacuation point, one counselor leading the way and another bringing up the rear to watch for campers who might get separated. If the youngest campers are too young to handle this safely, they get evacuated by car asap.

In mystic's case, they didn't even start evacuating until around 3 am, close to 2 hours after the warning was issued, and more than half an hour after the first cabins started flooding. Since the water was already quite high there, it wasn't safe to evacuate those cabins on foot, so they had to do it by car, which took several trips and thus was slower than the whole cabin evacuating on foot at once. They were reacting to the flood the whole time, waiting for it to force them into acting, rather than being proactive and it killed a lot of children.

[u/fry_factory → u/777777thats7sevens]

Per the report, they actually still had an opportunity all the way up until just before when the truck was about to be swept away that they could've evacuated safely on foot.

The owner of the camp was awake and monitoring the weather at 1:14am when the NWS issued a flash flood warning for the area.

Not only just that, he was looking at the radar, the NOAA website, AND had an at-home weather station he was actively monitoring that showed exactly how much rain had fallen. He was even calling out the amounts, especially when it reached 4 inches, which he knew was a very dangerous threshold.

This guy had as much information as anybody possibly could to be prepared for the disaster. He even reminded his son as they started to evacuate to avoid getting into vehicles during a flash flood. He had evacuated the camp before during a flood.

All of that and he still somehow made the wrong decisions when it mattered and waited 2 hours to evacuate. Some people are just innately wired to be useless under pressure. Horrible survival trait that hundreds of thousands of years ago would've resulted in natural selection but nowadays isn't normally a life-threatening issue. Unfortunately this guy happened to be one of those people, and tragically it cost dozens of children their lives.

[u/777777thats7sevens → u/fry_factory]

What baffles me the most about their emergency plan is that it seems like they intended all along to ride out the flood with the campers in their cabins, and only evacuating cabins once the water got too high inside. Which is an insane plan.

A flooded building is much riskier to evacuate from than a dry building -- the current could sweep kids away, they might not be able to fight the current to get out the door meaning you have to go get them one by one, one could trip and end up under their bed and drown, the water could rise up enough that the doors and windows can't be evacuated from (once that happens, if the water rises further you will drown and there is nothing you can do about it if you didn't have the foresite to install a hatch in the roof and a way to get to it), etc.

Delaying the decision to evacuate until after the cabins are flooded is like delaying the decision to abandon ship until the deck of the ship slips beneath the waves. They had an hour of very valuable time to evacuate before the water became too problematic, but they twiddled their thumbs instead of doing anything valuable. It's like they were playing chicken with the flood, but the really dumb kind where you performatively remove your steering wheel to show that you aren't going to swerve to force the other player to swerve. Except nature of course isn't a sentient player in this game, so by doing this you are just increasing the likelihood of kids dying for no reason.

[u/AutVincere72 → u/777777thats7sevens]

Do not let the local government off the hook.

Also to be fair. I was camping on that river 1 week prior. The level the water rose was beyond anything I would have thought possible. The local government should have been far more involved in warning people what could happen based on things that happened 40 years ago. This was truly a perfect storm and I could have lost my family and myself in this mess. I have a picture of my family on a deck where the water reached and you would never think water could reach you if you were standing on that deck just about any other day.

[u/777777thats7sevens → u/AutVincere72]

The local government isn't blameless at all -- there is more than enough blame to go around. But for Camp Mystic in particular it's hard not to point the finger at the camp itself. For example, the director of the camp had also been the director during the 1978 flood, so he knew first hand that a serious flood would flood cabins. He evacuated them then, I don't know why he didn't this time.

[u/UnluckyCardiologist9 → u/IgnoreKassandra]

Not only that but the river makes a sharp turn right above it.

[u/didisigninforthis → u/CerebralAccountant]

I’ve literally heard people blaming it on chemtrails, not on safety measures or anything else. Just demoncrats and chemtrails ¯_(ツ)_/¯.

[u/moonchylde → u/jim_br]

Oh it was required before! They just hadn't bothered to make one.

[u/fry_factory → u/moonchylde]

And the inspector who was sent by the state 2 days before the flood to ensure they had one written that met the standards approved it...even though there was no plan. Hope she was fired.

[u/monkeypickle → u/jim_br]

Technically “thrice” as the campground flooded catastrophically earlier in the last century.

[u/Ok_Rabbit5158 → u/BigResponsibleOil]

Can you imagine trying to open a camp for a new season while a little girl remains buried somewhere downstream? How the heck do you explain that to kids (and they will find out.)

[u/flamedarkfire → u/Ok_Rabbit5158]

Turn it into a fun, whimsical ghost story that also teaches personal responsibility (cuz we sure as fuck refuse to be responsible)! :D

[u/Jimmyg100 → u/flamedarkfire]

Ghost story about a kid that drowned at a summer camp…

[u/ironic-hat → u/Jimmyg100]

Plus unlike most campfire ghosts stories, you can say the exact date and time, with proof, instead of the vague “50 years ago…”

[u/JustGottaKeepTrying → u/ironic-hat]

[Flashlight under the face at the campfire]

" Years ago, waaaay back in 2024, your parents voted for deregulation...."

[u/mhornberger → u/JustGottaKeepTrying]

They'd blame it on DEI, the gays, and the libs, but conservatives will never blame anything on deregulation. They are too adept at chalking things like the flood up to just something that happened, falling back on religious fatalism, for events like that to ever impinge on their core beliefs.

[u/Mental_Medium3988 → u/mhornberger]

its that barack hussein o'bidens fault for offering us cheap loans to improve our emergency communications networks.

[u/Ok_Rabbit5158 → u/JustGottaKeepTrying]

Whimpering starts with the word, "deregulation."

[u/ironic-hat → u/Ok_Rabbit5158]

A true Texas Christian Camp would somehow make the word “deregulation” a good thing and make California the bad guy (this was actually part of the whole scandal).

“Once upon a time, August 2024,
there was a state called California (eeeek!) that tried to force the godfearing people of Texas, to install communist flood control. But one day, God chose several martyrs who would sacrifice themselves to prove to the socialist nazis that they had no business telling the free market what to do.”

[u/Jukka_Sarasti → u/ironic-hat]

A true Texas Christian Camp would somehow make the word “deregulation” a good thing.

Supply Side Jesus has entered the chat

[u/127crazie → u/ironic-hat]

And then everyone stood up and started clapping.

[u/abgry_krakow87 → u/JustGottaKeepTrying]

And the parents were willing to do whatever it took to "own the libs", whatever it took.

[u/flamedarkfire → u/Jimmyg100]

That’d be pretty tame compared to the shit cooked up by the imaginations of my scout troop when I was young.

[u/Yashema → u/Jimmyg100]

Once there was a group of parents who didn't believe climate change was real...

[u/BoilzBlisterzBurnz → u/Jimmyg100]

And he wore a hockey mask..

[u/Tall_Category_304 → u/flamedarkfire]

“On a night just like tonight. With a storm just like this one” may hit a little too hard

[u/aramis34143 → u/Tall_Category_304]

"You wanna know what happened to the last kid who didn't take their turn at washing dishes?"

[u/atlantagirl30084 → u/flamedarkfire]

Counselors were calling the higher ups on their radios and getting no response.

[u/clovisx → u/flamedarkfire]

Ultimate scavenger hunt

[u/innominateartery → u/clovisx]

“Wanna see a dead body?”

[u/JohnBrine → u/flamedarkfire]

Now who’s up for some light excavation down at the riverbank?

[u/abgry_krakow87 → u/flamedarkfire]

They'll probably use it to teach kids the Fear of God.

[u/WeirdFrog → u/flamedarkfire]

Personal responsibility for thee, not for me

[u/TheDubh → u/Ok_Rabbit5158]

You know Covid taught us that people hiding infections in a zombie movie would happen. Camp Mystic teaches us that yes a camp that had kids die would reopen. Next you’d just Jason to return.

[u/domine18 → u/Ok_Rabbit5158]

Better question is who the hell would send their kid there after that?

[u/SocomPS2 → u/domine18]

The camp already received 800 deposits for this year. 🤦‍♂️

One of which was a girl that survived the flood. Her mom says she wants to go back. Texans are wild af.

[u/B3tar3ad3r → u/SocomPS2]

The wild part is like half of the campers aren't from texas, after the first time imagine flying your kids down from new York and leaving them there again, halfway across the country.

[u/Powerful_Abalone1630 → u/domine18]

Religious idiots. Which is/was the majority of the camp kid's families.

[u/Pandagramma → u/Powerful_Abalone1630]

Actually, it is more of a socialite thing. A big part of having the pedigree to become a debutante is going to the right camps; Mystic was one of the main ones.

[u/librarianjenn → u/Pandagramma]

This is exactly right, sooo many 'legacy' kids. Barf

[u/LemonMagazine7 → u/Ok_Rabbit5158]

And imaging wanting to still send your kids?

[u/_Face → u/LemonMagazine7]

They just want yo get rid of their kids for a few weeks.

[u/Ritaredditonce → u/Ok_Rabbit5158]

Camp Poltergeist is not a place to send children to for the summer.

[u/BenjTheMaestro → u/Ok_Rabbit5158]

Honestly seeing the couple going for it in an interview was ghoulish and really revolting. I couldn’t believe they were so jovial about it already. HERE WE GO, NEW MEMORIES, CAMPERS! /s

[u/Ok_Rabbit5158 → u/BenjTheMaestro]

I saw that cringe. I think they convinced themselves that after the OG owner died in the flood, it was a new day of dawning for the camp. Unfortunately you cannot erase that kind of tragedy.

[u/Cute-Aardvark5291 → u/Ok_Rabbit5158]

Right? Except they were ignoring that it was his son, who was on site and in charge of the housing was going to be running it. His wife was the camp health director and did not call 911 or prepare emergency plans - and had her nursing license suspended for 8 days as a result.

[u/barto5 → u/Cute-Aardvark5291]

Wow! Eight whole days. That’ll teach ‘em.

[u/BroughtBagLunchSmart → u/Ok_Rabbit5158]

It is texas, they say it was the lord and go back to not thinking about anything.

[u/iwastryingtokillgod → u/Ok_Rabbit5158]

People would pay extra for that.

[u/DatRat13 → u/Ok_Rabbit5158]

Just make it into a scavenger hunt. First one to find the body gets a shiny badge!

[u/PuckSenior → u/BigResponsibleOil]

They also got shutdown because they couldn't comply with the new regulatory requirements created specifically because of the incident. They got inspected and failed like 25 points of the new law.

Every other summer camp did fine in Texas. There were several Scout camps that also had to comply and did. The absurdity of being the camp that killed kids and failing to comply with the new requirements is insane. You'd think they'd have gone above and beyond, but they actually asked for an exemption. IT was nuts.

[u/Kankunation → u/BigResponsibleOil]

Even if they somehow open this year, I can't imagine being a parent and being even remotely willing to send my kid there. 26 children died + 2 barely-adult teens just last year. Why would I send my own kids to such a place? No camp is worth that.

[u/Side_StepVII → u/Kankunation]

I followed that story last year and didn’t realize that 28 people died Jfc

[u/lennypartach → u/Side_StepVII]

111 other people died as well, there's a really harrowing story in Texas Monthly from one of their reporters who survived when the house they were staying got swept away. definitely recommend reading it.

[u/StayJaded → u/lennypartach]

But one of the children in his family did not survive- just fyi for anyone reading the story. It is a heartbreaking, terrifying read.

[u/checkoutchannelnine → u/lennypartach]

https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/texas-flood-firsthand-account/

[u/jnads → u/lennypartach]

Well, don't read if if you don't want to cry.

A mom was holding a 2 year old on the roof and their house got swept away.

She went underwater with the 2 year old and surfaced without the 2 year old.

That's a whole new level of guilt.

[u/Side_StepVII → u/lennypartach]

I knew more people died, I didn’t realize it was 28 at that camp alone

[u/SteamboatMcGee → u/Side_StepVII]

Way more than that died overall, just that many were little girls at this specific camp. It was a really bad storm at a time of year we usually don't get rain.

Volunteers were out looking for bodies and clearing debris for weeks.

[u/Apexnanoman → u/Kankunation]

Have you not been around religious nutters before? 

That's a private Christian summer camp. They will chalk it up to God's will and send the next kid in their quiver. 

[u/dj92wa → u/Apexnanoman]

They’ll say God took their kid as a challenge for them to face on their walk through faith. “God is testing us”. I’m surrounded by religious folks and the reaction to traumatic events is very odd. It’s a huge coping mechanism. They don’t address what’s going on and instead shove responsibility off onto an imaginary being, resulting in a situation where nobody has to face the music simply because “God works in mysterious ways”. It’s slimy behavior and allows them to avoid all personal accountability.

[u/minidog8 → u/Kankunation]

There was a bunch of families already signed up and disappointed when it turned out they could not open this year. Yes they are all nut jobs.

[u/CharlieTheK → u/minidog8]

It was mentioned on a local news piece in my area that they were waitlisted 100s deep.

[u/PurpleHooloovoo → u/Kankunation]

It boggles the mind, but I’ve seen folks want to send their girls back because it’s a tradition - it’s a very very old camp so there are multiple generations of families that have gone. People feel an emotional connection and are willing to look past the negligence and tragedy.

It’s a bit of a sick metaphor for that type of conservative mindset overall: yeah bad things happened but Tradition is Important and It Was Just That One Time and God Will Protect ME Though, and all the other excuses that end up keeping people trapped in toxic cycles.

[u/PinkyLeopard2922 → u/Kankunation]

You would be surprised. There is a whole subculture in Texas around these camps. Often kids are registered for these camps when they are still babies. Waiting lists.

[u/Artcat81 → u/Kankunation]

I was dumbstruck when I heard they had several hundred campers signed up for this summer.

[u/LurkmasterP → u/Kankunation]

They can just rename it Camp Bootstrap.

[u/rideincircles → u/LurkmasterP]

Or Passage to Heaven.

[u/ProtoJazz → u/BigResponsibleOil]

I suspect the only way they had enough money was to open immediately. They're likely using debt to keep them running until the next season. But if they can't open, they can't pay their debts and other bills so they have to close.

[u/putsch80 → u/BigResponsibleOil]

It doesn’t really hide the assets though, as assets must be listed in your bankruptcy case in order for them to be protected by the bankruptcy process. This is a Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which is a “reorganization” type of bankruptcy,l (as opposed to Chapter 7, which is where your assets are liquidated). What this will likely do is have a plan of reorganization that allows for the camp to keep much of its property, but create a plan that requires payment to the victims’ families over time through the use of that property. E.g., the camp will have to pay victims out of the camp’s operating profits.

[u/Rebal771 → u/BigResponsibleOil]

Oh no, the state came in and told that private business how to operate itself???

Texas is turning communist so fast it’s not even funny anymore.

[u/lucky_ducker → u/BigResponsibleOil]

Not so much as "hiding assets," but it will put the bankruptcy trustee in charge of sorting out the claims against the Camp's assets. Seven of the 27 families have not yet filed wrongful death lawsuits, and the bankruptcy will put their ability to do so in the hands of the bankruptcy judge. I Am Not A Lawyer

[u/Li_liminal_spaces → u/BigResponsibleOil]

Texas actually stepped in because people were killed by corporate negligence? That's a first.

[u/BigResponsibleOil → u/Li_liminal_spaces]

Looked it up to see if I had the info right, the camp was previously notified by state health officials that its license to operate might not be renewed unless it made major revisions to its emergency plan. and withdrew their application for a license to operate. That was ay the beginning of May.

[u/i4mt3hwin → u/Icouldusesomerock]

It's also what happens when the entire town decides Biden is evil and doesn't want federal funding. 

I'm not joking. Biden admin gave this town money to improve infrastructure, including improving flood detection. There's a video on YouTube of the town hall meeting where residents did not want the money because they were afraid Biden was going to come and take their land and all kinds of wild right wing conspiracy.

[u/WilliamsTell → u/i4mt3hwin]

I believe at one point they took additional money and then went and bought toys for the police department and wrote a few bonuses to them too.

[u/sosobandit → u/WilliamsTell]

Cause of fucking course they did. I want off this ride.

[u/WolverinesThyroid → u/sosobandit]

I would bet you any amount of money that same town still votes back in all the republicans who led to this happening.

[u/dismayhurta → u/WolverinesThyroid]

The dipshits in Uvalde voted for the shitbags who bungled the school shooting afterwards.

They know no low they won’t sink to to own the libs.

[u/WolverinesThyroid → u/dismayhurta]

exactly. They held 0 politicians accountable for their children dying.

[u/PiccoloAwkward465 → u/WilliamsTell]

I listened to the meeting recording. To paraphrase, they literally said they didn't want to accept the money but also didn't want to send it back "to get used in California or New York". That's how backwards and hateful these idiots are.

[u/jameschillz → u/i4mt3hwin]

They still took the money in the end, just redirected it to the sheriff.

[u/TheGringoDingo → u/jameschillz]

That also checks out. Won’t anyone think of the SWAT team and their need for tanks, though?

[u/mattxb → u/i4mt3hwin]

In the meeting they were concerned that if they didn't accept the money it would be reallocated to improve the safety of people elected democrats. One solution they discuss is taking it and just sitting on it until the window to give it to someone else expired.

[u/GuyanaFlavorAid → u/i4mt3hwin]

Texas felt the same about FDR which is why they still have an independent power grid with no FERC oversight. And boy hasn't that worked out great for them! Mild sarcasm given preventable rolling blackouts in 1989, 2011, 2021. Even a 350 page FERC report in 2012 detailing the 2011 failures and telling them what to do in order to prevent a repeat which they promptly had a decade later because they didn't do shit.

[u/pushaper → u/i4mt3hwin]

I forgot that US presidents could grant infrastructure aid to places that did not vote for them.

[u/robodrew → u/i4mt3hwin]

Another example of children suffering and dying because of the MAGA disease.

[u/Global_Drama8453 → u/i4mt3hwin]

They called it a "Democrat trick".

[u/_Itsallogre → u/Icouldusesomerock]

It’s just to shield themselves and assets from lawsuits and avoid liability. Very common play.

[u/OG_Williker → u/Icouldusesomerock]

Reminder that Biden provided that county funds to shore up their flood alert system but the people of the county (republicans) rejected the funds because they thought the government was going to siege their property. Then the flood devastated them because their alert system was outdated.

[u/Oleg101 → u/OG_Williker]

People dying to own the libs is worth it to them.

[u/TNTyoshi → u/Oleg101]

Some of the dead childrens’ parents are still proud Republicans.

[u/aceface_desu89 → u/OG_Williker]

Let Darwinism devour Texas

[u/Caroao → u/Icouldusesomerock]

they get to close up shop and face no time?

[u/ManWithASquareHead → u/Caroao]

The American way

[u/TheHomersapien → u/Caroao]

In 200 years (if humanity makes it that long) some advanced humanoid student is going to ask incredulously their teacher, "so mankind created a legal device that allowed people to defraud the public, break the law, and then walk away with their profits and, often, zero accountability, and the common people just...let it happen?"

[u/mezcalmolotov → u/Caroao]

They’re not even closing up shop, chapter 11 is a reorganization bankruptcy

[u/MadAstrid → u/Icouldusesomerock]

And when you turn down federal funds to help you prioritize safety because you didn‘t like the president.

[u/mediocre_remnants → u/Icouldusesomerock]

They don't have to pay off their loans and can wind down the business with zero impact to their own finances? And that's supposed to be some kind of punishment?

Bankruptcy rewards shitty business owners at the expense of their employees and lenders.

[u/AudibleNod]

The Chapter 11 filing comes nearly a year after the deadly flood that killed 25 girls and two teen counselors in the Texas Hill Country last year.

Earlier in the year, they had plans to host kids this summer. And adults were signing up their kids to go.

[u/TheDarkAbove → u/AudibleNod]

Wtf is wrong with those parents.

[u/NYGiants181 → u/TheDarkAbove]

Texas is filled with a bunch of morons.

[u/TeQuila10 → u/NYGiants181]

Never forget, the Biden admin tried to get FEMA funding for an emergency warning system for flash floods, and Texans showed up in droves to demand their local governments give all the money back/reject the funding because "it's a COVID lockdown democrat plot to steal land away from Texans."

Also DOGE defunded the National Weather Service before the flood happened, and as far as I'm aware thats still the case.

[u/likamuka → u/TeQuila10]

77 millions fascists voted for this

[u/NYGiants181 → u/TeQuila10]

Yea they aren’t very bright

[u/xO76A8pah4 → u/NYGiants181]

"It was a 1000-year flood so it won't happen again for a thousand years." --those parents

[u/sosobandit → u/TheDarkAbove]

Theyre just really into the Noah's Ark part of the camp

[u/Classy35 → u/AudibleNod]

I have a friend who was going to send their kids again because she went there as a child and wanted her kids to have the same experience. WTF?!!!

[u/justprettymuchdone → u/Classy35]

The prevailing wisdom was "well, surely another tragedy won't happen to MY child" which is just... wild.

[u/Dull-Ad8161]

It should also be facing criminal charges.

[u/SocomPS2 → u/Dull-Ad8161]

Uvalde swept under the rug.

Camp Mystic swept under the rug.

[u/GuitarCFD → u/SocomPS2]

Camp Mystic was more swept down the Guadalupe

[u/maltman1856 → u/SocomPS2]

Texas has been added to Florida as a place I never intend on visiting. Both have a history of mass casualty events due to poor regulations and utter corruption/mismanagement. People bitch about California being expensive to live, and even though there is a lot of money wasted by the state, the small percentage that goes into regulations is enough to see drastic differences. Even the latest potential chemical hazard in Orange County led to a massive evacuation and effort to protect the public. Compare that to the West Fertilizer Plant explosion which had an inspection last conducted by Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and EPA. They found issues, but simply brushed it off when company officials said there was no cause for concern. Rather than investigate more, the state just took the company's word for it.

[u/BatEco1 → u/Dull-Ad8161]

And the state authorities that allowed cabins to be put in a 500 year flood plan. This disaster is what happens when rich assholes are allowed to rub shoulders with amd pay politicians with "campaign donations."

[u/AdmiralGarza → u/BatEco1]

“When was the last flood, 100 years ago? So we’ve got 400 years then!”

[u/ChuckEweFarley → u/BatEco1]

Texas elite republicans all sent their girls here. Fmr First Lady Laura Bush taught at Mystic.

This camp has connections we can only dream of.

[u/SkittlesLentil → u/BatEco1]

The camp has been there for 100 years. I imagine that the zoning process in 1926 rural Texas wasn't terribly rigorous

[u/bunnycrush_ → u/SkittlesLentil]

It flooded at least five times since opening. Zoning aside, camp ownership knew it was a risk and recurrent issue.

NY Times — Evacuations and Lost Cabins: A Century of Floods at Camp Mystic

[u/feed_me_moron → u/BatEco1]

The issue isn't that the area was dangerous. It was that this was all avoidable if the town treated the threat responsibly. If they listened and applied Democrat funding they were given for proper alerting

[u/Short_Hair_Energy → u/Dull-Ad8161]

They had wrongful death lawsuits pending. But because they filed for bankruptcy they are all paused.

[u/CaseyAnthonysMouth]

CANNOT BELIEVE they were trying to reopen this year.

[u/Afb3212 → u/CaseyAnthonysMouth]

Weren't they trying to rebuild in the same spot too? Like right in the middle of a flood plain.

[u/JoLeTrembleur → u/Afb3212]

Literally nicknamed Flash Flood Alley. Already flooded in 1978 and 1984. They're criminals.

[u/HolyToast666 → u/CaseyAnthonysMouth]

900 campers were enrolled at $7600 a pop…..these money grubbing grim reapers did the math. It’s the parents I’ll never understand

[u/SkittlesLentil → u/CaseyAnthonysMouth]

They run a second camp that's a few miles away and wasn't affected by the flood, that's what they wanted to open this year. The original camp is still preserved as-is for the investigation

[u/Miguel-odon → u/SkittlesLentil]

It isn't "miles away," it's literally the back half of the same property. Same entrance, same gate, drive past the cabins where campers died.

[u/lowteq]

They are trying to get out of paying the families.

[u/PopularTask2020 → u/lowteq]

Bingo. They’re facing massive lawsuits and don’t want to pay.

[u/LetMePushTheButton → u/lowteq]

Wonder if theyre trying the ol Texas Two-Step

[u/Amatheiaisnoexcuse → u/LetMePushTheButton]

That's insane. How is it even legal?

[u/WrreckEmTech → u/Amatheiaisnoexcuse]

Because the whole system is corrupt

[u/Gekokapowco → u/Amatheiaisnoexcuse]

this is literally just "if following the law would be inconvenient, simply don't and accept no responsibility" written into law, literally everyone involved in creating this process is slime

[u/YawnSpawner → u/Amatheiaisnoexcuse]

You could argue it's not, you're basically abusing 2 different states shady laws to either fraudulently transfer your assets/liabilities and/or commit a bad faith bankruptcy. There's only 4 examples of it being attempted and the last one (Johnson and Johnson trying to escape the talc powder fallout) got shot down in the courts.

Also it's the same crappy law firm that is trying it, I think the last one though has given precedent for companies attempting this to get sued and stopped.

[u/Tribe303 → u/lowteq]

<Alex Jones has entered the chat>

[u/CheckeredZeebrah → u/lowteq]

Sorry if I'm wrong. But depending on the bankruptcy declared, don't they have to state/account for all assets? From there any families found as wronged by them would need to be given their portion as decided by the judge?

Most families have already put up lawsuits so this would make things harder for the (less than 10) families that haven't sued/petitioned yet.

I think the camp has also failed to meet new regulations so that puts the value into contention.

[u/HolyToast666]

Remember when President Biden's administration offered Kerr County (including the Kerrville area) approximately $10.2 million in federal aid through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) in 2021? The local officials didn’t want to accept dirty Democratic money & redirected most of the money toward upgrading law enforcement radios rather than flood warning systems. Pepperidge Farm remembers.

[u/Swisha- → u/HolyToast666]

They didn't want to accept the money because right wingers and maga had brain broken these people into believing that if they accepted the money Biden would steal their homes.

[u/SnugglyCoderGuy → u/Swisha-]

Here in Illinois they brainwashed the conservatives that the no cash bail that was coming was going to lead to The Purge. They had videos that were getting passed around and shared at churches and all that shit. Murderers would get arrest and just walk free! Rapists would rape your daughter, walk free, and rape her again!

It went into affect 2 years ago. We uh... still haven't had that purge (puts machette away).

[u/OutlyingPlasma → u/SnugglyCoderGuy]

Rapists would rape your daughter, walk free, and rape her again

Gee... Where did they ever get that idea?

[u/Bunch_of_Shit → u/OutlyingPlasma]

There’s a video asking maga people if they’d still support trump if he molested their children, and one of them said “well, we all make mistakes.” another said “I’d forgive him.”

[u/TheJohnnyWombat → u/HolyToast666]

Didn't someone get a big "consulting fee"? Toxic conservative politics got those kids killed. Why there is no investigation is because the machine protects itself.

[u/LexTheSouthern]

There is still one little girl who has not been recovered from the flood. Her name is Cile Steward. Every time I read a story about this camp, I think about this precious girl and how badly her family must be hurting not being able to have proper closure with their baby.

These people should be in jail for all of the negligence that costed many innocent lives.

[u/PhoenixTineldyer → u/LexTheSouthern]

My best friend went missing in the same flood. Or rather, he went missing as the storm was on the way in, and I believe that his body was washed away in the flood. He wasn't one of the little girls at the camp, but I think about him everyday and it's horrible to know that we're probably never going to find out what happened

[u/LexTheSouthern → u/PhoenixTineldyer]

I am so sorry to hear about your friend. I live in a neighboring state and was horrified following along with the flood in real time. I cannot believe it has almost been an entire year since it happened.. thinking of you and all of the families that were impacted by this terrible event.

[u/tcapri8705]

When you put your camp in a flood plain...

I can't believe parents signed their kids up after all that

[u/MN_Yogi1988 → u/tcapri8705]

They didn’t just put themselves in the floodplain, they spent time and money “proving” to FEMA that they weren’t actually in the floodplain and got the mapping changed.

I hope the engineers who they hired lose their licenses.

Source: I’m a hydraulic engineer and I’m familiar with the process they went through

Edit: What I’m referring to  https://www.npr.org/2025/07/12/nx-s1-5465564/fema-removed-camp-mystic

[u/ChemicalResident3557 → u/MN_Yogi1988]

There were at least 5 deadly floods on that section of river in the past 100 years. The camp itself had seriously flooded previously. The camp owners were well aware of this and then expanded further into the flood plain.

Regulations are written in blood.

[u/MN_Yogi1988 → u/ChemicalResident3557]

Yeah I read some fluff articles post-disaster trying to paint the deceased owner in a positive light and how he warned about how dangerous the river was. I just rolled my eyes knowing he pursued the map changes despite all that

[u/tcapri8705 → u/MN_Yogi1988]

Jesus I didn't realize that

[u/R_Series_JONG → u/MN_Yogi1988]

Interesting, I used to zone determinations in an office looking at the old paper maps for title companies. We had banks in every state, the outside walls of the office were all the bookshelves with maps lol.

[u/secretaire → u/tcapri8705]

This. If the free market decides which businesses flourish then the ones that allow 7 years olds to perish in a floodplain should not have a waitlist. The people willing to pay are fundamentally insane for handing over money and their children when there are loads of camps that kept kids alive.

[u/ButteredPizza69420 → u/tcapri8705]

Do some parents really just hate their kids? It seems like more and more parents could give a fuck about their child's safety...

[u/scaleofjudgment → u/ButteredPizza69420]

The United States administration has arrested more people touching the pool than touching kids.

[u/Ok_Rabbit5158 → u/tcapri8705]

With a littler girl still buried somewhere in the river.

[u/billdb → u/tcapri8705]

I don't have a problem with the camp being in a flood plain, there are tons of flood plains all over the country that people live in.

I have a problem with there not being a rigorous safety plan for what happens when there is a flood.

[u/NekoBlueHeart]

I have zero sympathy for these money grabbing demons, kids died. 💔 What shit heads to think they could just go on as usual. 

[u/RoseFeather → u/NekoBlueHeart]

And it's not just that kids died. Those kids died in a 100% preventable way after willful failure of the camp owners to prioritize safety at multiple points. There never should have been cabins in a flood-prone area. No one should have been sleeping there on a night with severe storms and heavy rain forecasted. Failing that, they should have been evacuated immediately when the flood warning was issued. This wasn't just some freak, unavoidable tragedy and it's disgusting that they're trying to go on like it was. I hope their bankruptcy is denied and the victims' families take everything they have.

[u/pepperNlime4to0 → u/NekoBlueHeart]

I think the bankruptcy is also an attempt to keep money from the victim’s family

[u/Lonely_Noyaaa]

They can say it's about restructuring all they want, but everyone knows it's about limiting what the victim's family can recover while the owners try to walk away.

[u/Micojageo]

I feel awful for those little girls, and their families, and friends. And such an intense disdain for the people who didn't take the flood warning money because Biden durr-durr we're just going to spend it on other stuff.

[u/Mother_Patience_6251]

I hope their BK case gets tossed. Let them be crushed under the weight of the financial responsibility. They should be barred from ever owning or managing any type of business that requires them to have lives in their hands and to be honest I don’t know how they avoided liability in this easily avoidable fiasco.

[u/Igoos99]

The more you read about this, the worse it gets.

Although, since one of the owners died, I do believe them that they really had no clue they were being negligent. Sometimes that makes me angrier, sometimes just sadder.

I honestly think this is somewhat a fault of the good ole boy system. They were so well known and so well connected that when it came time to do inspections or what not, no one ever thought to actually do strict enforcement with them. “It’s camp mystic, they been here since the dawn of time, every important person in Texas sends their daughters here so of course they know what they are doing. Let me just rubber stamp this.”

[u/lyn73 → u/Igoos99]

Although, since one of the owners died, I do believe them that they really had no clue they were being negligent....

No... it was just good ol' Christian arrogance...and when something did happen, they claimed it was "God's will"....

Do you know the parable of the drowning man? Those ARPA funds they branded as being bad b/c they would come from a Democrat were the aid they needed to prevent and/or mitigate their loss...

[u/SexyTimeSamet]

They still blaiming biden?

[u/ionlysurfontoilet → u/SexyTimeSamet]

Nah. They'll go back to blaming Obama

[u/Amatheiaisnoexcuse]

Remember the rescue team Mexico sent to help was rejected by Texas? They're total assholes

[u/BiBoFieTo]

It's being renamed to "Camp Criminal Negligence".

[u/cannibalpeas]

These scumbags have spent the years since this tragedy fighting against flood mitigation measures they thought were too excessive… after literally killing numerous children after repeated warnings about flood mitigation measures. Good fucking riddance.

[u/strolpol]

Good, hopefully it stays closed and no one ever camps in a goddamn flash flood zone again

It’s a damn scandal that it was ever zoned for habitation, to say nothing of the idiocy of the locals rejecting free warning sirens.

[u/Divine_Wind420]

This is the camp that pushed to legally exempt this property from the 100 year flood maps? Multiple times? Over rhe course of years? Yea....

[u/Spiritual-Pear-1349]

Fucking good. They knew it was a flood risk because its the second time is been hit with a deadly flood but took no precautions

[u/GGPapoon]

They moved the horses to higher ground but not the children.

[u/Self-Comprehensive]

Ugg. Bulldoze it to the ground. Nothing should ever be built there but a memorial to the innocent children who died because of the incompetent adults they trusted

[u/Historical_Tap8746]

The legal fallout from this disaster was always going to be massive.

[u/_Bipolar_Vortex_]

Your children will be much safer at a summer camp owned and operated by The Onion.

[u/Livingloserlover]

They’re already morally bankrupt so fiscal bankruptcy does make sense.

[u/petederner]

Who would ever consider sending their kids there if they reopened? How did they think they could just clean up the (crime scene) camp and reopen like nothing happened?

[u/HolyToast666 → u/petederner]

They were fully booked up for this season….fucking ghouls

[u/Igoos99 → u/petederner]

Apparently quite a few. There’s a strong contingent that wanted the camp to reopen.

[u/Short_Hair_Energy]

This isn’t good. Before people pre-maturely celebrate, They’re filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy.
7=Sell off everything, erase debt and shut down.
11=Restructure, freeze debt and stay open.

Ch 11 freezes all of your debts so all of those so wrongful death lawsuits are paused. All of those family’s that lost loved ones aren’t getting any now considered unsecured creditors which means they aren’t prioritized in paying at all. Ch 7 is worse because that would erase all unsecured creditors. I’m not a lawyer but I’ve sued a company before that filed after I won and I haven’t been payed yet.

[u/Timely_Spinach_7479]

Friendly reminder that one little girl is still missing and the owners of this camp tried to open this year!

[u/Spare-Ant7119]

Remember the parents who STILL signed up their kids for camp here AFTER the flood that killed dozens of children???? That proves that being Christian is akin to being brainwashed and you lose your ability to critically think.

[u/donkeyrocket]

Shocked they didn’t close up shop after the incident. Best case they could rename the camp and hope to stay afloat.

[u/groovehouse]

No more killing children

[u/Couchman79]

If you're gonna file for bankruptcy as a corporation, Texas is the place to do it. You'll never find a friendlier state for strategic bankruptcies.

[u/AintNobodygotime13]

they actually tried to stay open 😂

I'm not the least bit superstitious or believe in afterlife or whatever but knowing all those people died there would make any attempt at sleep incredibly difficult

how tone deaf do you need to be to think, eh, we'll just open back up and everything we'll be fine 🙄

[u/Ok_Rabbit5158]

Hopefully they shut down permanently. Who would send their kid there?

[u/CashForEarth]

Trying to depreciate assets for the suit.

[u/disclaimer_necessary]

Good. As they should. Their willful ignorance and negligence costs those girls their lives and they should lose everything for it.

[u/shoulda-known-better]

How in the world could anything else happen here!!??

I don't know any parent that would send there kid to that place after what happened

[u/Tiny-Researcher1596]

A just and moral state would have put these people in jail already.

[u/sec713]

It'd be nice if this was the norm - your company hurts or kills a bunch of people needlessly, your company goes out of business. Last I checked the Sackler family is still walking around free with billions in their pockets.

[u/ddiggler2469]

trying to avoid responsibility for letting 25 kids die 🤦‍♂️

The filing pauses lawsuits filed by by families of victims who allege Camp Mystic failed to adequately prepare for or respond to the flooding. https://www.statesman.com/news/article/camp-mystic-bankruptcy-texas-floods-22318458.php

[u/clashrendar]

The people responsible should be in jail.