Nine devastated families of Camp Mystic girls and councilors sue Texas state for failing to have cabin evacuation plan before devastating floods https://t.co/Psp7MjSi0l
— Daily Mail (@DailyMail) February 24, 2026
Nine grieving families whose daughters never came home from Camp Mystic have now turned their anguish into a sweeping federal lawsuit.
The families accuse Texas officials of licensing a riverside camp in ‘Flash Flood Alley’ without ensuring it had a legally required evacuation plan before catastrophic July 4 flooding killed 27 campers and counselors.
Filed Monday in US District Court for the Western District of Texas, the lawsuit alleges that the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) and six of its officials failed to enforce state law requiring youth camps to maintain written emergency evacuation plans posted in cabins.
Instead, the suit claims, Camp Mystic operated with what plaintiffs describe as an ‘anti-evacuation plan’ – instructing campers to remain in their cabins during flooding – a policy that ‘delayed moving girls to safety until it was too late.’
‘Young campers and counselors were killed because the camp had no plan,’ the lawsuit states.
‘The camp is responsible, but so are the state officials who helped create this inexcusable risk to life by directing and executing a policy of non-compliance with Texas law.’
It was during the early morning hours of July 4, 2025, torrential rain overwhelmed the Guadalupe River, sending floodwaters tearing through the historic Christian girls’ camp in the Texas Hill Country.
According to the lawsuit, staff managed to evacuate only five of 11 cabins in an area known as ‘the flats,’ despite what plaintiffs allege was sufficient time to move all campers to safety.