Parents Urge Texas Committee to Block Camp Mystic Reopening After July 4 Flood Grief and anger over the deadly July 4 flood that killed 27 children and counselors at Camp Mystic flooded the Texas Capitol on Tuesday night as parents demanded state lawmakers prevent the camp’s reopening and deny its license renewal. The emotional testimony came during an investigative hearing before the General Investigative Committee, where families of victims shared harrowing accounts of the disaster that unfolded last year. The Eastland family, which operates the camp, sat nearby as parents recounted the trauma of the event and called for accountability. The hearing focused on the future of Camp Mystic, which had been granted a temporary license to operate its Cypress Lake location after the July 4 flood. Parents argued that the camp’s history of safety failures made it unfit to reopen. Bolton Walters, a parent of a victim, stated, “A daycare with 27 dead children and this evidence already on record would have already been closed.” CiCi Steward, the mother of a missing camper, emphasized the need for permanent closure, saying, “No camp will be safe for any child as long as the Eastlands are associated with it.” The parents described the catastrophic flood that overwhelmed the camp’s facilities, leaving children and staff stranded. Malorie Lytal, a parent of a victim, detailed the horror of her child’s death: “As her cabin filled with flood waters, she was left to fend for herself, and washed miles downriver to die the most horrific, gruesome death.” Steward accused the camp’s leadership of prioritizing profit over safety, declaring, “Those lies of safety, preparedness, and readiness caused the greatest mass casualty event involving children in the history of the state.#camp_mystic #texas_capitol #general_investigative_committee #eastland_family #cypress_lake
