Camp Mystic, Where Texas Floods Killed 28, Files Bankruptcy
Camp Mystic, the Texas girls youth camp where 28 people were killed in flash floods last summer, has filed for bankruptcy.
The company filed for Chapter 11 in the Southern District of Texas on Wednesday, listing assets of between $1 million and $10 million and liabilities in the range of $10 million to $50 million, court documents show.
The camp in the Texas Hill Country was allowed by a district court to partially re-open this summer, after the disaster last year that killed 25 campers, two counselors and its executive director shook its foundations and raised questions about how it became so vulnerable to disaster. But it scrapped those plans following days of dramatic hearings.
The Texas Department of State Health Services said in April that the camp withdrew its application to renew its license for this summer. The agency had previously said that Camp Mystic’s emergency plan failed to address several new rules passed after the July 4 floods, which killed a total of more than 160 people, including 37 children.
State lawmakers had blasted local officials and the camp’s owners over their handling of the disaster. The Christian camp, which caters to affluent families, is set in a rural stretch of central Texas with spotty cell phone reception and limited infrastructure, complicating the response to the sudden flooding.
Read more: Camp Mystic Girls’ Deaths Darken Cherished Texas Rite of Passage
Filing Chapter 11 immediately pauses civil lawsuits that have accused the camp and its operators of negligence. A complaint filed on behalf of families that had daughters who drowned during the flood claimed that Camp Mystic had no flood evacuation plan and that owners prioritized profits over campers’ safety.
The case is Camp Mystic LLC, number 26—90621, in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas.
Photo: Camp Mystic following flash flooding in Hunt, Texas, on July 5. Photographer: Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP/Getty Images