Camp Mystic

[Anonymous]

IMO the camp deserves the blame. Other camps in the area started evacuating hours earlier and others ended their sessions a day earlier. The first warning about flooding went out Thursday at 1pm.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:IMO the camp deserves the blame. Other camps in the area started evacuating hours earlier and others ended their sessions a day earlier. The first warning about flooding went out Thursday at 1pm.

Did they? I read camp junta nearby had campers swimming out of their cabins. Luckily everyone ended up safe there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:IMO the camp deserves the blame. Other camps in the area started evacuating hours earlier and others ended their sessions a day earlier. The first warning about flooding went out Thursday at 1pm.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IMO the camp deserves the blame. Other camps in the area started evacuating hours earlier and others ended their sessions a day earlier. The first warning about flooding went out Thursday at 1pm.

Did they? I read camp junta nearby had campers swimming out of their cabins. Luckily everyone ended up safe there.

Citation:
https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2025/07/05/2-camp-la-junta-campers-share-how-they-survived-kerr-county-floodwaters/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IMO the camp deserves the blame. Other camps in the area started evacuating hours earlier and others ended their sessions a day earlier. The first warning about flooding went out Thursday at 1pm.

Did they? I read camp junta nearby had campers swimming out of their cabins. Luckily everyone ended up safe there.

Are those the only two camps in the area?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm from the south and understand camp culture and its importance to many families. I have multiple friends with some association to Camp Mystic as former campers, counselors, etc. It's not my thing, but I get it.

Here's what I don't understand.

This camp - and many camps in that area - have been there for 100 years. This is a big part of the tradition; campers literally stay in the same cabins that their moms, grandmothers, aunts, etc. did. They are not going to up and move the location of the camp. But, given the nature of the river and history of flooding there, why are they not better regulated? Are they inspected for safety, beyond the dining room kitchens? How do they get insurance being situated so close to the river as they are?

It seems to me that any of these privately held camps that host thousands of kids across the course of the summer would pay more attention to safety factors. I'm sure they do some sort of weather drills and training, etc. with their young staffs. But this is the kind of thing that needs to be reviewed and thought through on an annual basis. Why was no one awake that night, all night, watching the weather forecast? The warnings were there and they grew increasingly dire throughout the night. That should be standard operating procedure for any facility like this.

Is it common to have someone literally awake watching the weather forecast at any camp? I'm sure that many of y'all will become experts on the Camp Mystic Safety Manual as soon as it's available.

At the camp I attended there absolutely was a counselor tasked with being up all night for medical emergencies, weather, comms, etc. I’m floored there wasn’t someone looking out.

PP again. A counselor?? That's not good enough. If you have 850 CHILDREN as your responsibility, again sleeping out in the middle of the woods away from serious medical help, etc., for weeks at a time, there damn well should be a full staff of adult security guards.

The more I think about it, this is 100% on the camp. I hope parents are lining up lawsuits.

There were failures at many levels, federal, state, county, and local. A perfect storm.

Not really, there was a break in the federal level which never kicked off what would happen down the line. This fully is the fault of DOGE cuts and those who voted for it.

Here's what Heather Cox Richardson, who IME checks her sources quite carefully, reports:

"Immediately after the catastrophe became apparent, Texas officials began to blame cuts to the National Weather Service (NWS)—part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)—for causing inaccurate forecasts. The “Department of Government Efficiency” cut about 600 staffers from the NWS. After the cuts, the understaffed agency warned that “severe shortages” of meteorologists would hurt weather forecasting.

All five living former directors of the NWS warned in May that the cuts “[leave] the nation’s official weather forecasting entity at a significant deficit…just as we head into the busiest time for severe storm predictions like tornadoes and hurricanes…. Our worst nightmare is that weather forecast offices will be so understaffed that there will be needless loss of life.”

But former NWS officials maintain the forecasts were as accurate as possible and noted the storm escalated abruptly. They told Christopher Flavelle of the New York Times that the problem appeared to be that NWS had lost the staffers who would typically communicate with local authorities to spread the word of dangerous conditions. Molly Taft at Wired confirmed that NWS published flash flood warnings but safety officials didn’t send out public warnings until hours later.

Meanwhile, Kerr County’s most senior elected official, Judge Rob Kelly, focused on local officials, telling Flavelle that the county did not have a warning system because such systems are expensive and “[t]axpayers won’t pay for it.”

Those NWS-published flash flood warnings are what would have been broadcast on a weather radio, if one had been present.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm from the south and understand camp culture and its importance to many families. I have multiple friends with some association to Camp Mystic as former campers, counselors, etc. It's not my thing, but I get it.

Here's what I don't understand.

This camp - and many camps in that area - have been there for 100 years. This is a big part of the tradition; campers literally stay in the same cabins that their moms, grandmothers, aunts, etc. did. They are not going to up and move the location of the camp. But, given the nature of the river and history of flooding there, why are they not better regulated? Are they inspected for safety, beyond the dining room kitchens? How do they get insurance being situated so close to the river as they are?

It seems to me that any of these privately held camps that host thousands of kids across the course of the summer would pay more attention to safety factors. I'm sure they do some sort of weather drills and training, etc. with their young staffs. But this is the kind of thing that needs to be reviewed and thought through on an annual basis. Why was no one awake that night, all night, watching the weather forecast? The warnings were there and they grew increasingly dire throughout the night. That should be standard operating procedure for any facility like this.

Is it common to have someone literally awake watching the weather forecast at any camp? I'm sure that many of y'all will become experts on the Camp Mystic Safety Manual as soon as it's available.

At the camp I attended there absolutely was a counselor tasked with being up all night for medical emergencies, weather, comms, etc. I’m floored there wasn’t someone looking out.

PP again. A counselor?? That's not good enough. If you have 850 CHILDREN as your responsibility, again sleeping out in the middle of the woods away from serious medical help, etc., for weeks at a time, there damn well should be a full staff of adult security guards.

The more I think about it, this is 100% on the camp. I hope parents are lining up lawsuits.

There were failures at many levels, federal, state, county, and local. A perfect storm.

Not really, there was a break in the federal level which never kicked off what would happen down the line. This fully is the fault of DOGE cuts and those who voted for it.

Stop spreading your fake info Democrat BS, authorities stated that the wretched men were fully staffed.

DP. Your "news" source sucks.

Not fully staffed:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/05/us/politics/texas-floods-warnings-vacancies.html
The staffing shortages suggested a separate problem, those former officials said — the loss of experienced people who would typically have helped communicate with local authorities in the hours after flash flood warnings were issued overnight.

The National Weather Service’s San Angelo office, which is responsible for some of the areas hit hardest by Friday’s flooding, was missing a senior hydrologist, staff forecaster and meteorologist in charge, according to Tom Fahy, the legislative director for the National Weather Service Employees Organization, the union that represents Weather Service workers.

The Weather Service’s nearby San Antonio office, which covers other areas hit by the floods, also had significant vacancies, including a warning coordination meteorologist and science officer, Mr. Fahy said. Staff members in those positions are meant to work with local emergency managers to plan for floods, including when and how to warn local residents and help them evacuate.

That office’s warning coordination meteorologist left on April 30, after taking the early retirement package the Trump administration used to reduce the number of federal employees, according to a person with knowledge of his departure.

[Anonymous]

Small govt showed us what it is capable or more accurately incapable of.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Small govt showed us what it is capable or more accurately incapable of.

Yep. How many of these before people wake up to climate issues and government importance? They are still wishing thoughts and prayers after gun violence.

[Anonymous]

There is so much speculation and judgement in this thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IMO the camp deserves the blame. Other camps in the area started evacuating hours earlier and others ended their sessions a day earlier. The first warning about flooding went out Thursday at 1pm.

+1

No they didn’t. This is simply not true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm from the south and understand camp culture and its importance to many families. I have multiple friends with some association to Camp Mystic as former campers, counselors, etc. It's not my thing, but I get it.

Here's what I don't understand.

This camp - and many camps in that area - have been there for 100 years. This is a big part of the tradition; campers literally stay in the same cabins that their moms, grandmothers, aunts, etc. did. They are not going to up and move the location of the camp. But, given the nature of the river and history of flooding there, why are they not better regulated? Are they inspected for safety, beyond the dining room kitchens? How do they get insurance being situated so close to the river as they are?

It seems to me that any of these privately held camps that host thousands of kids across the course of the summer would pay more attention to safety factors. I'm sure they do some sort of weather drills and training, etc. with their young staffs. But this is the kind of thing that needs to be reviewed and thought through on an annual basis. Why was no one awake that night, all night, watching the weather forecast? The warnings were there and they grew increasingly dire throughout the night. That should be standard operating procedure for any facility like this.

Is it common to have someone literally awake watching the weather forecast at any camp? I'm sure that many of y'all will become experts on the Camp Mystic Safety Manual as soon as it's available.

Having someone watching a forecast all night is not done and would not make sense. It would have been reasonable for the cabins closest to the river (and the camp's leadership) to have had NOAA weather radios that emit a warning siren when warranted. These cost about $40 apiece.

Those bunks should never have been placed there. That is one issue. The government knew the storm was coming and didn't warn people to take precautions. This and other camps have had problems dating back many years. Common sense would be a night security guard. Especially when kids sneak out of cabins and near water. They also should have had 2-3 exits to those cabins instead of one... So many ways that this could have been prevented and was with other camps.

Cabins on stilts? Like all of hurricanes zones in the Atlantic? Hard to get your trunk up but the staff does that

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm from the south and understand camp culture and its importance to many families. I have multiple friends with some association to Camp Mystic as former campers, counselors, etc. It's not my thing, but I get it.

Here's what I don't understand.

This camp - and many camps in that area - have been there for 100 years. This is a big part of the tradition; campers literally stay in the same cabins that their moms, grandmothers, aunts, etc. did. They are not going to up and move the location of the camp. But, given the nature of the river and history of flooding there, why are they not better regulated? Are they inspected for safety, beyond the dining room kitchens? How do they get insurance being situated so close to the river as they are?

It seems to me that any of these privately held camps that host thousands of kids across the course of the summer would pay more attention to safety factors. I'm sure they do some sort of weather drills and training, etc. with their young staffs. But this is the kind of thing that needs to be reviewed and thought through on an annual basis. Why was no one awake that night, all night, watching the weather forecast? The warnings were there and they grew increasingly dire throughout the night. That should be standard operating procedure for any facility like this.

Is it common to have someone literally awake watching the weather forecast at any camp? I'm sure that many of y'all will become experts on the Camp Mystic Safety Manual as soon as it's available.

At the camp I attended there absolutely was a counselor tasked with being up all night for medical emergencies, weather, comms, etc. I’m floored there wasn’t someone looking out.

PP again. A counselor?? That's not good enough. If you have 850 CHILDREN as your responsibility, again sleeping out in the middle of the woods away from serious medical help, etc., for weeks at a time, there damn well should be a full staff of adult security guards.

The more I think about it, this is 100% on the camp. I hope parents are lining up lawsuits.

There were failures at many levels, federal, state, county, and local. A perfect storm.

Not really, there was a break in the federal level which never kicked off what would happen down the line. This fully is the fault of DOGE cuts and those who voted for it.

Here's what Heather Cox Richardson, who IME checks her sources quite carefully, reports:

"Immediately after the catastrophe became apparent, Texas officials began to blame cuts to the National Weather Service (NWS)—part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)—for causing inaccurate forecasts. The “Department of Government Efficiency” cut about 600 staffers from the NWS. After the cuts, the understaffed agency warned that “severe shortages” of meteorologists would hurt weather forecasting.

All five living former directors of the NWS warned in May that the cuts “[leave] the nation’s official weather forecasting entity at a significant deficit…just as we head into the busiest time for severe storm predictions like tornadoes and hurricanes…. Our worst nightmare is that weather forecast offices will be so understaffed that there will be needless loss of life.”

But former NWS officials maintain the forecasts were as accurate as possible and noted the storm escalated abruptly. They told Christopher Flavelle of the New York Times that the problem appeared to be that NWS had lost the staffers who would typically communicate with local authorities to spread the word of dangerous conditions. Molly Taft at Wired confirmed that NWS published flash flood warnings but safety officials didn’t send out public warnings until hours later.

Meanwhile, Kerr County’s most senior elected official, Judge Rob Kelly, focused on local officials, telling Flavelle that the county did not have a warning system because such systems are expensive and “[t]axpayers won’t pay for it.”

Those NWS-published flash flood warnings are what would have been broadcast on a weather radio, if one had been present.

You lost my when you bring up Heather Cox Richardson. Talk about someone with an agenda to push.

This may all be correct, even partially, but the fact remains that the camp DID KNOW ABOUT THE DANGERS OF THE STORM far earlier than they sufficienty reacted to it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IMO the camp deserves the blame. Other camps in the area started evacuating hours earlier and others ended their sessions a day earlier. The first warning about flooding went out Thursday at 1pm.

Did they? I read camp junta nearby had campers swimming out of their cabins. Luckily everyone ended up safe there.

Are those the only two camps in the area?

The info about other camps getting their campers out is towards the end of the article.

https://www.thecentersquare.com/texas/article_14b9fbd9-398e-418e-9dc5-04370782cc38.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IMO the camp deserves the blame. Other camps in the area started evacuating hours earlier and others ended their sessions a day earlier. The first warning about flooding went out Thursday at 1pm.

Did they? I read camp junta nearby had campers swimming out of their cabins. Luckily everyone ended up safe there.

The boys camp over river a bit had rafters on ceiling that they all climbed up in to. They were lucky the water rose 26 feet and not 30. And that their cabins didn’t structurally break or have a wall taken out.