By Jasper Ward
April 24 (Reuters) – Camp Mystic, the Christian summer camp for girls where 27 people died in a 2025 flash flood, cannot be licensed to reopen, Texas authorities said, citing nearly two dozen deficiencies in the riverfront camp’s emergency preparedness plan.
An 11-page notice from the state Health and Human Services Department gives the camp 45 days to submit a new emergency plan to resolve the shortcomings the agency identified, including flaws in the camp’s evacuation and flood-warning measures.
A department spokesperson said on Friday the emergency deficiency letter, part of the state’s licensing application review process, was sent to camp leaders on Thursday as the camp sought to reopen this summer with enhanced safety precautions.
The camp said in a statement that it was “carefully reviewing” the notice, the Texas Tribune reported. Representatives for the camp did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters.
The letter labeled 22 components in the camp’s emergency flood plan as “insufficient,” “missing” or “incomplete,” meaning they will “require attention to meet full compliance.”
Among the flaws cited in the notice, the department said the camp failed to provide adequate evacuation route maps or enumerate what actions staff members were responsible for taking in the event of an evacuation.
“The plan should include clearly defined procedures for assisting individuals with access and functional needs, such as assigning specific staff to provide assistance, establishing a buddy system, ensuring accessible evacuation routes, accommodating assistive devices, addressing transportation needs, and ensuring emergency warnings are accessible,” the department wrote in its letter.
The camp, the department said, also lacks a plan identifying specific staff responsible for monitoring and maintaining the facility’s weather-alert radio system.
Lara Anton, a department spokesperson, said most of the 174 youth camps statewide had received similar notices as a result of tougher emergency safety regulations instituted in the aftermath of the 2025 floods.
Twenty-seven campers and staff members at Camp Mystic perished after heavy downpours in Texas Hill Country transformed the Guadalupe River into a killer torrent on July 4, 2025.
Widespread flash flooding that struck the region that morning and in the following days killed nearly 140 people in the sixth-deadliest freshwater flood disaster in the United States.
(Reporting by Jasper Ward in Washington; Editing by Steve Gorman and William Mallard)
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