Parents of young girls who died in last month’s flooding in the Texas Hill Country were in Austin on Wednesday to testify about proposed flood safety legislation for camps and campgrounds.
Wednesday’s hearing was the first time parents of the victims spoke to the Legislature publicly. Last week they met in private with Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dustin Burrows at the Texas Capitol and the Governor’s Mansion.
27 girls died early on the morning of July 4, when their cabins were inundated with floodwaters.
After an introduction from the committee chairman and a review of some aspects of the legislation, the first parents sat at the witness table to testify.
Michael McCown, the father of 8-year-old Linnie McCown, said his family trusted Camp Mystic with Linnie’ life, but the trust was broken “in the most devastating way.”
“I still remember standing near Bubble Inn the morning of July 5 amidst the wreckage of camp, looking at the cabins, and asking myself, ‘How? Why? How could these girls vanish into the night without anyone having eyes on them, while cabins literally just 20 yards away had no casualties. What went wrong?'” McCown said.
CiCi Williams Steward, mother of Cile Steward testified next. Cile is one of two flood victims whose body has not been found. CiCi Williams Steward said her daughter marked the third generation of her family to attend Camp Mystic.
“Cile’s life ended, not because of an unavoidable act of nature, but because of preventable failures. On her fifth day of camp, the beginning of what should have been a magical first summer, our Cile was swept away, along with other bright, beautiful girls. She was stolen from her family, from her future, from the world she lit up with her independence and spunk,” Steward said.
“This legislation cannot bring back our daughters, but it is the beginning of change that must occur so this tragedy never happens again. It is the start of a promise that their lives, and their deaths, will mean change. It is an effort to ensure that no other family suffers as we all have,” she said.
The parents are members of a group called the Campaign for Camp Safety, which was formed after the devastating flooding to advocate for an investigation into what happened, as well as policy reforms.
Their initial recommendations include:
- Relocating camp structures away from flood-prone and hazardous areas
- Implementing 24/7 emergency alert monitoring and notification systems
- Standardizing evacuation plans and mandating emergency drills
- Requiring formal emergency management protocols for camps
What’s in Senate Bill 1, the camp safety bill?
Wednesday’s meeting of the Select Committee on Disaster Preparedness and Flooding is the public hearing for Senate Bill 1, which covers safety for both youth camps and campgrounds. According to the bill’s author, it incorporates significant feedback from the families of children lost at Camp Mystic.
The legislation includes stricter permitting requirements for summer camps; they would no longer be able to operate with cabins located in a 100-year floodplain. Camp Mystic not only had cabins in the 100-year floodplain, but a handful of others were in a regulatory floodway, even closer to the river.
Camps will also need to have safety plans approved by the state, hold trainings for staff and volunteers and procedures to communicate with emergency responders, local authorities and parents.
The committee plans to make some additions to the bill before sending it to the full Senate, where it is scheduled to receive a vote on Thursday night.
