Speaking on behalf of his family and Camp Mystic at a state hearing Tuesday morning, Edward Eastland apologized to the families of campers and counselors who died last year in their care when a massive flood swept through the camp on July 4.
“I think about the night of the flood every moment of every day,” Eastland said, choking on some of his words. “We tried our hardest that night and it wasn’t enough to save your daughters. We were devastated alongside you. I regret not communicating more with each of you earlier. And I’m so sorry.”
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But as the hearing of the House and Senate flood investigating committees continued into the evening, grieving and angry parents spoke about the profound impacts of the Eastland family’s failure to protect their children during the flood, which killed 25 campers and two counselors.
Mothers of campers who died told of finding a daughter’s pajama bottoms hanging outside a cabin’s bathroom window. Of kissing a deceased daughter’s cheek like the day she was born. Of dropping off their child at camp last year and telling Camp Mystic owner and Executive Director Dick Eastland, “Please watch over my baby.”
One father told of sleeping now with their daughter’s toy; another of finding the body of another child while searching for his own.
“I am heartbroken that you have not only destroyed our lives but that you destroyed your own,” Malorie Iytal, who lost her daughter Kellyanne, told the Eastlands.
“The Eastlands have proven themselves incapable of protecting children,” CiCi Steward, whose daughter Cile’s body still has not been found, told legislators on the committees.
Edward Eastland, who directed the part of the camp where the children died, said that waking up every morning and getting through the day was hard. His father Dick Eastland also died in the flood while trying to rescue some of the campers.
But Edward Eastland acknowledged that pain seemed like nothing compared to the pain of parents of the girls they lost.
“The world was a better place with them in it,” Eastland said of the girls who died, “and the anger at us for not being able to keep them safe feels completely reasonable.”
On Monday, an investigator had presented a timeline to legislators of a harried evacuation effort that morning at the camp, which the investigator said had done no flood evacuation planning or training. Committee member Sen. Charles Perry, R-Lubbock, on Tuesday suggested that Camp Mystic should only continue operating if someone else was running it.
Edward Eastland’s wife and co-director, Mary Liz Eastland, said she believed the family would be willing to “step back and take a pause” if it meant the camp could continue to operate.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who presides over the state Senate, has pressured the Texas Department of State Health Services to deny the camp’s application for renewal of its operating license. The camp is seeking to welcome campers back this summer to a portion of the property where no girls died.
If the license is denied, DSHS attorneys told the committee members, the camp would be able to continue to operate under an appeal of that decision unless the agency got a temporary injunction to stop the camp’s operations, but the agency couldn’t otherwise intervene to stop operations during an appeal.
“The Legislature will support whatever it takes to shut them down as soon as possible,” Perry told DSHS officials who testified.
Rep. Drew Darby, R-San Angelo, argued that the laws passed after the flood, including one he authored, should give the agency the ability to suspend the camp’s license.
“If they don’t meet the emergency preparedness plans, then you must suspend [the license],” Darby said.
Richard Eastland, the camp’s head chef, said they would not operate the camp if they did not have a license to operate from the state. But Britt Eastland, who directs the portion of the camp seeking to reopen this summer where no girls died, said they do expect to receive a license and would discuss it as a family if they don’t.
“It will be a family decision,” Britt Eastland said.
Camp wasn’t prepared for flood, Eastlands testify
In their testimony Tuesday, the Eastlands explained some of their decision-making the night of the flood. Edward Eastland said they didn’t think to get on the camp’s loudspeaker system to urge girls to evacuate because he was instead focused on getting to the next cabin that needed help.
“There isn’t a day that goes by we didn’t wish we tried those things,” said Britt Eastland, who was not involved in the evacuation but explained that it could have also been dangerous to send girls out into a thunderstorm with lightning.
All four Eastlands conceded to the lawmakers that they were not prepared for the flood and did not evacuate girls early enough.
Britt Eastland said no one had previously questioned their plan for girls to remain in their cabins during floods. Mary Liz Eastland said counselors were instructed in training to stay in cabins during floods because they believed those cabins were safe.
Parents of campers who survived told of profound trauma, too.
A mother whose daughter survived spoke about how her 9-year-old remembered Edward Eastland crying at the sky to stop the rain before she got swept out the window of her cabin and thought she would die. A father recalled how his 8-year-old saw a child face down in the water and feared no one would find her if she died too.
“Her innocence as a child has been taken from her,” said the father, Bolton Waters.
A neighbor of the camp, Grant Griffin, told legislators at the hearing that he and his daughter’s boyfriend rescued those two girls from the river when he heard them yell “help me” while his own house flooded. He said a Camp Mystic employee told him he thought it was a good idea for Griffin to keep the girls in his care rather than return them. Eventually, a helicopter evacuated the girls.
“Thank God for you and your family,” Sen. Pete Flores, R-Pleasanton, the Senate committee chair, told Griffin. Everyone in the room stood and applauded.
Katherine Hoffman’s daughter survived by swimming out of her cabin and clinging to the column of another cabin, moving to the side that was sheltered from the current carrying mattresses and trunks that crashed by, fearing she would die as the water reached her neck.
After the flood, she told her mom she should have saved another camper.
“You did the right thing,” Hoffman said she told her daughter. “Children are not supposed to save other children. You were all trying to survive in the water, and it was not your responsibility as an 8-year-old to save others.”
“Then whose responsibility was it?” she said her daughter asked. “We called for help and no one came.”
“Her questions are the ones that I have too,” Hoffman said. “How do I answer?”
“Tend to your flock”
Committee member Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, asked the Eastland family to think through whether they were truly ready to reopen — mentioning Mary Liz Eastland’s testimony that she still had not reported the children’s deaths to the state as required by law and the letter the state sent to the camp about multiple deficiencies in its new emergency plan.
“We pray that we can reconcile with these wonderful families,” Britt Eastland said in response.
He said he believed the families in the future would be glad they had camp this summer.
“What!” someone in the audience exclaimed.
“We are ready, senator,” Eastland said.
Steward said she had to walk out of the courtroom so she didn’t scream.
When her turn came to speak, she scolded Eastland for presuming she would one day be glad about the camp’s choice to keep operating.
Steward told the Eastlands seated behind her: “Walk away. Tend to your flock. Own your trauma. Your own family that is clearly broken. Cut the bleeding and stop the agony of our families.”