Camp Mystic, the century-old Christian girls' camp where 28 people — 25 of them children — drowned in a flash flood last July, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Wednesday, and the real fight is already underway: whether the families of the dead get their day in open court or get shuffled into closed-door arbitration while the camp's owners restructure behind a judge's protection.
The Eastland family, which has owned and operated the camp for generations, listed debts between $10 million and $50 million against assets of $1 million to $10 million in the filing, according to court records in the Southern District of Texas. Dick Eastland, the camp's director, died in the flood himself. But the family that survived him is now using bankruptcy law to manage the fallout from mounting wrongful-death lawsuits — and their lawyers have been pushing to handle those claims in private arbitration, not public trial. The families want the opposite.
Several families have sued, accusing the camp of "gross negligence" and putting "profit over safety" by housing campers in flood-prone cabins along the Guadalupe River to "avoid the cost" of relocating them, according to one lawsuit filed on behalf of seven victims' families. The suits call the disaster "entirely preventable."
The camp's attorney pushed back. In a statement last year, they said the flood "far exceeded any previous flood in the area by several magnitudes," that it was unexpected, and that "no adequate warning systems existed in the area." They also said they "disagree with several accusations and misinformation" in the legal filings and promised to respond in due course.
A Texas Legislature investigation released earlier this month didn't buy the camp's defense. Investigators found the camp "did not provide adequate training for staff in emergency situations" and lacked "advance emergency planning." The report noted there were at least 39 adults present who "could have been tasked to assist with an orderly flood evacuation" — but "there was no plan for them to do so, and no training that would have prepared them for what to do."
The Guardian highlighted the "profit over safety" accusation and the preservation order for damaged cabins. The Daily Caller noted the arbitration-versus-trial fight and that families are pursuing over $1 million in damages. The New York Post framed the camp as "woefully unprepared" and emphasized that it failed to comply with new safety regulations before abandoning plans to reopen for what would have been its 100th anniversary season.
Here's what none of the outlets lingered on: Chapter 11 is a tool for reorganization, not liquidation. The Eastland family keeps control of the camp's assets while they work out a plan to pay creditors — and those grieving families are now creditors, standing in line behind whatever the court prioritizes. The bankruptcy judge, Christopher M. Lopez, now holds enormous power over whether these families see a courtroom or a settlement conference.
The camp had planned to reopen this summer. Eight hundred girls had reportedly signed up. That plan died in April after Texas health investigators found the camp couldn't meet new safety standards and Gov. Greg Abbott confirmed the camp had pulled its renewal application.
A faith-based institution that served generations of Texas families is now a debtor in federal court. The question isn't whether the camp failed those children — the state investigation already answered that. The question is whether the legal system designed to sort out the wreckage will serve the families who buried their daughters, or the institution that failed them.
