While summer is typically the season of spending time in the woods and cabin adventures, one South Central girls camp that was hit by catastrophic floods in 2025 has now filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
The documents filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of Texas in Houston on June 23 shows that Camp Mystic, a nondenominational Christian summer camp for girls founded in 1928, listed total debts of over $10 million owed to between 1,000 and 5,000 unsecured creditors. Its assets, meanwhile, were listed as between $100,001 to $500,000.
The regional summer camp became the subject of national attention in July 2025 when a storm that brought with it heavy rainfall swept through the Guadalupe River on which the camp sat on July 4, 2025. The water rushed through two of the cabins sitting at the river and swept 25 campers, two counselors aged 18 and 19, and camp director Dick Eastland to their deaths.
Camp Mystic files for bankruptcy protection after catastrophic floods
A total of 136 people died in the region during the floods. The families of six children and the two counselors later filed a lawsuit claiming negligence of the camp owners’ while a state investigation presented to Texas legislators in April 2026 later concluded that the camp had inadequate evacuation plans in the event of flooding that occurs regularly in the region.
Eastland was also determined to have received a flash flood warning at 1:14 a.m. but not begun evacuations until 2:30 a.m. Many of the campers who did survive spent hours cut off without access to electricity or running water before being rescued.
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The report concluded that the camp “did not provide adequate training for staff in emergency situations” and failed to have “advance emergency planning.”
While Camp Mystic initially announced plans to reopen for the 2026 summer season, the release of the report brought criticism on the camp owners’ actions to ensure storm preparedness and whether plans to install a new flood warning system were enough to reopen in such a short timeframe.
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What the Camp Mystic bankruptcy means for the summer camp’s future
The four companies listed in the bankruptcy documents include Camp Mystic, Mystic Camps Management, Natural Fountains Properties and Mystic Camps Family Partnership, Ltd. Ownership is shared between several members of the Eastland family.
The lawsuit filed on behalf of the families of five campers further claimed the camp put “profit over safety” and chose to keep campers “in cabins sitting in flood-prone areas, despite the risk” to “avoid the cost” of relocating the cabins to another part of the camp.
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An attorney representing Camp Mystic owners said that the camp empathized “with the families of the campers and counselors and all families in the Hill Country who lost loved ones in the horrific and unprecedented flood” but “disagree[d] with several accusations and misinformation in the legal filings regarding the actions of Camp Mystic and Dick Eastland, who lost his life as well.”
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