Families who lost loved ones in the July 4th floods at Camp Mystic in Kerr County testified before the Senate Select Committee on Disaster Preparedness and Flooding, urging lawmakers to pass reforms aimed at improving safety at youth camps across Texas. The hearing was prompted by the deaths of 25 young girls and two counselors during the flooding incident, which has led Governor Greg Abbott to prioritize youth camp safety in the current special legislative session.
Senator Charles Perry of Lubbock, who chairs the committee and authored the proposed legislation, described the proceedings as challenging but necessary. “It’s not one of those hearings you ever want to have,” Perry said. “But we also recognize that we need to have them when these kind of events happen so we make sure to the best of our human ability that things like this don’t happen again.”
Family members told lawmakers that preventing future tragedies would honor their children’s memories. Michael McCown, whose eight-year-old daughter Linnie died in the flood, said improved planning could have saved lives. “She was a joy,” McCown said. “She hugged her teachers, was a friend to everybody, and spread an infectious giggle everywhere she went.” He added: “No one had to die that day. How could these girls vanish into the night without anyone having eyes on them while cabins literally 20 yards away had no casualties?”
The bill under consideration is titled “The Heaven’s 27 Camp Safety Act,” named for those who died at Camp Mystic. If passed, it would introduce stricter regulations for all Texas campgrounds and even more extensive rules for youth summer camps. Requirements would include comprehensive emergency plans covering natural disasters such as flooding, tornadoes, wildfires, and hurricanes; filing these plans with authorities; meeting basic fire safety standards; and ensuring cabins in flood plains have rooftop exits.
For youth camps specifically, state licenses would not be granted to facilities with cabins located in river floodplains. Emergency plans must address contingencies like missing campers or aquatic emergencies and be filed with state agencies as well as made available to parents upon request. Camps would need to conduct evacuation drills at each session’s start and provide annual staff training on emergency operations.
Additional requirements outlined in SB 1 mandate operational weather alert radios in every cabin, public address systems for emergency communication, and redundant Internet connections for reliability during crises.
Perry emphasized his belief that these measures could prevent future loss of life: “Had the requirements of SB 1 been in place on the night of July 4th I have no doubt that some lives if not all lives would’ve been saved on the camp front,” he said.
The committee advanced SB 1 to the full Senate for further consideration. Earlier this week, senators also approved three other bills from a previous special session related to disaster preparedness following the July 4th floods. These include appropriating state funds for flood relief efforts and establishing new standards for sirens and warning systems in areas prone to flooding.
