The Texas Rangers are reaching out to parents of all surviving campers who were at Camp Mystic (Guadalupe River side, probably) on July 4, 2025, to request interviews with their children. They say participation is voluntary. A ranger said they are reaching out to request interviews with all campers and counselors who were there.

(reposted bc I did a typo twice on the year, including in the title)

I didn’t realize the Spurs visited and did a practice/demo at Ingram’s high school gym in September. (They could’ve used a little more greatness in the 4th quarter last night tho.)

(Those using Apple devices should be able to read the article by tapping on the icon at the left of the search bar, then on “show reader.“)

Will Camp Mystic lawsuits move to arbitration or remain in court?

AUSTIN – A court fight Wednesday focused on whether five lawsuits filed against Camp Mystic should be moved out of the courtroom and into arbitration, where the legal battle would continue privately.

The lawsuits, filed by parents of most of the 25 children and two counselors killed in a raging flash flood on July 4, claim Camp Mystic and some members of the Eastland family, who own or operate the Texas Hill Country retreat, are liable for the deaths. 

A letter from Cile Steward, who was lost in the July 4th floods, to her mother, CiCi Steward, is displayed on screen as attorney Brad Beckworth makes arguments during a hearing on suits against Camp Mystic in the 459th State District Court in Austin, Wednesday, June 10, 2026. The hearing focused on motions regarding whether the five lawsuits should be moved out of the public trial court and into arbitration, where proceedings would be confidential.

Mikala Compton/Austin American-Statesman

Attorneys on both sides argued before State District Judge Maya Guerra Gamble about whether the lawsuits should remain in her courtroom, where the hearings are open to the public and news media, or into arbitration, which are closed-door proceedings.  

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In arbitration proceedings, an arbitrator oversees the legal fight instead of a judge. The arbitrator’s decision on liability and the amount of any monetary damages owed is binding and final.

Discovery — a process in which each side must disclose evidence to the opposing party — is typically more limited than in a court case. Records of an arbitration, including testimony and exhibits of evidence, can be sealed.

Attorneys defending Camp Mystic, the Eastland family and other entities being sued noted that the children’s mothers had signed a liability waiver or “participation agreement” before the camp session began that required addressing any legal disputes in arbitration.

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But the parents behind the lawsuits want a public airing of the facts on what led to the 27 deaths. 

They are accusing Camp Mystic and its owners of gross negligence, premises liability, intentional infliction of emotional distress and other claims.

The judge said Wednesday that she would rule on arbitration and a motion to sanction attorneys defending Camp Mystic and the Eastlands at a later date.

The parents had paid Camp Mystic nearly $8,000 for each child to attend, court papers show. The 25 campers who died in the flood ranged in age from 8 to 10 years old.

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Camp Mystic attorney Joshua Fiveson argued that previous court rulings have established that arbitration agreements such as the one used by the camp are valid.

“A plaintiff parent reviewed, signed and executed a written agreement as a condition of their child’s participation in Camp Mystic’s program, a nationally marketed and attended commercial camp,” Fiveson told the judge at Wednesday’s hearing. “This agreement contained a section entitled ‘Binding Arbitration,’ which pledged that both the parent and child would arbitrate ‘all disputes, controversies or differences which may arise between the parties.’

“Arbitrators, not courts, must resolve the validity of disputes,” he said.

Defense attorney Mikal Watts reacts as Brad Beckworth makes arguments during a hearing on suits against Camp Mystic in the 459th State District Court in Austin, Wednesday, June 10, 2026. The hearing focused on motions regarding whether the five lawsuits should be moved out of the public trial court and into arbitration, where proceedings would be confidential.

Mikala Compton/Austin American-Statesman

However, two plaintiffs’ attorneys argued the defense lawyers forfeited any rights they might have had to arbitration because they waited four months after the court hearings began before asking that the lawsuits be moved to arbitration. The parents’ lawyers said the arbitration request never came up until after the judge ruled against the defendants and issued a temporary injunction against Camp Mystic.

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They said the defense also missed a deadline to address the arbitration question at a May 13 hearing, when one of the attorneys, Mikal Watts, did not show up because he was attending a wedding in Italy.

Watts told the judge Wednesday that another attorney who was substituting for him attended last month’s hearing, but failed to announce his presence. The judge raised her eyebrows and appeared unmoved.

When Fiveson repeated the claim that another attorney was at the previous hearing to fill in for Watts, the judge shook her head in apparent disbelief.

“I don’t have any evidence that there was anyone in the courtroom representing those clients,” the judge said, referring to the defendants represented by Watts. 

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“If they were in court, you should have said it to me at the time,” the judge told Fiveson. “So it’s a little late.”

Brad Beckworth, the attorney for Austin parents Will and CiCi Steward, whose 8-year-old daughter, Cile, was among those killed in the flood at Camp Mystic, argued it would be wrong to move the lawsuits out of the courtroom. Cile Steward’s remains still have not been found despite a search lasting more than 11 months. She is the only Camp Mystic flooding victim still missing.

“There has probably never been a case where arbitration is more inappropriate,” Beckworth told the judge Wednesday. 

“This case has been so widely publicized. This is a case of great public interest. It is one of the most important cases we’ve had in a long time involving children. And the idea that the outcome of it and the testimony of it would be cloaked in the secrecy of a hotel conference room in Kerrville is just beyond the pale of bad public policy.”

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Beckworth displayed photos of four letters that Cile Steward mailed from Camp Mystic to her mother in the days before the deadly flood. One of the letters contained the child’s colorful drawings of hearts and stars.

“Dear mommy I love camp it is so fun and cool I love you. Say Hi to Millie and Daddy,” the 8-year-old girl wrote in a letter, referring to her sister by name.

“Dear mommy I lost my address paper will you send a new one” the child wrote in another letter.

Parents were allowed only limited means of communication with their children at Camp Mystic — emails were printed out for guests once a day or letters were sent through regular postal mail. Phone calls were not allowed except in case of an emergency.

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“The communications that were deprived between mother and daughter are a major part of the liability case here,” Beckworth told the judge.

Was Camp Mystic negligent?

The parents’ lawsuits accuse Camp Mystic and the Eastlands of not paying attention to weather alerts, not immediately responding to a flash flood warning issued at 1:14 a.m. on the morning of the emergency and not preparing for such a disaster despite knowing the camp’s long history of flooding.

Those court filings also claim Camp Mystic did not evacuate all children in time to get them out of harm’s way and had posted a flawed policy that ordered guests to remain in their cabins if a flood occurred.

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No adults at the camp used a working loudspeaker to warn the victims to run to higher ground before the camp was overtaken by high water, the parents’ attorneys said. Previous testimony established the camp’s electrical power remained on until a power outage occurred around 3:50 a.m. that morning.

Defense lawyers have countered there was little that Camp Mystic and the Eastlands could do as the severe thunderstorm rapidly pushed the Guadalupe River to record-breaking heights.

The rising water ripped through the privately operated Christian camp for girls, located on the south fork of the river near the village of Hunt, about 18 miles southwest of Kerrville.

The defense has claimed that no weather service, radar or government agency anticipated what they described as a “historic” flood, which they said exceeded “a 1,000-year flood event.”

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Camp Mystic didn’t receive any evacuation notice, its attorneys argued, until well after a “sudden and dramatic” surge of high water had already overwhelmed the property and lives had been lost.

Those attorneys also noted that Richard “Dick” Eastland, 70, one of Camp Mystic’s owners and executive directors, was killed while trying to save young campers during the flood. Eastland’s Chevrolet Tahoe was swept away by high water and crashed into a tree. His body was found inside the vehicle, along with those of three young campers. 

Attorneys for the victims’ parents emphasized in court filings that the participation agreements or waivers aren’t binding because those documents were not signed by the children who died or by both parents of each victim. Nor were those documents signed by any attorneys, any Camp Mystic officials or anyone in the Eastland family, they said.

The Texas Arbitration Act requires that any agreement to handle personal injury claims in arbitration must be signed by each party and by each party’s attorneys, Beckworth said in court filings.

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Beckworth noted that CiCi Steward recently told a joint investigative committee of state lawmakers that Camp Mystic and the Eastlands are pushing for arbitration to shield themselves from public view. He played a video for the judge showing a brief excerpt of Steward’s testimony last month.

“The Eastlands want to move our case to arbitration — a closed-door proceeding to further shield themselves from public scrutiny and oversight,” Steward told state lawmakers in April. “This despite their promises of transparency and wanting answers and having nothing to hide.”

Attorneys for Camp Mystic and the Eastlands argue that the participation agreement signed by the victims’ mothers is a written contract that is sufficient to enforce the arbitration clause.

“Because one parent signed the participation agreements on behalf of each minor daughter, all plaintiffs are bound by the arbitration agreement they consented to,” defense attorneys wrote in a motion filed with the court. “Recent Texas appellate decisions have consistently held that a single parent can bind minor children to arbitration agreements.”

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Defense attorneys are asking that the parents’ court fight with Camp Mystic be halted “pending the outcome of arbitration.”

If the judge rejects the defense’s request to move the lawsuits into arbitration proceedings, the defense will almost certainly appeal that ruling, which could bring the court fight to a temporary halt while all parties wait for the higher court’s decision, according to legal experts not involved in the cases.

Beckworth also said Wednesday that Camp Mystic and its supporters have waged a public campaign attacking his client, CiCi Steward, including in some social media forums. She has been falsely portrayed as standing in the way of allowing any portion of the camp to ever reopen again, he said.

Beckworth has filed a motion for sanctions, accusing defense lawyers and the defendants of “bad-faith conduct” in the case. 

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He also showed the judge a social media post that someone else shared Tuesday in a private Facebook group called “Camp Mystic Alumni Reunion” that was purportedly written by Britt Eastland, an attorney and family member named as a defendant in three of the lawsuits as the representative of his late father’s estate.

“Please get the word out about the court hearing tomorrow in Austin. (As it will be great to have a lot of supporters in the gallery again),” said the Facebook post shown in court. “My family will not be there for various strategic reasons explained by our lawyers. But please get as many of our supporters there that are wanting to come. Love, Britt.”

That post was later deleted, Beckworth said.

“This is being directed by a lawyer who’s a party” to some of the lawsuits, Beckworth said of Britt Eastland.

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Eastland’s request for a show of support was unsuccessful. The large crowds of Camp Mystic loyalists who attended the first hearings on the lawsuits in March and April have largely disappeared from the courtroom, while the victims’ families have continued to show up, listening intently to arguments all day Wednesday.

Previous testimony established that Camp Mystic and the Eastlands did not have a written evacuation plan.

Casey Garrett, another attorney and an investigator hired by the state to scrutinize the Camp Mystic disaster, told the joint investigative committee of state lawmakers in April that the camp and the Eastlands never trained counselors and guests on what to do if a flash flood occurred. Camp Mystic also never held any drills for such emergencies, she said.

Children and counselors were not allowed to have cell phones in their cabins, according to Camp Mystic’s policy. They also weren’t equipped with walkie-talkies, which meant they depended solely on Camp Mystic employees and the Eastlands to alert them of any dangers.

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State lawmakers serving on the joint committee investigating the Camp Mystic disaster recently toured the camp’s grounds to get a first-hand look at the site and to gain a better understanding of what occurred there.

The state panel is expected to release its report this summer.

The Texas Rangers are conducting a separate criminal investigation into “complaints of neglect” at Camp Mystic during the flood, the Texas Department of Public Safety has said.

The Texas Department of State Health Services also is investigating Camp Mystic after receiving more than 600 complaints and requests from the public to not renew the camp’s state license.

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The Eastlands previously planned to reopen part of the camp this summer: its newer Camp Mystic Cypress Lake campus, which sits on higher ground and did not flood on July 4. Nearly 900 girls had registered to attend this summer’s sessions there.

But the family withdrew Camp Mystic’s application for a state license on April 30 after a scorching hearing before state lawmakers on the joint committee, who expressed disdain for the camp’s actions.

In honor of Reece Zunker—Tivy H.S. teacher and boys soccer coach—and his family, take a listen to “You’ll Never Walk Alone.” Yesterday I learned, via a comment on the post about the Zunker Family Foundation scholarships, that Reece Zunker’s motto was “You’ll never walk alone.” In a comment yesterday, I mentioned that “You’ll Never Walk Alone” is the iconic anthem of the legendary Liverpool Football Club. ⚽️ The sentimental song originated from the 1940s Broadway musical Carousel, which was made into a movie starring Shirley Jones in the 1950s. Yesterday I also learned that the song became associated with Liverpool FC after Gerry and the Pacemakers—Liverpool’s other chart-topping (in the UK, at least) 60s group—released a cover of it in 1963. I wonder if they played the song at Reece Zunker’s memorial or funeral. If so, I can’t imagine there was a dry eye in the house. The first line even mentions a storm

And to all of the survivors of the Guadalupe River flood, “walk on with hope in your heart.”

Click for a glimpse (brief aerial video) of how absolutely beautiful this corner of the Hill Country is. Brief aerial video on their homepage.

Crider’s is a 101-year-old venue known for rodeo and an outdoor dance hall. It is located about 2 miles down the highway from Camp Mystic. Text of article below (bold added):

Crider's Rodeo & Dancehall will officially reopen Sunday for the first time since the devastating July 4, 2025, floods that forever changed Hunt.

Hundreds will gather on the banks of the Guadalupe River on the Crider's dance floor for "Plant the Guadalupe," a benefit concert headlined by Texas music icon Gary P. Nunn. The event runs from noon to 5 p.m. May 17 and serves as more than a concert — it is a celebration of what rebuilding Kerr County looks like as the community comes together with music, laughter and camaraderie.

For nearly a year, Hunt has grieved, rebuilt and relentlessly worked toward a "new normal" after catastrophic flooding took lives, homes, businesses and an estimated 70 percent to 90 percent of the trees lining the Guadalupe River.

"For the first time in a long time, this feels like joy returning to Hunt," said Tracy Moore, owner of Crider's Rodeo & Dancehall. "People grew up here. They met their spouses here. Their kids and grandkids learned to dance here. Reopening Crider's for its 101st year is worth celebrating because it reminds us that even after loss we are planting roots for the next generation."

Dan Kemp, chairman, CEO and president of Security State Bank & Trust, the title sponsor of the concert, said supporting Plant the Guadalupe reflects the bank's deep commitment to the Kerr County community.

"At Security State Bank & Trust, 'We're That Texan' means showing up for our neighbors and investing in the future of the communities we call home," Kemp said. "We're proud to support an event that brings people back together while helping restore the Guadalupe River for generations to come."

The concert will raise funds for the San Antonio Botanical Garden's TREES initiative, a five-year effort to restore 50,000 native trees along the Guadalupe River. Every ticket purchased directly supports the replanting and long-term restoration of the river ecosystem, helping ensure future generations can continue gathering, making memories and enjoying the beauty of the Hill Country.

Other sponsors who made the concert possible include the Hunt Preservation Society and Bartlett Tree Experts.

Organizers say the event is intentionally centered around both restoration and legacy.

"Planting generational roots starts here," said Katherine Trumble, president and CEO of the San Antonio Botanical Garden. "The trees planted through this initiative are not just for today. They are for children who will one day fish these waters, sit in their shade, and make memories along this river long after we're gone."

Known for beloved Texas classics like "Home with the Armadillo" and "Guadalupe Days," Nunn will headline the afternoon celebration as Crider's marks its 101st anniversary after nearly 10 months of restoration.

Since launching in August 2025, the TREES initiative has collected more than 850,000 locally sourced native seeds, many now growing at the garden and partner nurseries in preparation for large-scale planting efforts across Kerr County.

Tickets and additional information are available at sabgtx.org/plant-the-guadalupe. Crider's Rodeo & Dancehall is located at 2301 Texas Highway 39 in Hunt.

(May be paywalled, but Apple users should be able to read by tapping the icon on the left of the search bar, then “show reader.”) Here are some excerpts:

>Campers are set to arrive at the Houston YMCA’s Camp Cullen in less than a month, but the camp still doesn’t know if it will be able to reopen — one of hundreds across the state with pending licenses as summer camp season rapidly approaches. 

>The camp north of Lake Livingston spent nearly $50,000 on safety upgrades mandated by new state laws passed in response to last year’s July 4 floods…

>Camp Cullen, unlike Camp Mystic, isn’t in a flood plain. But it was still pushed to build a new public address system and install lighting and signs along evacuation routes. It laid down costly new fiber-optic cables. And it spent $10,300 on the state’s new licensing fee, up from $450 the year before. 

>Bobby Thomas, the camp’s director, thought the license renewal process would be easy given all the upgrades. Instead, the state has twice sent back the application, requesting minor fixes that Thomas described as “busy work.” Those included adding a screenshot of the Federal Emergency Management Agency website showing that the camp is not in a flood zone and copying and pasting the camp’s evacuation plans to a series of emergency scenarios, even though the plans were the same in each case, and though some of the cases didn’t apply to his camp. 

>Hundreds of summer camps are facing the same uncertainty. The state was still weighing licenses for 245 camps — roughly 75% of those that have applied — as of Friday, according to the latest available data from the Department of State Health Services, which oversees camp licensing. 

>The situation has left state leaders scrambling to ensure the new camp safety laws passed swiftly last summer do not inadvertently shutter hundreds of camps. 

>The agency last week essentially waived a requirement written into the laws that camps install fiber-optic cables, like the ones Camp Cullen did, to ensure internet access in emergencies, saying it would not deny licenses to camps that have another form of backup internet. That came after Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dustin Burrows issued a statement saying other means of ensuring backup internet “would satisfy the purpose and spirit of the law.”

>And now the health agency has started telling camps with pending licenses that they can operate as long as they applied before their current license expired. Even those that have their licenses denied or suspended by the state can stay open if they appeal the decision under a lengthy appeals process.  

>“While that is going on, the camp can continue to operate under the license that they had when they submitted their renewal application,” said Lara Anton, a spokeswoman for the state health agency. “The hearings process will likely take several months to complete.”….

>The lengthy appeals process would appear to allow virtually any camp to operate this summer, even if they do not meet the new rules, which were designed to prevent another crisis like Camp Mystic, where camp operators and staff have acknowledged they missed official flood warnings, lacked a detailed evacuation plan and waited too long to try to get the children out. Camp Mystic initially applied for a new license to reopen this summer, but withdrew its application last month.