Camp Mystic leader, who died trying to save small children, waited over an hour after alert before starting evacuation
The adult leader of Camp Mystic, the Texas summer camp where 27 children and counselors died in the Hill Country floods, waited more than an hour after receiving a severe flood warning before initiating an evacuation, it was disclosed on Monday.
Richard “Dick” Eastland, who had run the popular all-girls, Christian-values sleepaway camp on the banks of the Guadalupe River with his family since the 1980s, was among the fatalities after a wall of water rushed through the camp early on 4 July.
A spokesperson for the Eastland family told the Washington Post that a National Weather Service (NWS) alert was sent to his phone at 1.14am warning of “life threatening flash flooding”, and only at 2.30am, with heavy rain still falling and the river level rising fast, he made the decision to begin evacuations.
They didn’t have phones and even if they did it’s easy to sleep through a phone alert at 1am during a loud storm.
I replied elsewhere, but I’m gonna stick it here as well for visibility:
NOAA Weather Radios go off like alarm clocks when warnings are issued. Loud as hell. We hear ours 1 floor away through closed doors with a fan and a white noise machine. This camp absolutely should have had not 1 but 2 of these in separate locations.
I’m the emergency manager of a camp. We have redundant alert and notification systems, a full All Hazards emergency plan and drill routinely for sheltering and evacuation.
No less should have been done for these kids. This is 100% on the hands of the leadership of the camp. Full stop.