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Patrick Hotze’s three daughters return home safely from Camp Mystic after July’s devastating flood killed 25 campers and two teen counselors.
He attended some funerals and said he understands the outrage over texas The camp plans to partially reopen next year.
He also intends to send his girls back.
“My heart breaks for them,” Hotze said of the parents whose girls died, some of whom she described as close friends. “I think it’s different for each child and each family.”
For the first time after the terrible floods, all girls of 100 years Christian The sleepaway retreat plans to sign up campers in January, setting off a reopening that has divided families and stunned some lawmakers. Campers will begin arriving in May, bunking on higher ground than the area where rapidly rising waters on the Guadalupe River swept away two cabins.
Some families say the decision to allow their daughters to return is an important step toward recovery from the disaster that is still under investigation.
Flood waters rose with frightening speed during the July 4 holiday weekend, killing at least 117 people in Kerr County alone. Two victims have still not been found, including an 8-year-old Camp Mystic camper.
Promise of additional security and preventive measures
Next year, Texas lawmakers are set to hold hearings to investigate the tragedy, but they have shown little interest in apportioning blame. Local leaders in Kerr County, including two people who were sleeping when the waters rose, remain on the job after defending their preparedness and evacuation efforts. They are now making slow improvements while trying to get a new flood warning system up to speed before campers return.
“We recognize that returning to Camp Mystic brings both hope and heartache,” Camp Mystic’s owners said in a letter to families this month. “For many of your daughters, this return has not been easy, but it is a courageous step in their healing journey.”
It’s unclear how many girls will return to Camp Mystic when the camp opens enrollment next month, but a spokeswoman said there is “strong interest.” The camp’s owner, Dick Eastland, died in the flood and his family has vowed to increase safety measures before the reopening, including two-way radios in each cabin and new flood warning river monitors.
July’s devastating flood was probably the first to hit an area called “flash flood alley”, where limestone hills rapidly collect water and send it down narrow river banks. This year was at least the fifth time in a century that flooding along the Guadalupe River has turned deadly. Mikal Watts, an attorney for Camp Mystic, said he and camp officials have contacted several former campers who witnessed previous floods and who told them they were not as powerful or as powerful as this year’s flood.
outrage and acceptance
Those assurances have not placated some parents of the 27 victims, who say the decision to reopen is insensitive and that the Eastland family has refused to take responsibility for its failures.
Lawsuits filed by some families allege that camp operators failed to protect children and even ordered girls and counselors in cabins closest to the river to stay inside as floodwaters inundated the property. Among the hundreds of 911 calls released by authorities this month was one from a woman who lived a mile away along the river and said two people were swept away from a camper.
In a public statement this month, the parents of six girls said, “As parents of the children who died at Camp Mystic last summer, we are deeply hurt, but sadly not shocked, by yet another insensitive announcement from Camp Mystic focused on enrollment.”
Some parents say that Camp Mystic has played an important role in their children’s personal and spiritual development, and that it made the decision to allow their girls to return easier.
Liberty Lindley’s 9-year-old daughter, Evie, was among those trapped in the flood. She was trapped with her classmates in a cabin called the Wiggle Inn, next to low-lying cabins that were rapidly being submerged by the flooded river.
Many of the girls Evie knew died.
Yet despite the horrors Evie endured, floating on mattresses with her friends in pitch darkness before being evacuated by helicopter, Lindley said her daughter didn’t hesitate when asked if she wanted to return to Camp Mystic.
“I know some people don’t understand it or think it’s crazy,” he said of his decision to allow his daughter to return.
She remembered a conversation she had with Evie – whose twin sister died of leukemia in 2024 – while she was washing her hair in the bathtub right after her terrifying experience.
“She thought she was going to meet her sister in heaven that night,” Lindley recalled. “And he still looked at me smiling and said, ‘Mom, I really hope we get to camp next year. mary poppins ‘Again, because I still really want to be Bert.’ “This was just hours after the fact.”
Some parents remain unsure
Still, not all parents are eager to send their daughters back to Camp Mystic.
John Ball, a lawyer mcleanTexas, whose daughter was at Camp Mystic during the flood, said she had serious reservations, especially after poor communication from camp officials regarding her daughter’s whereabouts.
Ball said he was out of town and did not learn his daughter was safe until more than 12 hours after the flood, when he was able to borrow a cellphone and call her.
“That was the hardest part, not knowing,” Ball said.
“I think we’ll take this year off and see how it goes and what these changes look like that they’re implementing,” he said, “and we’ll go from there.”