Camp Mystic in Hunt, Texas, where 28 people died after massive flash flooding swept the private Christian summer camp for girls along the Guadalupe River on July 4, 2025, filed for bankruptcy protection on Wednesday as it faces multiple wrongful death lawsuits from more than a dozen families.
A Chapter 11 filing in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas shows that the Christian camp disclosed having less than $10 million in estimated assets and between $10 million and $50 million in estimated liabilities.
The filing comes as Camp Mystic and its owners sought to resolve five wrongful death lawsuits out of court earlier this month, Houston Public Media reported. More than a dozen families accuse camp leaders in the lawsuits of failing to evacuate campers and counselors during the flooding, which they claim led to their deaths.
Rejecting the push for arbitration, lawyers for Will and CiCi Steward, whose 8-year-old daughter, Cile, was never found, asked Judge Maya Guerra to impose sanctions on Camp Mystic for “bad-faith litigation conduct.”
The Stewards stated in their filing that Camp Mystic “induced Plaintiffs to expend significant resources opposing their motion to compel arbitration, withdrew it in defiance of this Court’s directive on the eve of the specially set hearing … and then refiled the same motion after reviewing Plaintiffs’ responses.”
An investigative legislative report on the tragedy released this month also found that the camp had inadequate advanced emergency planning, inadequate storm preparation, failed to evacuate the camp in a timely manner, and did not manage the incident well.
“Before daybreak, the flood waters receded. The devastation quickly became apparent, and Camp Mystic staff understood relatively soon that the whereabouts of 28 people were unknown. Yet parents of campers were traumatized by incomplete and conflicting information while waiting to learn whether their loved ones had survived,” an executive summary of the report states. “In addition to their dismay about the camp’s lack of emergency planning and failed response, many parents have shared frustrations about poor local communication and coordination in the aftermath.”
Camp Mystic’s eight-page bankruptcy filing on Wednesday was signed by Willetta A. Eastland, Richard G. Eastland, Jr., George A. Eastland, and Edward S. Eastland, who manage the 100-year-old family operation.
The camp had planned on reopening parts of its operations this summer but withdrew its application for an operating license after opposition from families, The Texas Tribune reported.
“No administrative process or summer season should move forward while families continue to grieve, while investigations continue, and while so many Texans still carry the pain of last July’s tragedy,” the camp said in a statement.
CiCi and Will Steward criticized the camp’s statement at the time, noting that the only reason the camp withdrew their application for an operating license is because they would have likely been denied one.
“It was not out of respect for our grieving families. Nor because they wanted to do the next right thing,” the couple said in a statement. “We have pled with them to stop since September. It was a calculated exit from a license they were about to lose.”
Contact: [email protected] Follow Leonardo Blair on Twitter: @leoblair Follow Leonardo Blair on Facebook: LeoBlairChristianPost
