AUSTIN, Texas — A Texas decide declined Wednesday to totally shut Camp Mystic — the tragic epicenter of the July 4 floods that inundated the Texas Hill Nation final yr — however prevented the a part of the camp the place the lethal flooding occurred from being altered.
State District Decide Maya Guerra Gamble heard proof in a packed Travis County courtroom in a short lived restraining order and injunction request filed by Will and CiCi Steward, the mother and father of 8-year-old Cecilia “Cile” Steward, a camper who died within the flooding.
Gamble granted a short lived injunction barring the all-girls summer season camp alongside the Guadalupe River from altering or reworking any construction the place campers have been housed through the tragedy.
She additionally ordered that the outdated Guadalupe grounds, the place the deadly flooding occurred, be sealed off, together with the commissary, the rec corridor and the principle workplace. Nonetheless, areas exterior of these grounds can proceed with building.
Twenty-five ladies, two counselors and Camp Mystic’s proprietor have been killed within the historic flooding in Kerr County that swamped the camp. Cile’s physique has not been recovered.
Over 130 individuals within the area died within the disaster.
The Stewards, who filed a lawsuit in opposition to the house owners of the camp and the request for a restraining order final month, had requested that Camp Mystic not reopen this summer season to campers and that building and reworking be halted to protect proof on the website.
Of their submitting, the Stewards argued that reworking and building are already underway, even because the seek for their daughter’s physique continues.
“This software for injunctive reduction seeks to protect the established order and shield materials proof bearing on how and why Cile Steward misplaced her life whereas entrusted to Defendants’ care,” their submitting mentioned.
Gamble’s ruling can be in impact whereas the lawsuit is pending.
Camp Mystic didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
The courtroom was packed Wednesday with members of victims’ households.
Edward Eastland, director of the Guadalupe camp on the time, testified as a witness for the protection. He informed the court docket that some buildings have been repaired and transformed.
Questioned concerning the tragedy, he mentioned the youngsters didn’t have walkie-talkies of their cabins, and he mentioned that the camp had safety cameras however that nobody was watching the feed in the midst of the evening when the flooding started.
Brad Beckworth, the Stewards’ lawyer, mentioned after the listening to: “Our software for a restraining order was granted in its entirety.
“The one limitation in any respect to it’s how we’re going to take care of business exercise on the opposite facet of the camp,” he continued. “However to be clear, what the court docket has dominated is that the Guadalupe River facet of Camp Mystic is not going to be reopening anytime quickly till we get by means of the precise evidentiary course of in direction of trial.”
Will Steward praised the decide’s resolution, saying: “It was necessary to know that the decide understood and the court docket understood that what we’re making an attempt to do is protect the proof that’s there so we are able to perceive, so future campers won’t ever be put in a scenario like this once more.”
Mikal Watts, an lawyer representing Camp Mystic and the Eastland household, which owns the camp, mentioned he was “thrilled” with the decide’s resolution.
“She agreed that the proof of the Guadalupe River must be preserved, identical to we supplied to. … A part of what we’re doing is working tonight on the structural separation to maintain children away from Guadalupe River whereas they’re attending camp this summer season at Cypress Lake. We agreed to do this,” he mentioned.
Watts mentioned 853 campers have been signed up as of Tuesday to attend this summer season at Mystic’s Cypress Lake location, which it has described as unbiased from the older Guadalupe camp.
In saying its reopening plans in December, Camp Mystic mentioned it has taken steps to boost security, together with putting in flood monitoring items.
Final week, households of 9 victims of the Camp Mystic floods sued the state, claiming it didn’t implement a requirement that the camp have an evacuation plan.
Additionally final week, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick despatched a letter urging the commissioner of the Division of State Well being Companies to disclaim the camp a license to function till “all legislative investigations are full and any needed corrective actions are taken.”
In response to Patrick’s letter, Camp Mystic mentioned final week that its Cypress Lake location is “in compliance with all elements of the state’s new camp security legal guidelines.” It famous that the Cypress Lake website just isn’t adjoining to the Guadalupe River and that it “sustained no important harm from the historic flood on July 4.”
