The families of seven campers and two counselors who died in the catastrophic flooding that swept through Camp Mystic this summer are suing the Texas camp and its owners, accusing them of gross negligence, according to three lawsuits filed Monday.<\/p>\n
One lawsuit was filed by the families of five campers and two counselors who perished in the\u00a0July 4 tragedy: Anna Margaret Bellows, Lila Bonner, Chloe Childress, Molly DeWitt, Katherine Ferruzzo, Lainey Landry and Blakely McCrory.<\/p>\n
A second lawsuit was filed by the family of Eloise \u201cLulu\u201d Peck, an 8-year-old who also died in the disaster, an attorney for the family said. The third was filed by the family of 9-year-old Ellen Getten.<\/p>\n
Each lawsuit seeks more than $1 million in damages.<\/p>\n
They mark the first legal action taken by victims\u2019 families against the camp since the flooding that claimed their daughters\u2019 lives.<\/p>\n
The lawsuits\u2019 defendants include Camp Mystic and members of the Eastland family, which owns the 99-year-old camp in Kerr County, Texas.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe continue to pray for the grieving families and ask for God\u2019s healing and comfort,\u201d a statement from the camp read Monday evening.<\/p>\n
More than two dozen campers and staffers \u2013\u00a0the \u201cHeaven\u2019s 27,\u201d\u00a0as they are known \u2013 died in the predawn hours of July 4 after torrential rainfall caused flash flooding at the century-old summer camp in Texas Hill Country.<\/p>\n
Many of the\u00a0youngest victims were housed\u00a0in cabins along the banks of the Guadalupe River.<\/p>\n
Richard \u201cDick\u201d Eastland, who co-owned the\u00a0all-girls Christian camp with his wife, Tweety, died while he was trying to save some of the girls, a family spokesperson has said.<\/p>\n
The flooding killed at least 136 people across the region, as parts of the Guadalupe River rose from about\u00a03 feet to almost 30 feet in just 45 minutes.<\/p>\n
The first lawsuit, filed by the families of five campers and two counselors, accuses Camp Mystic of not having adequate safety plans and prioritizing money over safety.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday, campers Margaret, Lila, Molly, Lainey, and Blakely should be third graders, and counselors Chloe and Katherine should be freshmen at the University of Texas. They all are gone,\u201d the lawsuit states.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese young girls died because a for-profit camp put profit over safety,\u201d the filing says. \u201cThe Camp chose to house young girls in cabins sitting in flood-prone areas, despite the risk, to avoid the cost of relocating the cabins. The Camp chose not to make plans to safely evacuate its campers and counselors from those cabins, despite state rules requiring evacuation plans, and not to spend time and money on safety training and tools.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOn July 4, the Camp chose to take no steps to protect its campers and counselors while it knew a storm and \u2018life threatening flash flooding\u2019 were approaching,\u201d the first lawsuit states. \u201cInstead, with the river rising, the Camp chose to direct its groundskeepers to spend over an hour evacuating camp equipment, not its campers and counselors. The Camp chose not to evacuate its campers and counselors, even as floodwater reached the cabins, until counselors demanded it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The \u201cCamp chose not to evacuate the Bubble Inn and Twins cabins when other campers and counselors had been moved to safe, higher ground just 300 feet away,\u201d the suit says. \u201cInstead, the Camp chose to order its campers and counselors to remain in the Bubble Inn and Twins cabins while the flood waters overwhelmed the camp. Finally, when it was too late, the Camp made a hopeless \u2018rescue\u2019 effort from its self-created disaster in which 25 campers, two counselors, and the Camp director died.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe carry the memory of our daughter in everything we do. This legal step is one of honoring her, and we believe that truth and justice are essential to finding peace \u2013 not only for our family, but for every family affected,\u201d said Ryan DeWitt, who lost his daughter, Molly.<\/p>\n
The second lawsuit, filed by the family of Eloise \u201cLulu\u201d Peck, accused Camp Mystic of \u201cgross negligence\u201d by \u201cfailing to implement modern safety measures or update its own flood protocols in light of known dangers.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThese terrifying last moments and then deaths were proximately caused by the negligence and gross negligence of Defendants,\u201d the filing says.<\/p>\n
\u201cDefendants knew that camp facilities were located in a flood zone, knew of the history of flash flooding in Kerr County, knew of repeated prior flood events at the Camp, and received warnings from family members about flood risk.\u201d<\/p>\n
A third lawsuit was filed by the parents of Ellen, one of the youngest girls at the camp and who was housed at Bubble Inn cabin.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit alleges the camp\u2019s directors and owners should have been aware of an emergency response activation in the area ahead of the major flooding and should have been on \u201chigh alert.\u201d<\/p>\n
The defendants had enough time to evacuate all the campers and prevent injuries and death, the lawsuit alleges.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the very least, Camp Mystic had more than enough time to train, educate, and instruct counselors and campers alike of a true evacuation plan should the weather continue to grow in severity through the day and into the night,\u201d the lawsuit states. \u201cHowever, the Defendants chose to do nothing after this alert to protect Ellen\u2019s and the other campers\u2019 lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
Additionally, a plan to evacuate the campers came more than 12 hours after a flash flood warning, the lawsuit alleges. That plan was \u201cwholly inadequate and purposefully left some of the youngest children in Bubble Inn completely stranded without instruction, direction, or adult emergency assistance before their tragic deaths,\u201d according to the lawsuit.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Camp\u2019s failure to act led to utter chaos and mass panic,\u201d the lawsuit says.<\/p>\n
The lawsuits seek a jury trial in Travis County District Court. And they demand compensation for \u201cmental anguish,\u201d among other damages.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe empathize with the families of the campers and counselors and all families in the Hill Country who lost loved ones in the horrific and unprecedented flood of July 4,\u201d Jeff Ray, legal counsel for Camp Mystic, said in a statement Monday after the lawsuits were filed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe intend to demonstrate and prove that this sudden surge of floodwaters far exceeded any previous flood in the area by several magnitudes, that it was unexpected and that no adequate warning systems existed in the area,\u201d the statement continued. \u201cWe disagree with several accusations and misinformation in the legal filings regarding the actions of Camp Mystic and Dick Eastland, who lost his life as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
CNN has also reached out to Camp Mystic attorney Mikal Watts for comment on the lawsuits.<\/p>\n
In an\u00a0interview with CNN last month, Watts addressed some of the questions and concerns that had been raised by families.<\/p>\n
He said the first warning came at 1:14 a.m., but \u201cthere\u2019s some question as to who got it and who didn\u2019t, because this is a very remote area with limited cell phone coverage.\u201d<\/p>\n
At 1:47 a.m., Dick Eastland and his son Edward \u201cimmediately convened the ground crew and started securing equipment, started coming up with a plan at about 2\u201d a.m., Watts said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt about 2:19, we got the first information that one of the houses was having water coming,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Before 3 a.m., \u201cthere was a very orderly evacuation process of 10 different camps or cabins,\u201d Watts said.<\/p>\n
He also challenged the notion that evacuating children during flash flooding is always the best option.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou shelter in place. That\u2019s first and foremost what you ought to do,\u201d Watts said.<\/p>\n
\u201c<\/em>Do not take 9-year-old girls who weigh 63 pounds on average into raging floodwaters. They\u2019re going to get washed away.\u201d<\/p>\n The deaths at Camp Mystic have led to sharp questions from parents and lawmakers about the camp\u2019s safety and evacuation plan in an area known to flood on a regular basis.<\/p>\n \u201cObvious commonsense safety measures were absent. Protocols that should have been in place were ignored,\u201d said CiCi Williams Steward, the mother of 8-year-old Cile, who remains missing. \u201cShe was stolen from her family, from her future, from the world she lit up with her independence and spunk.\u201d<\/p>\n In September, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed\u00a0tougher camp safety laws\u00a0that require local governments to install outdoor sirens and warning systems in flood-prone areas.<\/p>\n Last month, the Camp Mystic attorney\u00a0offered an in-depth timeline\u00a0of how camp leaders responded to the flood warnings and rising waters. They safely evacuated 166 girls thanks to their quick efforts, Watts said.<\/p>\n \u201cThis was an unprecedented, once-in-a-thousand-year event, that nobody thought was even possible,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s never happened before.\u201d<\/p>\n Camp Mystic has announced plans to partially reopen\u00a0this coming summer for its 100th anniversary. The section of the camp close to the Guadalupe River will remain closed. The more recent expansion, which sits uphill and was not damaged in the flooding, will reopen.<\/p>\n For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at\u00a0CNN.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The families of seven campers and two counselors who died in the catastrophic flooding that swept through Camp<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2220,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-us"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2219"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2219\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2221,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2219\/revisions\/2221"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Anger and grief lead to change<\/h3>\n