Texas, Camp Mystic and floods
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Texas state officials inspected Camp Mystic and certified it had a disaster plan in place two days before floods swept through the Christian girls camp in the Hill Country last weekend, killing at least 27 campers and counselors.
Virginia Wynne Naylor, 8, was at Camp Mystic, a girls' summer camp with cabins along the river in a rural part of Kerr County, when the floods hit on July 4. Her family confirmed her death in a statement, referring to her as Wynne.
Over the last decade, an array of Texas state and local agencies missed opportunities to fund a flood warning system, including failing to secure roughly $1 million US for a project to better protect Kerr County’s 50,
The data also highlights critical risks in other areas along the Guadalupe River in Kerr County, revealing more than twice as many Americans live in flood prone areas than FEMA's maps show.
Records released Tuesday show Camp Mystic met state regulations for disaster procedures, but details of the plan remain unclear.
Texas inspectors signed off on Camp Mystic's emergency planning just two days before catastrophic flooding killed more than two dozen people at the all-girls Christian summer camp, most of them children.
While no one at Camp Mystic died from the 1987 flood -- unlike the dozens that died in the tragedy over the weekend -- 10 teenagers were killed when a bus and van washed away near Comfort, Texas.
Canadian summer camp organizers say they expect a ripple effect of bolstered emergency plans and preparations after more than two dozen campers and counsellors were killed by severe flash floods in Texas.
Janie Hunt, 9, Eloise Peck, 8, Lila Bonner, 9, Hanna Lawrence, 8, Rebecca Lawrence, 8, and Hadley Hanna, 8, have all been confirmed dead.