FEMA Allowed Camp Mystic to Operate in 100-Year Flood Zone Despite Decades of Deadly Warnings, Records Show

FEMA approved multiple appeals to remove Camp Mystic's buildings from a designated flood zone, allowing the girls' summer camp to expand in a known hazard area along the Guadalupe River before flash floods killed at least 27 people there on July 4.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) first placed Camp Mystic in a "Special Flood Hazard Area" in 2011, which should have triggered stricter safety standards and insurance requirements, the Independent reported. But within two years, that designation began to erode as FEMA granted a series of map amendments, removing dozens of camp structures from the zone. Records show the exemptions covered key buildings later destroyed or damaged in the flood.

Camp Mystic, founded nearly a century ago, sits along the banks of a river in central Texas often called "flash flood alley." Despite the area's deadly history, Kerr County officials allowed the camp to keep operating and approved a major expansion in 2020. That newer site, Mystic Cypress Lake, was built further from the main river but still within reach of rising water. FEMA had exempted those buildings too, even though new modeling shows most are still flood-prone.

When the flood struck before dawn, cabins at the original Guadalupe River site were overwhelmed. Survivors described water surging through structures with little warning. Longtime camp owner Dick Eastland was among those killed.

FEMA has since said its flood maps are "snapshots in time" and not designed to predict every possible threat. But climate researchers say the agency's standards leave dangerous gaps, especially in regions with increasingly severe storms.

Experts believe Camp Mystic's successful appeals to FEMA likely reduced the camp's insurance costs and made it easier to build new facilities. A detailed AP review found that at least a dozen of the buildings removed from the map were still within the actual 100-year floodplain, and some sat just two feet above the zone's limit. FEMA approves around 90% of such appeals, a process that often favors affluent property owners who can afford engineers and legal support.

Camp Mystic has not publicly commented beyond calling the flood an "unimaginable tragedy." As of July 12, more than 125 people are confirmed dead, with scores still missing.