After the Flood

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Start today meets you where you are. Download the start today. Well, this app now on your Avalor Android device. Terms apply. See app for details. Tonight on Date Line. The girls were terrified. I see the water pouring into our cabin.

“It literally swept me off my feet. Oh my gosh. What do we do?”

It happened last 4th of July. The wall of water that swallowed can't miss it. We learned that Blakely was missing. What's going through your mind? It was torturous. I said where's Ellen? She said, then tired cabin is missing. We prayed to God that she was out there holding on. You are seeing trunks float down the river. You're seeing cars fly by you.

27 girls died. She'd never happened.

Could this tragedy been averted? A hundred percent. Our girls should be here. They were told to stay in their cabins. Hundreds of girls lives were saved. So you're making an argument for keeping them inside the cabins. It's called shelter in place. It is the closest to hell that I had ever been.

The terrifying floods here at Camp Mystic, one year later anguish, anger, and haunting questions. I'm Lester Holt and this is Dateline. Here is after the flood. For many kids, summer camp is a right of passage. At Camp Mystic, an all-girl's Christian camp in the Texas Hill Country, that tradition ran deep.

I have been attending Mystic for 10 summers as a camper. First year counselor, Ainsley Bashara.

I had always known that I was going to be a counselor.

And Mystic is the closest thing to heaven that I've ever experienced. It's where my faith began. Owned and operated by Dick and Twiti Eastland since 1974. Camp Mystic had drawn Texas families to the Guadalupe River for almost a century. They were so invested in every single girl.

I mean, you could just see the love that the two of them had. And it was so special. Eleven-year-old Gwen Getton and her fourth year had felt that love. Now it was her nine-year-old sister, Ains' turn.

She was finally old enough to be a big girl.

And kind of go off and, you know, not have her mom and dad around.

“Their parents, Jenny and Doug, how did Gwen feel about having her sister at the camp?”

Very excited. They had already figured out before they even left what activities they were going to try to do together. Camp Mystic offered everything from horseback riding to river canoeing. Lindsay McCroy hoped that for her eight-year-old daughter Blakely, it could also be a place of healing. Blakely had lost her father a few months before it camp.

My late husband after brief battled cancer and then her uncle died in June. My brother. So we were happy for her to spend time outdoors and just be a kid. Blakely, Ellen and more than 500 campers arrived on June 29, 2025. Spread across cabins near the river and up on higher ground.

Blakely was assigned to a cabin called twins-1. One of two interconnected cabins about 400 feet from the river.

And Ainsley was a few steps away in Gigglebox. One of three counselors responsible for 16 young campers aged 8 to 10.

“So, younger kids would have been staying closer to the river?”

Yes. The camp settled into its usual rhythm of games, activities, and Sunday devotionals. Ellen went fishing and joined the craftscrew. As the end of the first week near, she and her sister looked forward to the big July 4th celebration. Well, on July 3rd, Gwen went to her cabin.

They were having a against party. And kissed Ellen, good night, and Ellen kissed her cheek. And they said they loved each other.

Outside, a storm was brewing, a powerful weather system had stalled over central Texas.

And was about to unleash waves of thunderstorms over the same area for hours. Dick Eastlin was awake and monitoring the weather when the National Weather Service issued its first flash flood warning on July 4th at 114 AM. It was scary. About a half hour later, 10-year-old Lucy Kennedy woke up, disoriented, and frightened her cabin was down the road from Ellen and Blakely.

There was a really loud thunder and my whole cabin.

“Like, I think everyone woke up because it was really loud.”

I mean, it sounded like people were shooting fireworks off in our cabin. The rain was falling so hard that my 2-14 AM, an hour after the flash flood warning, a dry creek that cut through the camp had turned into a torrent, the river kept rising at a record rate. At 3-11 AM, Dick Eastlin and his son Edward, who was in charge of the younger capers, started evacuating the cabin's closest to the river.

About 10 minutes later, it was Lucy's cabin's turn. When the water started coming up, was anybody giving you instructions? Is this the right to do it? Um, maybe like a pillow and blanket just in case we had a sleep in like a water and a flashlight, and then they told us to be strong and go to the wreck and then they went after us.

At 3-26 AM, a counselor snapped this photo. Girls from Lucy's cabin struggling through rising waters to reach the two-story wreck hall. How strong was the water? Well, let's jump.

“I mean, was it pulling at you or pulling at things around you?”

Yeah. Were you able to stay close to your friends? Yeah. So, Lucy's group raised by her cabin and wondered as a counselor what she should do. I see the water pouring into our cabin.

Without a second thought, girls put on your shoes and grab a rain jacket and we're leaving.

Angely, tried to open the door. When the water came through the door, it literally swept me off my feet. I remember slamming the door somehow and just being in a state of what now. And at this time, a worker from the camp had come up to our window. It was Edward Eastland, her camp director.

They had said to me, "This is crazy. This is crazy. I don't know what to do." I remember thinking in my mind, you don't know what to do. I have 16 little girls behind me and I'm just as afraid as they are. They decided to go through the window. Edward helped them break out one of the screens then rushed to evacuate another cabin.

And we get the first girl to get through the window and thank God that she was too afraid to jump through the window first.

So without a second thought, I jumped out of the window to grab her and just put her and show her that it was okay. And that is when I realized how fast, high and rapid the water was moving. I mean, it was rushing just enough to easily swipe a little girl off of her feet and take her away from us. It was terrifying. Fear was about to turn into a race for survival.

[Music] Angelina and two other counselors were trying to save their eight to ten year old campers in the biggest flood camp mystic had ever seen. When they started passing them through their cabin window, the water was almost knee high and rising fast. I mean, I would carry three of them at a time as many as I possibly could.

And we all made trip after trip after trip until all of the girls were out of our cabin and up to the pavilion. We were able to look back on our cabin.

“You could already see water rushing through the windows and pouring into the cabin from every angle.”

But soon the water reached the pavilion. There was no way out other than a steep hill behind them. It was a very steep steep climb and with the rain coming down it was almost a waterfall. So we would walk the girls up and do a quick head count of them. Then we would just yell prayers over them and just continue to climb the hill and each time the water would rise.

What was happening below them seemed incomprehensible. The lightning would strike and it would kind of light up just a very narrow viewpoint for you and you would just see the destruction that this water was causing to our sanctuary. You are seeing trunks float down the river. You're seeing cars fly by you. You're hearing the trees snap.

I mean it sounds like they're exploding.

“The most horrific sounds though were the voices.”

You're hearing screams of names. You're hearing screams for help. Over and over and over again. Some of the screams for help were coming from twins' cabins where Blakely was trapped.

A worker on the second floor of the commissary shot this video of twins' cabins at 3.26am.

Several feet of water swirling below the windows. 24 minutes later the cabins were almost entirely submerged. The situation at Ellen's cabin bubble in was just as dire. Around 3.35am Dick Eastland arrived and began moving girls into his truck. Fifteen minutes later he radioed Edward for help.

I have bubble in cabin in my car he pleaded. I've stuck against a tree. Then at 358am a worker who was trapped on the second floor of the commissary made a call to 911. We don't know what to do.

“Okay. Right now the best thing I can tell you is to get to his higher ground as you can.”

I know it's nothing most ideal. We can also walk everywhere. We can't move. Okay. Right. Right. Right. That's there in the room. And the river is rising in. The water was also rising at Rec Hall where Lucy was.

We are on the bottom floor and then we had to move to the top floor because it was getting higher. What did you hang on to? I don't want it like so we do really like hang on to anything.

The water was like about right here and then we just stayed on the second floor until it went down.

That happened just before 6am the water slowly receded. Ainsley at her campers worked their way back to the pavilion at the bottom of the hill. A truck was dropping off several girls from twins' cabins who had been swept into the current and survived by clinging for hours to a branch of an uprooted tree. You just run out and you grab these little girls who look like a ghost and you just hug them and say it's okay. It's okay. You're safe. We have you.

And that wasn't the only survival story. Ainsley learned another group trapped in their cabin state of float on mattresses. The rising water stopping just as they reach the ceiling. And at this point the sky starts to lighten and it's morning time. And so your vision is just slowly getting better and you're seeing more and more. And your heart is breaking at every instant.

Everyone assembled at Rec Hall where Edwards' wife was leading a head count. And so one by one each cabin is called to the front of Rec Hall where Mary Liz has a roster sheet and is going each girl one by one. Calling their name out, laying eyes on them making sure that they're there. Sixteen campers and counselors from twins' cabins were present. But when Edwards' wife called the names of Blakely and ten other cabin mates, there was no response.

And that was the first realization of their girl's missing.

We're the fourth cabin in that line of the youngest girls. We're just watching them in complete and utter disbelief and shock. Then they called Ellen's cabin, bubble in. I don't think I'll ever forget the moment when the head count was done and bubble in was called and they weren't there. Not a single girl was there. Honey, did you invite the minions over?

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Such an ordinary thing. To walk home from high school. Her name was Mickey Costanzo, just 16. She didn't have far to go. Seems perfectly safe until it wasn't. What happened to Mickey?

I'm Keith Morrison.

And this is five miles from home, and all new podcasts from date line.

Listen to all episodes of five miles from home now, wherever you get your podcasts. Hey guys, Willie Geist here reminding you to check out the Sunday Sit Down podcast. On this week's episode, I get together with one of the biggest stars in country music, Riley Green.

“Talking about his rise from working construction in his Alabama hometown up to the top of the charts.”

And his latest high profile gig as a coach on NBC's The Voice. You can get our conversation now for free wherever you download your podcasts. We're heading on the one with location and emergency. We're going to die. I'm having incense. He can't hold her breath.

In the early morning hours of July 4th, emergency services up and down. The Guadalupe River in Kirk County were overwhelmed with calls for help. Over night, the River rose, a record 37 feet. Experts would call it a 1 in a thousand year flood. It was 7.22 a.m.

When one of the Eastlands called 911 for the first time.

Here, it can't make the concessions. We didn't search and rescue. Okay, what's going on? We're visiting as they as 20 to 40 people. When Kennedy, who is Lucy's mom, lives about 10 miles from Camp Mystic.

“On July 4th, she woke up to text messages from panic parents asking about their daughters.”

Since I'm local, they were texting me about the flood. And my response was that I'm not even worried about them. They're in the safest place they can be. And I didn't know how bad it was or how severe it was. Fortunately, Lucy was okay.

I was able to get through to certain people because I know a lot of people in the community. So I know I was able to find out Lucy was safe. Hundreds of miles away in Houston, there was no sign of the storm. The Gettins planned to celebrate the holiday with a nice dinner and fireworks. They were caught off guard when a camp representatives called them.

Ellen was missing. Jenny texted one of the camp directors. I said, "Where's Ellen?" She said, "I don't know." I said, "What do you mean you don't know?" And she said that the entire cabin is missing.

And they were with one of the other heads of the leadership. That was Dick Eastland, a manly trusted. We were told that Dick was with them. So we thought he was just in a place. We didn't have cell service.

We packed an overnight bag and got in the car. Thinking that we're going to pick up our girls. You know, death didn't even cross my mind. That changed when they arrived at a local elementary school where Rescuers brought campers to be reunited with their families.

I heard one of the other dads say we've got some bad news here. And at that same time I was hearing about human bodies in the river and then it was kind of like a literally shot in the chest. It's like what? Another parent told them that their daughter Gwen was safe.

They soon spotted her, traumatized and terrified about her sister. She was hysterical and she dropped her knees and screamed I don't want to be an only child. And what can you say as a parent? We said calm down, she's fine, she's strong, she's a strong swimmer.

You know, she's they're going to find her. By nightfall, all the campers and counselors from bubble in were still unaccounted for. So we're 11 from twins' cabins. One and two and one from another cabin, 27 girls in all.

Their families were brought to a nearby church and told to wait for news. The parents would sit together and row somewhere they'd hold hands together. When you started hearing the parents getting the news

to go to the morgue and you heard their screams, that's something you can't unhere. You'd hear their whaling

with uninhibited emotion, just fear.

“Later that night, they heard that rescuers”

had located Dick Eastland's truck in a grove by the river near the camp. Inside the bodies of Dick and three bubble in girls, but not Ellen. We cried on our knees and prayed to God

that she was out there and cleaning on and holding on. Blakely's mom, Lindsay, had been on vacation overseas when she heard Blakely was missing. We went to the airport, got on the flight, I couldn't eat, I couldn't sleep. Still hopeful she arrived at the church two days after the flood,

but then a Texas Ranger asked for her DNA. That's when I realized that she might not have made it out alive. From this one.

Searchers found Blakely's body the next day.

She was still wearing a necklace, her mother bought her. I gave her this necklace before camp that says mystic and it's in the colors of the camp, green and white. Mental out to both of you. It did.

Lindsay had lost so much that year. Her husband, her brother,

“and now her precious eight-year-old daughter, gone.”

In the spot she hoped would be a refuge. It was going to be a place of healing for her, but it actually became a place of death for her too. As Lindsay was coming to grips with the worst of news, Houston Firefighter Tyler Graff and his rescue dog truckie

arrived in town to join the search efforts. The aftermath was pretty awe-inspiring, shocking. Smells of disaster, smells of decomposition. Can you use in the trees? When you come down into the basin,

it's like entering a whole other realm. It's it's somber. And it's full of sadness. By the time you got here, where you want to search in rescue mission,

or just a search mission. Search in your cover. By the time that we were searching, we weren't looking for live victims. About a week after the flood,

on a muddy bank across the river, Tyler found a single crock, charmed, still attached, flowers, a cupcake, a name tag,

Ellen Getton.

“We found it right here on this point on this other side here.”

It was a very somber moment, and we knew that this crock had some sort of story to it. The story of a nine-year-old girl, whose family was desperately waiting to hear what happened to her.

The days immediately after the flood were a blur for Jenny and Doug Getton, as they waited for word about Ellen, knowing but not knowing. We waited a week,

and that all week when was so hopeful that there was some way that she had made it through. And the reality is, there was no hope. They got the call on July 12th.

The text stranger called us and said, "We have her body, we have Ellen's body." We weren't allowed to see her because she'd been in the water for so long. And that haunts me every single day.

None of the 27 missing camp-mistic campers and counselors survived. They're known as Heaven's 27. 38 kids lost their sisters. 51 parents lost daughters that day.

The funerals went on for days. When Ellen was laid to rest, 11 year old Gwen, you'll adjust her. It does not matter if you have known Ellen for nine years or nine days.

Because just by looking at her beautiful face, you can tell how kind and sweet and amazing she is. One of the things I love about Ellen is her funny laugh.

She was always so creative in the most hilarious ways.

Gwen spoke, and did an incredible job to honor her sister. And it was awful. I mean, you talk about nightmare. We're in this massive church that probably holds 1600 people.

And how are we here? Afterwards, they get in struggle to go on. It's like an amputation. You're walking around without part of you.

Missing a whole piece of it. In their Houston home, the get and surrounded themselves with reminders of Ellen, and held on to the letters she wrote before she died. When we got in a long July six, we had some letters waiting for us.

They're still sealed. We can't bring ourselves to open them up. We're not ready to do that yet.

“I think opening them seems like more of a permanent.”

And I'm not there yet. Blakely's mom knew she had to keep the memory of her eight-year-old daughter alive somehow. She vowed to talk about Blakely whenever she could. She just was a ton of fun.

She would always play practical jokes on us.

Sometimes she put her pet box turtle in my purse. She was a young girl that had an old soul. She even asked me at one point before camp, if I would date again because she wanted to have a step father. She just had such a big heart.

The mystic community was also morning. It's patriarch, Dick Eastland. When we found out about all of the deaths, and then we found out about Dick's passing.

“It was a little piece of the camp dying.”

And mystic is such a special place to me, so that was such a hard pill to swallow.

Her nightmares are never ending, so is her guilt.

Finding out that girls did not make it. And that I had. Is a survivor's guilt that I can't even explain in words. Because why am I here? And others are not.

Angely says the kindness of others helped her get through the bad days. I know you wanted me. Kindness helped Blakely's mom too, along with videos of her daughter that she watched unrepid. Hey, honey club, I'm gonna keep on doing it.

Have you been able to go into her room? Yes, I've gone in her room. I've even slept in her bed.

“It's a way for me to hold on to those memories”

when we street in her bed. She was doing little projects in her room playing. I definitely don't shut the door to her room, and I'm not putting my heart on a shelf per se. After their lives were shattered, came the questions.

We brought these mothers together to ask what they learned when they went digging. Could this tragedy been averted? Yes, I did. And Natalie Landry and my daughter's lady.

I'm Wendy Childress and my daughter is Chloe. I'm Patricia Bellows and my daughter's Margaret. I'm Ellen Sheedy and my daughter is Margaret Sheedy. I'm Sam Jukovie and my daughter's near Cate Jukovie. I'm Andrea Furuso and my daughter's Katherine Furuso.

I'm Ellen Tronso and my daughter's Greta Tronso. These Houston moms all lost daughters that can't miss it. They've leaned on each other ever since. Ellen's mom Jenny getting gathered them at her house. These people are really the only one to truly understand what I went through.

I don't think anyone can relate to what we've experienced except for the other 26 families. I have trouble relating to my best friends prior to July 4. Hearing about their busy lives, their carpools. That's not my life anymore. Nothing is the same after.

There's the before and then there's the after. Because the person you were before is gone. That person is dead. They're haunted by questions about that night. There's a desperate need to know what did you go through.

Were you alone? Were you with someone? Were you afraid? Was it fast? And they say the Eastlands, the family they trusted, to keep their girls safe, remain virtually silent after the flood.

We've never received a debrief if you will.

So they've never gathered you together as a group.

A personal condolence note here.

I text with the Bible nurse there.

“Lovely, but not what you're looking for.”

No, we're looking for not the answers that we need. In the absence of those answers, these parents decided to dig for the facts on their own. Talking to as many people as they could. And what they found, only deep in their anguish,

could this tragedy been averted? A hundred percent. Our girls should be here. With the time from there is time for them all, the whole camp to evacuate safely. They compiled a timeline that raised troubling questions about

what the Eastlands did and didn't do that night. A little bit after 1 a.m. there was a flash flood warning. Issued that flooding, possible casualties as a result of flooding. That warning came at 114 a.m. The National Weather Service sang a life threatening flash flood

was imminent or already underway.

They never made an announcement on the loudspeaker.

And two counselors had to go argue with leadership because water was coming in their cabins. To the best of our knowledge, they didn't start moving girls until after 3 o'clock in the morning,

so they waited roughly two hours. Not only was there a two hour delay,

“they say the camp was unprepared for what was coming.”

I'd like to know why didn't they have an evacuation plan for flooding, which was their most logical natural disaster. But you're saying there was no, there was no protocol. But the protocol was assumed.

Correct. The protocol was a stay in the cabin. Even though the two-story wreck hall and safety was only a short walk from their cabins. It was extremely poor decision-making that we believe led to our children's deaths.

When they read the emergency instructions in the counselor's manual, that Andrea Faruso found in her daughter's belongings, they were flabbergasted. It said, "Stay in your cabins and announcement will be made on the loudspeaker.

And if the loudspeaker is not working, we'll use walkie talkies." And I talked to other counselors who said, "There were no walkie talkies." And then the final sentence in this flood evacuation plan

says, "All cabins are on high safe locations."

“And we all hope just, "Yeah, we're reeling."”

Angely confirmed she never saw walkie talkies in the cabins

and had no emergency training in case of a flood. It didn't feel like there was a big pressure to be this, like, guardian and all of this things. It was just a counselor for these girls, and we were going to have a great term

and have fun together. In late September, less than three months after the tragedy, camp mystic announced it would reopen for the 2026 summer season. Although the cabins where the victims had been staying

would remain closed. Did shock you? I completely. You can't put your child in the same care of the Eastland family

when we don't even know what happened yet and everything that went wrong. It's unthinkable that they would open a camp. So soon after 27 people died on their watch. You know, they're still

when camp are missing. Still steward. She has not been recovered yet. This isn't over. Great.

The parents were so outraged, they demanded the state deny mystic a license for the 2026 season. What is the rush? It shows that they want profit

over a camp safety for right now. Mystic has said that it is their Christian ministry to provide an environment for girls to grow spiritually

and make lifelong friendships. And that is wonderful, but that does no good. If your child doesn't come home alive. In October,

Texas lawmakers opened an investigation into what happened at Camp Mystic weeks later. Most of the victim's families including many here

and Blakely's mom filed lawsuits against the camp and the Eastlands. What do you want to lawsuit to accomplish? I want the lawsuit

to show transparency, what would happen all the events leading up to this

tragedy, as well as accountability. What is it that you elect? We elect that there was gross negligence.

Point to something else too.

“The Eastlands successfully appealed to FEMA”

to have cabins in a flood hazard area reclassified. And then the lawsuits say the Eastlands failed to share that information with parents.

There was a known flooding risk. There was very well known to the Eastland family who runs the camp. There was no disclosure or communication to us.

What would the Eastlands have to say about that night? It was absolute chaos. There was not absolute chaos. You had no plan.

That's not true. [Music] The bereaved families waited eight months to hear an explanation about the tragedy from the Eastlands.

Finally, in the spring, Eastland family members testified at pretrial hearings. Edward Eastland, who was responsible for the cabins near the river,

spent hours answering questions. Like this one about that early morning warning. You got a 14-code red and you slept through, right?

Correct. And this? You did not get on the line of secrets. How did he find what to do? Correct.

The attorney, who was representing the family of Seal Stewart, the camper whose body has still not been recovered, was scathing

“about the Eastland's actions that night.”

It was absolute chaos. There was not absolute chaos. You had no plan. That's not true. You had no plan.

Your dad was making it up in the home. He was not. Who was too happy to play? He did. Who knew the plan?

I did. There was no plan that anyone was trained and didn't have a written-out but we asked that plan.

Days later, at a Texas legislative hearing, Edward apologized for the deaths of the 27 girls. The world was a better place

with them in it. And the anger at us for not being able to keep them safe feels completely reasonable.

When I first saw Edward Eastland,

I started sobbing because I realized that he was the one who was in charge of my children's safety and he failed the most my first time to hear from him at all.

“The Eastlands are challenging the narrative”

of what led to the girl's deaths here at camp, missed it. They say it wasn't the rising river or allegations that they waited too long to act. The river did not kill these young ladies.

The family declined our interview request. Instead, we got their returny, Michael Watts. The problem was is that where this particular weather system installed led to flood coming behind

not from the river but from the other direction. Watts told us the video shot from the second floor of the commissary supports their case. He says it shows water

from the hillside inundating the cabins. And you can see in the video that the water is coming this way, but the rivers in the opposite direction it's really easy to reach the conclusion that what's been alleged

that somehow the water rose from the river just truthfully did not happen. Your data says it didn't happen. It's not just my data. It is what the digital evidence shows.

Whether experts we consulted including the National Weather Service disputed that explanation. They say the flood was caused by the rising river

and that's what created the eddies and swirls in the video. And about those appeals to FEMA to remove buildings from the flood hazard area.

You knew that the cabins that were on a floodplain. No, they're not. That's not true. Watts says updated digital maps

showed that buildings were not in fact in the floodplain and FEMA agreed.

The bottom line is that's

the press, and somehow Dick Eastland had this unusual political ability to tell FEMA what to do. That's not the way it works. After the tragedy, FEMA said

its maps are snapshots in time and not predictions of where floods will happen. Watts says nothing could have prepared the Eastlands for what was coming,

not even that early morning warning. We get flash flood warnings in Kirk County repetitively. Every time it rains, there's a risk of flash floods,

and that's not the same thing as what happened here. This was a thousand year flood that nobody's ever seen before. Why not a specific flood policy?

We do. We have a specific flood policy. You stay in the cabins until help can come and help you. Hundreds of girls, lives

were saved by that policy. So you're making an argument for keeping them inside the cabins during this kind of rain event? It's called shelter in place.

Watts argues it wouldn't have made sense for the youngest campers to walk through the raging waters because they would have been washed away. Would that have happened?

to that warning at 114 a.m. So the warning at 114 is a text that certain people didn't get.

But the problem is it wasn't delivered.

There was no siren. The Eastlands blamed the state for that because almost a decade ago lawmakers refused to fund a flood detection system with sirens.

What you need is you need to make sure it's safe. Things upstream. It says we got a wall of water coming and immediately activate a siren

that's going to wake up everybody here. That would have saved the lives

“and it would have saved all the lives down river.”

All told more than 130 people died along the Guadalupe that night. It was a struggle with the question of blame. It's easy to look and point a finger to ease your mind. I don't think there's one finger that we can point.

I don't think that's fair. Lucy's mom went agrees with Ainsley. It's just not black and white. I do personally know how this camping community works. Their lives were this camp and they did everything.

They could, and yes, there have been floods in the past, but nothing ever towards any of those cabins ever. When, along with hundreds of other parents, was planning to send Lucy back to Mystic.

“Some kids might think it's scary going back”

after the flood. Do you worry at all? I just feel like that's not going to happen again and it wasn't their fault that it happened. But in late April, the Eastland's abruptly decided not to reopen the camp.

Well, maybe one day we will hear from the investigators. Last week, investigators from the state legislative committee reported back after an eight-month probe. Their findings confirmed what many of the victims' parents had come to believe. Camp Mystic did not have written emergency plans

that comply with state requirements. It did not adequately prepare and did not timely evacuate despite ample opportunity to do so. The distances were very short.

“And especially with the timeline that we've documented about”

how much time there was to evacuate, these girls could have gotten there. Days after that report came out, camp Mystic filed for bankruptcy.

As the 4th of July approaches, the first anniversary of the tragedy,

these parents take comfort from a new camp safety act they help push through the state legislature. But otherwise, comfort is elusive for the heaven's 27 families. It's the permanence that's shattering. And it just doesn't stop.

We have gone through hell and back, and we're still going through it every day. We have to make a choice to go on. I heard that there's a special place. Their questions remain.

Their lawsuits are pending. And there's a huge hole in their lives that their girls used to fill. That's all for now. I'm Lester Holt.

Thanks for joining us. I'm Craig Melford. Cheers. Cheers.

I've always been a glass half-volt kind of guy.

And now, I'm talking to some people who look at the world that we two. Some really fascinating folks who share their defining moments, their trials, challenges, their stories, their funny and my candy. So I hope you'll join me each week and who knows. You might just come away with your own glass half-volt.

Search Glass Half-volt with Craig Melford from today. On YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts.