Camp Mystic Is Reopening This Summer After Floods Killed 27 Campers and Counselors — Here Is Its Safety Plan

Camp Mystic will reopen for Summer 2026, following the fatal floods that killed 25 campers, two teenage counselors and the camp’s executive director in July.

The all-girls Texas summer camp announced in a Tuesday, Dec. 2, statement to parents that its newer Cypress Lake location will reopen, but the Guadalupe River camp will remain closed, reports Fox 7 Austin. The 10-day camp sessions will run from May 30 to Aug. 9, 2026. However, enrollment has not yet opened, according to the outlet. Camp Mystic is offering tours of the Cypress Lake location in April.

The Cypress Lake location is “completely independent from the older Guadalupe River camp,” per the statement, according to NBC News. The location has a “separate entrance, waterfront, dining hall, office, pavilion, infirmary, playing fields, archery range, stables, chapel, and cabins,” according to Camp Mystic’s website.

“We recognize that returning to Camp Mystic carries both hope and heartache,” the camp noted in its message to parents. “For many of your daughters, this return is not simple, but it is a courageous step in their healing journey.”

Camp Mystic said it has enhanced security and installed 100 flood monitoring units at Cypress Lake and the Guadalupe River. The low-range wide-area network technology will allow people “to respond and quickly and safely evacuate to an elevated muster station,” the camp said, according to NBC News.

Additionally, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration hand-held two-way radios will be added to each cabin, providing weather updates. The camp site is also adding “higher-capacity generators to maintain power in critical areas,” such as the dining hall.

The intent is to “maintain communication” with parents and emergency personnel in the event of an emergency.

The victims — 25 campers, counselors, Chloe Childress and Katherine Ferruzzo, and executive director Richard “Dick” Eastland — were killed after the Guadalupe River flooded the campsite due to thunderstorms in Kerr County.

In late September, Camp Mystic sent two separate emails directly to families that it would be reopening Cypress Lake. One email was sent to “families of the girls who died,” and the second was “to a much broader group of past campers and their families,” the New York Times reported. 

The September letters also shared that a memorial would be “dedicated to the lives of the campers and counselors lost on July 4th,” KHOU 11 News reported.

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In early November, the families of five campers and two counselors filed a lawsuit, claiming that the Camp Mystic owners valued money over safety.

“Today, campers Margaret [Bellows], Lila [Bonner], Molly [DeWitt], Lainey [Landry], and Blakely [McCrory] should be third graders, and counselors Chloe and Katherine should be freshmen at the University of Texas,” the lawsuit said, according to CNN. “They all are gone.”

The complaint alleges that when historic flooding hit in the early morning hours of July 4, the owners had groundskeepers focus on securing camp equipment for over an hour instead of evacuating campers, according to CNN.

The camp didn’t evacuate two cabins, the Bubble Inn and Twins, even though other campers had been moved to safer ground about 300 feet away, according to the complaint. 

“Finally, when it was too late, the Camp made a hopeless ‘rescue’ effort from its self-created disaster,” the legal filing continued, according to the outlet.

The families claim that the organization chose to maintain its camps in flood-prone areas and didn’t make appropriate safety plans. 

Additional lawsuits with similar allegations about the lack of safety preparedness were also started, one was on behalf of the families of 8-year-old Eloise “Lulu” Peck, and the third by the family of 9-year-old Ellen Getten, according to CNN. 

An additional suit was filed on behalf of the families of Virginia “Wynne” Naylor, Hadley Hanna, Jane “Janie” Hunt, Lucy Dillon, Kellyanne Lytal and Virginia Hollis, PEOPLE previously reported.