For decades, Dick and Tweety Eastland presided over Camp Mystic with a kind of magisterial benevolence that alumni well past childhood still describe with awe.

But the river can be treacherous when flash floods happen. In the early morning hours on July Fourth 2025, a wall of water swamped Camp Mystic. Among the victims of the flood: longtime camp director Dick Eastland, who died trying to move some of the campers to higher ground.

Next year, if it resumes operations, Camp Mystic will turn 100 years old. But should it celebrate that centennial milestone, it will woefully also commemorate the one-year anniversary of an awful weekend when so many jubilant young campers were lost.

Flash floods killed dozens across Texas Hill Country over the holiday weekend as torrential rains swept the region.

Teens at the Pot O’ Gold Christian Camp near Comfort, Texas, were swamped by a wall of water as they tried to escape.

By SOPHIA TAREEN A small-town grandmother who disappeared on her way to work. A beloved director of Texas summer camp for girls. An Alabama elementary student away from home. These are a few of

Set in the late 1980s, school is out for the summer, and a sun-drenched season of firsts beckons the counselors at Camp Clearwater, a seemingly idyllic Midwestern summer camp, including first ...