(Dallas, Texas) The Mystic Camp, a summer camp for girls located in Texas where 27 young camper and animators lost their lives during floods last July, plans to reopen next summer. The decision shocks and divides the community formerly very united to the old camper and their parents.
The owners of the camp made it the announcement in two emails sent on Monday, the first to the families of the campuses who lost their lives, the second to all the old and their families, many of whom remain fiercely faithful to the management of the camp.
“We rebuild the huts and the trails, but also a place where laughter, friendship and spiritual development will continue to flourish,” read the email addressed to the ancient camper. “We are looking forward to welcoming you again behind the green doors. »»
The owners opened a second site in 2020, near the original site on the bank of the Guadalupe river. It is this campus that will reopen next year.
The reopening of the camp has been agitating the community of Mystic for weeks. Cile Steward’s body, 8, has still not been found.
Unanswered questions
After the July 4 flood which devastated the Hill Country region, Texas adopted a law strengthening security in the camps, under pressure from the bereaved families. However, questions remain as for what happened early in the morning of the day of the disaster, and many families firmly opposed the reopening.
Photo Carter Johnston, Archives The New York Times
Governor Greg Abbott, in the center, shortly before he signed a law strengthening safety standards in the Texas holiday camps on September 5
Monday’s emails, which mentioned the project to erect a memorial on the mystic field for young people who disappeared, provoked surprise and anger in families, said parents on Tuesday, adding that it was one of the rare communications of the camp for months.
“The families of camper and monitors who died at the Mystic camp were not consulted and did not approve of this memorial,” writes Blake Bonner, the father of Lila Bonner, 9, one of the victims, in a statement on behalf of the families.
Cici Steward, Cile’s mother, signed a scathing statement on Tuesday: “The truth is that the Mystic camp lacked its responsibilities towards our daughters. »»
Photo taken from Cassandra Webb’s Facebook page
Cile Steward’s body, 8, has still not been found.
“The rescuers are still on the scene, searching the river at the risk of their lives to find it so that we can finally bury it. We are eternally grateful to them, ”she wrote. “The Mystic camp, it only added to our pain. »»
For my family, these months seemed an eternity. For camp, it seems a brief break before returning to business. The Mystic camp will reopen, even if it means inviting girls to swim in the river which may still retain my daughter’s body.
Cici Steward, the mother of the little cile, whose body was not found
The two emails from the camp have been signed by seven members of the Eastland family, owner of the Mystic camp since the 1930s.
Dick Eastland, 70, executive director of the camp, died in the flood, which makes it 28e Victim to Mystic that morning. His wife, Tweety, was at the top of the email signatories.
The Eastland family said in a statement on Tuesday not having “received any negative comments from the bereaved families concerning the memorial project”.
According to Mr. Bonner and other parents, camp resources should rather be devoted to the search for the Cile body.
This research has become the rallying cry of other families, who call themselves Heaven’s 27 (The “27 of paradise”).
Photo Eric Gay, Associated Press Archives
A man wearing a macaroon in support of the Heaven’s 27 group
The Mystic camp attracts many campuses from some wealthy districts of Houston, Austin and Dallas. The old ones form a network whose personal and professional ties persist for decades for. Many families have sent their daughters there for generations.
In August, many parents of the 27 disappeared united to offer reforms aimed at improving the safety of Texas camps. The new law requires in particular that all chalets will now be far from the dangerous floodplaces.
“Camp security is now the law in Texas,” Greg Abbott said at a ceremony in Austin, which were assisted dozens of parents.
A camp in a flood zone
In their email on Monday to the former camper, the Eastland family claims to endeavor to implement the security requirements prescribed by the new law. They describe the deadly flood last July as a “millennial weather disaster” (likely to occur once every thousand years).
In 2011, the Federal Emergency Management Agency appointed a large part of the Mystic Camp “Centennale flood zone”, and therefore at high risk of flooding. The Eastland successfully challenged this designation, which would have limited renovation projects and would have forced them to take out flood insurance.
The camp hosted its youngest camper in chalets near the river, which overflowed overnight on July 4. Other camps along the Guadalupe had to rescue and evacuate their campers, but it was only at the Camp Mystic that there were dead. The flood made more than 130 victims on the banks of the river.
Photo Eli Hartman, Associated Press Archives
The personal effects of the camper stacked near a building belonging to the Mystic Camp, on July 7
The Mystic camp, which will be 100 years old in 2026, has experienced several other sudden floods. But none had killed before that of last summer.
Parents of the missing young people say they are still waiting for answers on what happened during the night at the camp and on the reasons why the evacuation plans were nonexistent or were a glaring failure.
“We were not perfect in our communication,” said the Eastland in their email addressed to the families of young people who disappeared. “The distance that has widened between some of us sadden us all. »»
This article was published in the New York Times.
Read the article “Many children are missing”
Read the article “Victims, heroes and survivors”
Read the article “Thanks to solidarity, a camp reopens near the Guadalupe river”
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