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AUSTIN, Texas — <\/span>The director of the Texas summer camp where 27 campers and counselors were killed by a devastating flood<\/a> in 2025 said Monday he did not see early federal and state warnings issued the day before the storm hit, and that staff had no meetings about the pending danger.<\/p>\n Camp Mystic director Edward Eastland testified in a court hearing about preserving damaged areas of the camp’s grounds as evidence in several lawsuits filed by families of the victims of the July 4th disaster<\/a> on the banks of the Guadalupe River.<\/p>\n A judge last month ordered the camp to preserve<\/a> those areas, and camp operators have appealed. The groups were back in court Monday for further testimony about the camp and what happened there before and during the flood. <\/p>\n This week’s hearing, which could produce the most extensive public comment from the all-girls Christian camp’s operators, comes amid their application for a state license to reopen Camp Mystic this summer on a part of campus that did not flood. <\/p>\n Camp director Edward Eastland testified for several hours Monday in a courtroom packed with the families of the girls who were killed. <\/p>\n Eastland said he and other staff were signed up for an emergency warning system on their phones and used other weather apps. But he said he did not see flood watch social media posts by the National Weather Service and the Texas Department of Emergency Management on July 2 and 3rd. <\/p>\n Eastland said he wasn’t following those agencies on social media and thought the local \u201cCodeRED\u201d mobile phone alert system and phone weather apps staff had at the time \u201cwas enough.\u201d<\/p>\n A July 3 National Weather Service alert asked area broadcasters to note that locally heavy rainfall could cause flash flooding in rivers, creeks, streams and low-lying areas, all features of the Camp Mystic property.<\/p>\n Eastland said that his father, camp co-owner Richard Eastland, typically monitored weather issues. Edward Eastland said he did not believe camp staff held a meeting about the alerts and warnings that day. <\/p>\n The storms would hit overnight, killing 25 campers, two teenage counselors and Richard Eastland. <\/p>\n \u201cWe did not expect what was going to happen,\u201d Edward Eastland said.<\/p>\n \u201cYou were warned,\u201d said Brad Beckworth, an attorney representing families who have sued Camp Mystic. <\/p>\n Eastland was pressed on the limited information campers and the cabin counselors would have had because cellphones were not allowed in the cabins, and only some staff carried walkie-talkies for communication. <\/p>\n The courtroom heard part of a video of \u201cTaps\u201d played over loudspeakers when the campers went to bed at 10 p.m. July 3. Those loudspeakers were not used to issue a weather warning, Eastland said.<\/p>\n Eastland said he went to bed about 11 p.m. Eastland said he never got a National Weather Service flash flood warning at 1:14 a.m. and that he slept through a CodeRED alert text at the same time that was specific for his area. The alert warned of a flood event that could last several hours.<\/p>\n His father called him on a walkie-talkie shortly before 2 a.m. to tell him about hard rain falling and the need to move canoes and water equipment off the river front. They did not move to evacuate cabins at the point.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was not reasonable to do that at that time,\u201d Eastland said. \u201cThe water wasn\u2019t out of the Guadalupe River. It was pouring down rain and lighting and the cabins were safe at that time.\u201d<\/p>\n Richard Eastland made the call to evacuate cabins about 3 a.m., Edward Eastland said.<\/p>\n Eastland said he never got a National Weather Service flash flood warning at 1:14 a.m. and that he slept through a CodeRED alert text at the same time that was specific for his area. The alert warned of a flood event that could last several hours.<\/p>\n Lawyers for the families pressed Eastland on a signed statement from a counselor who woke up during the storm and said she could see girls running for shelter. <\/p>\n \u201cThe water was rising faster than anything I have ever witnessed,\u201d the counselor wrote.<\/p>\n All told, the destructive flooding killed at least 136 people along a several-mile stretch of the river, raising questions<\/a> about how things went so terribly wrong.<\/p>\n