Parents of kids swept away in Texas floods beg lawmakers to protect future campers

When floodwaters rushed through a girl's summer camp nestled in the Texas Hill Country, Michael McCown's 8-year-old daughter was among 27 campers and counselors swept to their deaths.

On Wednesday, McCown joined other Camp Mystic parents, some wearing buttons memorializing “Heaven's 27,” in demanding that Texas lawmakers pass a bill that would boost camp safety, including generally keeping cabins out of flood plains, instituting new requirements for emergency plans and mandating weather radios.

“It will hurt my family forever that, for reasons I still do not know, these protections were not in place nor thought out thoroughly for my daughter and the rest of the girls here,” he said. "Please pass this bill, protect our kids and do not let their deaths be in vain.”

McCown's middle child, Linnie, was sandwiched between two brothers. She was sometimes a pest to her 11-year-old brother. But to the youngest, just 3, she was mother figure, making him cereal on weekends so her parents could catch a few minutes of sleep.

“To everyone else she was a joy," her father told lawmakers. "She hugged her teachers, was a friend to everybody and spread an infectious giggle everywhere she went.”

Then came the floods.

Just before daybreak on the Fourth of July, destructive, fast-moving waters rose 26 feet (8 meters) on the Guadalupe River, washing away homes and vehicles. All told, at least 136 people died, raising questions about how things went so terribly wrong.

County leaders were asleep or out of town. The head of Camp Mystic had been tracking the weather beforehand, but it's now unclear whether he saw an urgent warning from the National Weather Service that had triggered an emergency alert to phones in the area, a spokesperson for camp’s operators said in the immediate aftermath.

Some of the camp’s buildings — which flooded — were in what the Federal Emergency Management Agency considered a 100-year flood plain. But in response to an appeal, FEMA in 2013 amended the county’s flood map to remove 15 of the camp’s buildings from the hazard area.

Upon learning of the flooding, McCown rushed to the town of Kerrville to pick up Linnie, receiving an email en route that if parents hadn't been personally contacted, then their daughters are accounted for.

“I felt a wave of relief, which was quickly shattered about 30 minutes later when my wife called incredibly distraught to say that Linnie is missing,” he recalled.

He joined the search downstream from the camp and found the body of a deceased girl. He also made two trips to a funeral home to identify bodies. One was not Linnie; the other, he believed, was. He later provided authorities with a DNA swab.

He's haunted by questions.

“How," he asked, "could these girls vanish into the night without anyone having eyes on them while cabins literally just 20 yards away had no casualties? So what went wrong?”

Cici Williams Steward said assurances that her daughter, Cile Steward, would be safe were betrayed and protocols that should have been in place were ignored. Today, the body of the 8-year-old “remains somewhere in the devastation of the Guadalupe River,” the only Camp Mystic camper still missing.

“We are suspended in endless anguish, unable to move forward, unable to find peace," a tearful Steward said. "We ask you, please pass SB1 so no parent sends their child to camp believing they are safe only to face this nightmare. And just as urgently, please do not stop the search for Cile Steward. Please do not give up on our girl.”

Texas State Sen. Charles Perry described the proposed legislation as a “legacy to the loss” and an answer to what has been learned during hours of public testimony. He said it's dubbed the “Heaven’s 27 Camp Safety Act.”

“It’s only appropriate," Perry said, "to memorialize the 27 little girls that lost their lives at Camp Mystic in this way.”

ADDS NAME OF FATHER Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, right, comforts Lars Hollis, left, father of Virginia who was lost to the recent flooding in Kerr County, following a Texas Senate hearing at the Texas Capitol, Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2025, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

The parent of a child lost to the recent flooding in Kerr County wears a 'Heaven's 27' button during a Texas Senate hearing at the Texas Capitol, Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2025, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

FILE - A building at Camp Mystic is reflected in water after a flash flood swept through the area, on July 7, 2025, in Hunt, Texas. (AP Photo/Eli Hartman, File)

FILE - The belongings of campers sit outside one of Camp Mystic's cabins near the Guadalupe River in Hunt, Texas, on July 7, 2025, after a deadly flash flood swept through the area. (AP Photo/Eli Hartman, File)

BEIJING (AP) — Breaking with the United States, Canada has agreed to cut its 100% tariff on Chinese electric cars in return for lower tariffs on Canadian farm products, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Friday.

Carney made the announcement after two days of meetings with Chinese leaders. He said there would be an initial cap of 49,000 vehicles on Chinese EV exports to Canada, growing to 70,000 over five years. China will reduce its tariff on canola seeds, a major Canadian export, from about 84% to about 15%, he told reporters.

“It has been a historic and productive two days,” Carney said, speaking outside against the backdrop of a traditional pavilion and a frozen pond at a Beijing park. “We have to understand the differences between Canada and other countries, and focus our efforts to work together where we’re aligned.”

Earlier Friday, he and Chinese leader Xi Jinping pledged to improve relations between their two nations after years of acrimony.

Xi told Carney in a meeting at the Great Hall of the People that he is willing to continue working to improve ties, noting that talks have been underway on restoring and restarting cooperation since the two held an initial meeting in October on the sidelines of a regional economic conference in South Korea.

“It can be said that our meeting last year opened a new chapter in turning China–Canada relations toward improvement,” China's top leader said.

Carney, the first Canadian prime minister to visit China in eight years, said better relations would help improve a global governance system that he described as “under great strain.”

He called for a new relationship “adapted to new global realities” and cooperation in agriculture, energy and finance.

Those new realities reflect in large part the so-called America-first approach of U.S. President Donald Trump. The tariffs he has imposed have hit both the Canadian and Chinese economies. Carney, who has met with several leading Chinese companies in Beijing, said ahead of his trip that his government is focused on building an economy less reliant on the U.S. at what he called “a time of global trade disruption.”

A Canadian business owner in China called Carney's visit game-changing, saying it re-establishes dialogue, respect and a framework between the two nations.

“These three things we didn’t have,” said Jacob Cooke, the CEO of WPIC Marketing + Technologies, which helps exporters navigate the Chinese market. “The parties were not talking for years.”

Canada had followed the U.S. in putting tariffs of 100% on EVs from China and 25% on steel and aluminum under former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Carney’s predecessor.

China responded by imposing duties of 100% on Canadian canola oil and meal and 25% on pork and seafood. It added a 75.8% tariff on canola seeds last August. Collectively, the import taxes effectively closed the Chinese market to Canadian canola, an industry group has said. Overall, China's imports from Canada fell 10.4% last year to $41.7 billion, according to Chinese trade data.

China is hoping Trump’s pressure tactics on allies such as Canada will drive them to pursue a foreign policy that is less aligned with the United States. The U.S. president has suggested Canada could become America's 51st state.

Carney departs China on Saturday and visits Qatar on Sunday before attending the annual gathering of the World Economic Forum in Switzerland next week. He will meet business leaders and investors in Qatar to promote trade and investment, his office said.

Associated Press business writer Chan Ho-him in Hong Kong contributed to this report.

Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney, center, arrives to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian, Pool)

Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney, left, meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press via AP)

Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney, left, shakes hands with China's President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press via AP)