Camp Mystic filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization on Wednesday, nearly a year after catastrophic floods killed 25 girls and two teenage counselors at the all-girls Christian camp in Texas.
In paperwork filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of Texas in Houston, the camp listed its debt as more than $10 million. The camp along the Guadalupe River said it had assets in the range of $100,001 to $500,000.
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FILE-Debris covers the area of Camp Mystic in Hunt, Texas, Monday, July 7, 2025, after a flash flood swept through the area. (AP Photo/Eli Hartman, File)
FILE - A Camp Mystic sign is seen near the entrance to the establishment along the banks of the Guadalupe River in Hunt, Texas, July 5, 2025, after a flash flood swept through the area. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)
FILE - Rescue workers are seen on land and on a boat as they search for missing people near Camp Mystic along the Guadalupe River after a flash flood swept through the area Sunday, July 6, 2025, in Hunt, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)
FILE - A broken heart sign is displayed near Camp Mystic on Tuesday, July 8, 2025, after a flash flood swept through the area in Hunt, Texas. (AP Photo/Eli Hartman, file)
Families of the victims filed a lawsuit in November seeking more than $1 million in damages, saying the camp operators failed to take the necessary steps to protect the girls as life-threatening floodwaters approached on July 4. Camp owner Richard Eastland also died in the flood.
All told, the destructive flooding killed at least 136 people along a several-mile stretch of the river, raising questions about how things went so terribly wrong.
The Associated Press sent emails and left phone messages Wednesday requesting comment from an attorney representing Camp Mystic and the Eastland family. A phone message seeking comment also was left for a spokesperson for the families who sued the camp.
The bankruptcy filing comes weeks after Camp Mystic halted plans to reopen this summer in the face of outrage from victims’ families and lawmakers that the century-old camp intended to welcome girls back while lawsuits and investigations remained ongoing.
Camp Mystic's attorney had said it was ready to reopen for business for nearly 900 campers before the camp's reversal in April. The decision followed weeks of testimony in court hearings and legislative investigations that laid bare the camp’s lack of detailed planning for a flood emergency and its reliance on poorly trained staff.
Families of the victims packed the hearings, often wearing “Heaven’s 27” pins with photographs of their daughters. They listened to the details of missed flood warning signs, the descriptions of the flood and the decision to leave the girls in their cabins until it was too late. Testimony included video of the raging floodwaters as a girl repeatedly screamed for “help!” somewhere in the distance.
Before halting the reopening plans, Camp Mystic invited journalists and lawmakers to review safety improvements at the camp and promised that no camp activities would take place in the low-lying area that was devastated by the flood. The Eastland family also stressed that hundreds of families wanted to return and described it as a special a place for generations of Texans.
FILE-Debris covers the area of Camp Mystic in Hunt, Texas, Monday, July 7, 2025, after a flash flood swept through the area. (AP Photo/Eli Hartman, File)
FILE - A Camp Mystic sign is seen near the entrance to the establishment along the banks of the Guadalupe River in Hunt, Texas, July 5, 2025, after a flash flood swept through the area. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)
FILE - Rescue workers are seen on land and on a boat as they search for missing people near Camp Mystic along the Guadalupe River after a flash flood swept through the area Sunday, July 6, 2025, in Hunt, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)
FILE - A broken heart sign is displayed near Camp Mystic on Tuesday, July 8, 2025, after a flash flood swept through the area in Hunt, Texas. (AP Photo/Eli Hartman, file)
President Donald Trump is headed to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to meet with Republican senators who have grown increasingly frustrated with his efforts to divert their agenda. He has pressured senators to focus on his proof-of-citizenship voting bill, blocked them from confirming one of his own nominees and forced them to defend his Iran war even as they question the strategy and endgame.
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The Trump administration has announced the limited reopening, more than three months after it was shuttered at the height of the war.
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Another federal judge in May also barred arrests at immigration courts, but that order applied only in New York. This decision invalidates the policy nationwide.
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After two of Trump ’s picks for governor lost Republican primaries this month, he ensured it wouldn’t happen again. The president endorsed both GOP candidates in a South Carolina runoff, and one of them inevitably won.
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The President sees America’s 250th anniversary as a chance to get the country excited again — about Donald Trump.
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The saga over the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool took a turn as Trump cited six arrests over recent damage. The president’s troubled $14-million-plus rehabilitation project has become a visceral flashpoint over law enforcement, aesthetics and environmental concerns.
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NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte will check in face-to-face with Trump on Wednesday, visiting the volatile U.S. leader two weeks before the annual summit of the military alliance at a time when the Pentagon is reviewing the size of the U.S. military footprint in Europe.
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The president is headed to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to meet with Republican senators who have grown increasingly frustrated with his efforts to divert their agenda.
Trump, who will attend a closed-door Senate GOP luncheon for the first time in more than a year, has pressured senators for months to focus on his proof-of-citizenship voting bill even though it doesn’t have the votes to pass. At the same time, he has blocked them from confirming one of his own nominees, asked them to fund parts of his White House ballroom project despite opposition and forced them to defend his Iran war even as they question the strategy and endgame.
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NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte speaks after a meeting of NATO defense ministers at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Thursday, June 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
President Donald Trump speaks at a Mack Trucks facility, Tuesday, June 23, 2026, in Macungie, Pa. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Oklahoma City Police Department officers, deputized to assist with local law enforcement for events around the 250th anniversary of the U.S., patrol near the area where sections of blue coating have peeled up in the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, Saturday, June 20, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
A Ferris wheel is seen on the National Mall for the 250 Anniversary celebration, Tuesday, June 23, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
