Camp Mystic's co-owner waited for more than 45 minutes after receiving an emergency warning about the "life-threatening" flash floods before he started to evacuate the campers, it has been revealed.
Richard "Dick" Eastland — who died trying to rescue young girls at his Hunt, Texas camp along the Guadalupe River — received the initial National Weather Service alert on his phone around 1:14 a.m., according to a family spokesperson who spoke to ABC News. However, he didn't start moving campers to higher ground at the private Christian camp for girls until around 2:00 a.m., just as conditions were rapidly getting worse. The alert came too late to save the girls from there.
Too Late to Survive
"They had no information that indicated the magnitude of what was coming," the family spokesperson, Jeff Carr, said of the floods that killed 27 children and counselors. "They got a standard run-of-the-mill NWS warning that they've seen dozens of times before," Carr said.
Eastland began using a walkie-talkie to coordinate with family members working at the camp right after receiving the alert, which did not include an evacuation warning, according to Carr.
He added that they only started moving the campers to higher ground once they noticed the floodwaters rising rapidly.
Carr said that the timeline—still considered preliminary—was put together based on conversations with Eastland family members who had worked at the camp and played a key role in the evacuation of the girls and the counselors.
He insisted that the family choose to share this timeline publicly to avoid speculation and misinformation, following the tragic flash floods that took the lives of 27 children and camp staff.
Died Saving Others
Eastland had been part of the private Christian girls' camp since purchasing it in 1974 and had served as its director. The camp director's wife, Tweety, was found safe at their home, according to Texas Public Radio.
Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly told the Washington Post that Eastland, a father of four, died in a helicopter while being rushed to a hospital in Houston.
Eastland used to teach fishing to the younger campers, and former attendees remembered him as a warm, grandfather-like presence. Both he and his wife were highly respected by the campers and were often spotted teaching or roaming around the campgrounds.
The couple has 11 grandchildren, and several of their children and their spouses are actively involved in running the camp.
Their eldest son, Richard, oversees the kitchen operations, while their youngest son, Edward, and his wife serve as directors of Camp Mystic Guadalupe River, as mentioned on the camp's website.
Both Eastland and his wife attended the University of Texas at Austin and live on the camp property.
Eastland represented the third generation of his family to lead the all-girls Christian summer camp, which was founded in 1926.
