One year after catastrophic flash floods swept through central Texas during the Fourth of July holiday, killing 27 people including 25 children and two counselors at iconic all-girls Camp Mystic, the historic private Christian camp has announced it will not open for the 2026 summer season, abandoning its plans to relocate operations after withdrawing its state license application.
Founded in 1926 on a 700-acre property along the Guadalupe River, Camp Mystic had initially drawn up plans to welcome 800 campers to an alternative, fatality-free site for the 2026 season after last year’s disaster. However, amid ongoing official investigations and fierce pressure from bereaved families, camp leadership announced Thursday that it was stepping back from its licensing effort.
In a public statement, the camp noted that no administrative steps or summer programming should proceed while grieving families still process their loss, official investigations into the tragedy remain active, and communities across Texas continue to carry the trauma of last July’s disaster. “Rather than risk defending our rights under Texas law in a manner that may unintentionally inflict further harm, we choose rather to withdraw our application for the 2026 camp season,” the statement read.
The decision comes after a months-long wave of public and political scrutiny, which intensified following two days of emotional testimony from flood investigators before Texas state lawmakers. The Texas Department of State Health Services had already confirmed in a review, first reported by *The New York Times*, that Camp Mystic’s emergency evacuation and response plans required sweeping overhauls before a license could be granted. Family members of the flood victims had repeatedly urged state regulators to reject any application to reopen the camp, as multiple parallel probes into the camp’s pre-flood emergency preparations continue.
Last year’s July 4 holiday flood disaster left more than 130 people dead across central Texas, a tragedy that shocked the entire United States and exposed critical gaps and failures in the state’s emergency early warning systems. Camp Mystic’s disaster received outsized national attention in part because of its long history and well-documented location in a known flood-prone river corridor.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott confirmed in a post-withdrawal statement that the camp will remain shuttered for 2026, adding that the Texas Department of State Health Services will continue its ongoing investigation into the 2025 tragedy.
Reactions from victim families and local communities have been deeply divided following the announcement. Cici and Will Steward, whose 8-year-old daughter Cila is the only victim still unaccounted for following the flood, said they are grateful that no child will be placed under the operating family Eastlands’ care this summer. They pushed back on framing the withdrawal as an act of compassion, saying, “Camp Mystic did not withdraw its application out of grace. It withdrew because the State of Texas was prepared to deny it.”
Sam Taylor, an attorney representing six families of deceased campers in an ongoing wrongful death lawsuit against the camp, welcomed the decision but said advocacy would not end. “We are grateful that no other Texas family will hand their daughter over to Camp Mystic this summer,” Taylor said. “But until there is full accountability for what happened on July 4 and until there are real, enforceable safeguards for every child sent to a Texas summer camp, our work continues.”
Not all families affected by the tragedy supported the permanent 2026 closure. Liberty Lindley, whose 10-year-old daughter survived the Camp Mystic flood, said she had planned to send her daughter back to the camp as part of her emotional healing process. Lindley told *The Washington Post* that confronting traumatic memories head-on can be a powerful step toward recovery: “Emotionally, that’s part of the work: facing the water again, the fears. It’s so important for them to take their power back.”