FEMA loosened flood oversight at Camp Mystic before deadly Texas floods
Federal regulators approved appeals to exclude Camp Mystic’s buildings from the 100-year flood map, reducing oversight as the camp expanded in a flood-prone area
Federal regulators repeatedly granted appeals to remove Camp Mystic’s buildings from their 100-year flood map, loosening oversight as the camp operated and expanded in a dangerous flood plain in the years before rushing waters swept away children and counsellors, a review by Associated Press found.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) included the prestigious girls’ summer camp in a “Special Flood Hazard Area” in its National Flood Insurance map for Kerr County in 2011, which means it was required to have flood insurance and faced tighter regulation on any future construction projects.
That designation means an area is likely to be inundated during a 100-year flood – one severe enough that it only has a 1 per cent chance of happening in any given year.
Located in a low-lying area along the Guadalupe River in a region known as “Flash Flood Alley”, Camp Mystic lost at least 27 campers and counsellors and long-time owner Dick Eastland when historic floodwaters tore through its property before dawn on July 4.
The flood was far more severe than the 100-year event envisioned by FEMA, experts said, and moved so quickly in the middle of the night that it caught many off guard in a county that lacked a warning system.
But Syracuse University associate professor Sarah Pralle, who has extensively studied FEMA’s flood map determinations, said it was “particularly disturbing” that a camp in charge of the safety of so many young people would receive exemptions from basic flood regulation.