Overview

• Parents organized as the Campaign for Camp Safety delivered first public testimony to the Texas Senate committee, urging swift passage of SB1 after 27 campers and counselors died at Camp Mystic.
• SB1 would bar licensing for camps with cabins in 100-year floodplains and require state-approved emergency plans housed in a state database with staff training, drills, a 48-hour safety orientation and parent access.
• The proposal also includes continuous alert monitoring with weather radios, flash-flood evacuation plans, emergency rooftop ladders for floodplain cabins and a defined line of succession if local officials are absent during disasters.
• Senators are weighing the bill during a special session; sponsors say it incorporates families’ recommendations, has bipartisan support and is being described as the “Heaven’s 27 Camp Safety Act.”
• Ongoing inquiries focus on warning and response failures, including evacuations starting well after an NWS alert and a county emergency manager who was asleep, while at least one Camp Mystic child remains missing.