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A Texas legislative committee has detailed major failures by an all-girls youth camp where 27 people died in a major flood last July 4. Overall, more than 130 people died. The committee released its report on Thursday, finding Camp Mystic was not prepared for the flood and did not properly train its staff for emergencies. The Texas Newsroom's Blaise Gainey reports.
BLAISE GAINEY, BYLINE: As floodwaters rose at Camp Mystic, counselors reached for their radios, looking for instructions. That's the story they told investigator Casey Garrett.
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CASEY GARRETT: The senior counselor in Cozy Corner said they were on the walkie-talkie - what do we do? What do we do? And it went unanswered.
GAINEY: That moment became one of the defining findings of a monthslong legislative investigation into the disaster that killed 25 campers and two counselors. Garrett told lawmakers the unanswered call reflected a larger problem.
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GARRETT: Nobody had any idea what they needed to be doing.
GAINEY: The report found Camp Mystic had no written emergency evacuation plan that met state requirements. Staff and counselors weren't given specific emergency assignments, and campers weren't taught how to evacuate if floodwaters threatened their cabins. Former Justice Michael Massengale, who helped lead the investigation, says camp director Dick Eastland had no evacuation strategy. And if there was one at all, it wasn't shared with the people who needed it.
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MICHAEL MASSENGALE: A plan that existed only in Dick Eastland's head is not a plan that satisfied the state's rules for camps like Camp Mystic. And when disaster struck - and it did strike on July 4 of last year - it may as well have been no plan at all.
GAINEY: Camp Mystic hasn't responded to any requests for comment since the report was published Thursday. In a previous hearing in April, Edward Eastland, one of the camp directors, said he regrets not communicating more and apologized to families of the victims. Lawmakers passed legislation setting aside funds for sirens along rivers and a requirement to have a state-approved emergency plan earlier this year. But Democratic Representative Joe Moody says the state's work isn't finished.
JOE MOODY: This task is not done, and there is more that we need to - we need to look in the mirror at state - at what the state did in coordination and what we can continue to do.
GAINEY: Moody wants the state to look into making changes for trailer parks, rural homes and the positioning of disaster response equipment by the state's Department of Emergency Management.
For NPR News, I'm Blaise Gainey in Austin. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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