The families of the Camp Mystic flooding victims looked on as Abbott signed the laws, which took effect immediately, in memory of their daughters. Some parents shed tears as Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and state lawmakers reflected on the lives of their children, who are known as the “Heaven’s 27.”
“[When] they dropped their daughters off at camp, ... they had no clue they would never see those daughters again,” Abbott said during the Sept. 5 bill signing ceremony at the Texas Governor’s Mansion in Austin. “They pleaded for swift action; they pleaded that their daughters did not die in vain. They wanted laws to be passed so that other parents would not experience the hell that they had been through.”
In a statement following the Sept. 5 event, the flood victims’ families thanked lawmakers and state leaders for passing the bills.
“We came together as families dealing with unbearable heartache, and today we stand together in gratitude,” said Katie and Clarke Baker, the parents of 8-year-old Mary Grace Baker. “The legislature listened, and Texas children will be safer because of it.”
What you need to know
Under the two-pronged camp safety package, which includes Senate Bill 1 and House Bill 1, summer camps are required to remove existing cabins from floodplains by Jan. 1. Camps that do not do so will not be eligible to be licensed by the Texas Department of State Health Services and therefore cannot continue operating, according to SB 1.
Camps must also develop and annually update comprehensive emergency plans, set up warning systems to notify campers if something is wrong and install ladders so campers can climb on cabin roofs during floods.
Abbott also signed Senate Bill 3, which requires flash flood-prone communities impacted by the July 4-5 floods to install flood warning sirens with the help of $50 million in state grants.
Under SB 3, the state will “ensure that flood-prone areas like this are going to have the warning systems they need by this next summer camp time period to make sure that if an event like this does occur again, those warning systems will go off in a way that will do everything possible to protect lives,” Abbott told Community Impact after he signed the laws.
Lawmakers deemed camp safety legislation a top priority during their second special legislative session of the year, which ended around 1 a.m. Sept. 4. The families of victims met with lawmakers, testified during legislative hearings and attended votes on the bills.
Rep. Drew Darby, a San Angelo Republican who authored HB 1, said the families’ advocacy helped lawmakers “pass the two strongest bills we can on camp safety.”
“Senate Bill 1 and House Bill 1 would not have happened without your relentless advocacy, fight and determination. Thank you for trusting us to do your work; the people’s work,” Darby said on the House floor Sept. 3, as House lawmakers gave final approval to the camp safety package.
During the Sept. 5 bill signing ceremony, Patrick requested that portraits of Chloe Childress and Katherine Ferruzo, the two 18-year-old Camp Mystic counselors who died saving their campers’ lives, be displayed in the Texas House and Senate.
“[They are] true Texas heroes that can go down and should go down with the great names of Texas history,” Patrick said. “They stayed behind when they could have gotten away. They stayed with the girls and in return, they sacrificed their lives.”
More details
Before the camp safety bills were sent to the governor, the owners of Camp Waldemar, Camp Stewart and Vista Camps, all of which are located in Kerr County, told lawmakers that the legislation would create a “heavy financial burden.”
On top of ongoing repairs from the July 4 floods, the three camps said they could face “millions of dollars in mandated rebuilding costs” for cabins located in floodplains, which must be torn down under SB 1.
“We are committed to working with lawmakers to strengthen standards that protect children,” the camp owners wrote in an Aug. 29 letter to lawmakers. “But the costs of compliance must be met with partnership and support. ... To go another summer without being able to operate and generate revenue, while also covering rebuilding costs, is simply not feasible and will likely force our camps to close.”
The owners of the three camps asked for financial support during the rebuilding process, although state lawmakers did not authorize funding for that request.
On the House floor Sept. 3, Rep. Wes Virdell, a Republican who represents Kerr County, asked Darby about the potential financial impacts of SB 1.
“Do you believe smaller camps and nonprofit camps will be able to financially afford tearing down cabins or repurposing them and rebuilding further away if their property boundaries are not far enough from the floodway?” Virdell asked.
Darby did not directly answer Virdell’s question, saying that legislators needed to “take a strong stand to say we no longer will allow children to go to sleep in a river.”
Also of note
State lawmakers also passed SB 5, which sets aside $278 million to match federal disaster relief funding, help flood-prone communities install warning sirens and strengthen weather forecasting equipment. Another bill, HB 20, would create new guardrails to prevent fraudulent organizations from soliciting and receiving donations in the wake of disasters.
Two measures aimed at helping local governments better prepare for and respond to future natural disasters did not pass during the special session:
- House Bill 3, which would have established a state interoperability council to improve communication among first responders, passed the House with a 136-1 vote Aug. 21 but was not heard in the Senate.
- Senate Bill 2, an omnibus bill that would have created licensing requirements for local emergency management coordinators and launched a mass fatality training program for justices of the peace, failed after lawmakers did not reach an agreement in a closed-door conference committee.
“Something may be happening soon,” he said Sept. 5.
