Speaking on behalf of his family and Camp Mystic at a state hearing Tuesday morning, Edward Eastland apologized to the families of the campers and counselors who died last year in their care when a massive flood swept through the camp on July 4.
“I think about the night of the flood every moment of every day,” Eastland said, choking on some of his words. “We tried our hardest that night and it wasn’t enough to save your daughters. We were devastated alongside you. I regret not communicating more with each of you earlier. And I’m so sorry.”
Eastland, who directed the part of the camp where 25 campers and two counselors died that night, said waking up every morning and getting through the day was hard. But he acknowledged that pain seemed like nothing compared to the pain of parents of the girls they lost.
“We feel like we have failed our parents,” Eastland testified. “When you drop your children off with us, you’re putting them in our care, the same way you all surely feel when your childrens’ friends sleep over at your house. You would fight for them, you would put your life on line for them to keep them safe. And if harm came to them you would be devastated.”
“The world was a better place with them in it,” Eastland said of the girls who died, “and the anger at us for not being able to keep them safe feels completely reasonable.”
Parents of many of the girls who died filled the Capitol hearing room where Eastland testified to lawmakers on House and Senate investigating committees that on Tuesday began the second day of their hearing about the flood.
On Monday, an investigator presented a timeline of a harried evacuation effort that morning by Edward and his father Dick Eastland, Camp Mystic’s owner and executive director, who also died in the flood while trying to rescue some of the campers.
One committee member, Sen. Charles Perry, R-Lubbock, on Tuesday suggested that Camp Mystic should only continue operating if someone else was running it.
Edward Eastland’s wife and co-director, Mary Liz Eastland, said she believed the family would be willing to “step back and take a pause” if it meant the camp could continue to operate.
The camp has applied to renew its operating license and hopes to welcome campers back this summer to a different part of the property than where girls died. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who presides over the state Senate, has pressured a state agency to deny the renewal. The camp is also facing multiple lawsuits filed by family members of the campers and counselors.
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