Camp Mystic filed for bankruptcy in federal court in Houston on June 24, 2026 — nearly a year after a flood on the Guadalupe River killed 27 people at the camp on July 4, 2025. The camp listed debts of more than $10 million. USA Today

The victims included 25 girls and two counselors. One was Chloe Childress, a 19-year-old who had just graduated high school. CNN The flooding that summer killed at least 139 people across Central Texas, with 117 deaths in Kerr County alone. Federal emergency officials gave it a disaster designation that covered severe storms, high winds, and flooding from July 2–18, 2025. FEMA

How the Camp Lost Oversight

Before the flood, Camp Mystic had convinced federal regulators to remove its buildings from flood-risk maps several times. These maps tell the government which areas flood regularly and which ones need special flood insurance and safety rules. When a building comes off the map, those insurance requirements and safety pressures disappear — even if the land is still in danger. PBS NewsHour

On June 18, 2026 — less than a week before the bankruptcy filing — a Texas House committee released a report with a blunt finding: Camp Mystic had no written emergency plan when the flood hit. Texas state law requires youth camps to have one. The report also found that evacuations were slow and disorganized, and that staff struggled to take charge and reunite families after the disaster. Texas House of Representatives Houston Public Media

These findings — map appeals that eliminated safety oversight, plus poor planning that made the disaster worse — form the core of lawsuits that families are likely to file. When a company files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, it does not erase these lawsuits. Instead, they move into federal bankruptcy court, where the judge controls how much each group of injured people gets paid and in what order.

What This Means for Families

The shift to bankruptcy court is significant for victims and their families. In normal civil lawsuits, injured people can sue in state court and push for immediate payment. In bankruptcy, they become "creditors" waiting in line — like banks or contractors who are also owed money. Unless a judge decides they deserve priority, which rarely happens, they wait their turn behind other debts. The company and the court decide together how much money goes to each creditor.

The camp closed for summer 2026. The $10 million figure is a starting point; more claims will be added as families file them and the case moves forward. No one yet knows whether Camp Mystic will try to reopen someday or simply wind down and close permanently. That answer will depend on a financial plan the camp must file with the bankruptcy court.

What Happens Next

The Texas Legislature received that House report and now knows the camp failed to follow state emergency-planning rules. Kerr County and other officials are looking more closely at how youth camps are licensed and inspected, especially those in areas prone to flooding. When a disaster kills many people and investigators find that a business broke the rules, there is usually pressure to change those rules — though that process in the Texas Legislature could take months or years.

This case shows how a disaster, a government report, and a bankruptcy filing can all happen in rapid sequence. The camp flooded in July 2025, the report came out in June 2026, and the bankruptcy filing followed days later. The timing may not be coincidence. The report's findings made the camp's legal exposure much worse — families now have documented evidence of broken rules and poor planning. By filing for bankruptcy before more lawsuits were filed, the camp moved the fight into one federal court, where a judge can manage all the claims at once.