Camp Mystic, the century-old Christian girls' camp on the Guadalupe River where 28 people died in the July 4, 2025 Hill Country flood, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on June 24, 2026 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas, Houston Division. The filing pauses every active wrongful death lawsuit against the camp and reshapes how families across Texas, including readers in Celina, can seek financial recovery from the operator.
According to the eight-page petition reviewed by NBC News and confirmed by the Boston Globe, CBS News Texas and the Washington Times, Mystic Camps Family Partnership Ltd. estimated total liabilities between $10 million and $50 million against estimated assets of only $100,001 to $500,000. The debtors are represented by Dallas attorney Martin A. Sosland. Edward Eastland, son of the late camp owner Richard 'Dick' Eastland, is the authorized representative listed in the filing.
What happened on July 4, 2025
Camp Mystic sits along the Guadalupe River in Kerr County. In the early hours of July 4, 2025 the river rose roughly 26 feet in about 45 minutes, a surge documented by The Independent, Gulf News and CNN's lawsuit coverage. Twenty five campers between the ages of 8 and 10, two counselors aged 18 and 19, and camp co-owner Dick Eastland, 70, were killed at the camp. The official Kerr County victim list compiled by KSAT puts the regional flood death toll at 117 in Kerr County alone, with CNN, NBC News and the Texas Tribune reporting at least 136 deaths across the broader Hill Country region.
The hardest hit cabin was Bubble Inn. All 13 girls and both counselors assigned to that cabin died. Dick Eastland's SUV was swept away at approximately 3:51 a.m. while he was attempting to evacuate Bubble Inn campers. The New York Times interactive investigation and the Washington Post reported that Eastland's body was later recovered from the vehicle alongside three campers.
The legislative report set the stage for the bankruptcy
Six days before the bankruptcy filing, a joint Texas House and Senate special committee released a 115-page report on the flood. The June 18, 2026 report, covered by the Texas Tribune, CBS News Texas, FOX 4 and The New York Times, concluded that Camp Mystic had 39 adults on site supervising 557 girls on the night of the flood, yet operated without the written emergency or evacuation plans required by state law.
Investigators found that the urgent decision to evacuate rested on three individuals: Dick Eastland, his son Edward, and the camp's overnight security guard. The committee concluded that the one-page shelter-in-place instruction Camp Mystic had on file did not satisfy state requirements for youth camps near flood-prone waterways. Texas Public Radio reported that the findings, combined with the rising number of wrongful death lawsuits, gave plaintiffs' attorneys an evidentiary foundation that significantly increased Camp Mystic's potential litigation exposure.
What Chapter 11 changes for victims' families
By the time of the bankruptcy filing, at least 19 families had joined four wrongful death lawsuits against Camp Mystic, beginning with the November 10, 2025 suits reported by CNN and the BBC and expanded by additional joinders documented by KSAT on November 14, 2025. The Steward family, whose 8-year-old daughter Cecilia 'Cile' Steward of Austin remains the only Camp Mystic camper still missing, filed a separate suit in February 2026.
Under federal bankruptcy law, the moment Camp Mystic filed Chapter 11, an automatic stay halted all of those lawsuits. Debtwire reporter Madison Foss explained in an email cited by NBC News that the families are now, in her words, "classified as creditors who must seek compensation from a limited fund available in the bankruptcy proceedings, rather than through individual jury awards." Houston bankruptcy attorneys quoted by Texas Public Radio noted that this approach is common when a single defendant faces a wave of related personal injury claims that could otherwise exceed its insurance and assets.
Chapter 11 reorganization is most often used by operating businesses that want to restructure debt and keep running. In mass tort situations, including the prior bankruptcies of organizations such as USA Gymnastics and the Boy Scouts of America, it is also used to consolidate liability into a single court and a single negotiated settlement trust. Camp Mystic's filing follows that pattern. The petition reports assets in a range up to $500,000 against potential liabilities up to $50 million, a mismatch that signals the operator cannot, in its current corporate form, satisfy a series of individual jury awards.
For the 19 plus families pursuing wrongful death claims, the trade is a difficult one. They give up the opportunity to argue individual cases before separate juries. In exchange, they gain a single forum with a defined pool of money, structured by a judge, and a clearer timeline for resolution. The size of that pool will depend on Camp Mystic's insurance recovery, the value of its real estate, and any contributions from related entities. The filing covers three related companies named in the petition: Camp Mystic LLC, Mystic Camps Family Partnership Ltd., and Mystic Camps Management LLC.