Federal regulators repeatedly appealed to remove the camping Mystic buildings from their 100-year flood map, loose up the oversight operated as the camp and expanded a dangerous flooding in earlier years. Children and consultants run away in water, A review was found by the Associated Press.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency included the summer camp of reputed girls in the “Special Flood Danger area” in its National Flood Insurance Map for Care County in 2011, meaning that this flood insurance was necessary and faced strict regulation on any future construction projects.
That designation means that an area is likely to be submerged during a 100-year flood-one is serious that it is likely to be only 1% in any year.
In Camp Mystic, a girls summer camp, known as Flash Flood Elle, is located in a lower area along the Gwadalup River in an area, At least 27 campers and consultants On July 4, before dawn, he died in the camp described as a “horrific flood”. Some survivors said that they woke up in the water race through the windows.
President Trump on Friday expressed “the suffering of our entire nation” when she and the first female Melania Trump met with the families of the victims of last week. Deadly floods in central Texas,
The flood was much more serious than the 100 -year incident imagined by FEMA, said experts said, and went in the middle of the night that it went so quickly that it caught several offers in a county that Lack of a warning system.
But Syrakuse University Associate Professor Sarah Pral, who has studied the flood maps of FEMA on a large scale, said it was “especially disturbing” that a camp in charge of safety of so many youths would be exempted from basic flood regulation.
“It’s a mystery for me why they were not taking active steps to take the structures away from risk, challenging alone seems like a very appropriate map that shows these structures showing these structures that were in the 100 -year flood area,” he said.
Camp Mistic did not respond to emails seeking comments and was unanswered. The camp has called the flood “unimaginable tragedy” and added to a statement on Thursday that it restored power with the aim of communicating with his supporters.
Ellie Hartman / AP 
FEMA exempted buildings on new and old sites
In response to an appeal, in 2013, FEMA amended the county flood map of the county to remove 15 cam buildings from the danger area. Records suggest that the buildings were part of the 99 -year -old camp Mistic Guadalup, which was destroyed by the floods last week.
Following further appeal, FEMA removed 15 more camps from the designation in 2019 and 2020. Those buildings were located on the nearby camp Mistic Saru Lake, a sister site, which was opened in 2020 for campers as part of a large extension and there was less damage in the floods.
Campers have said that cabins have suffered significant damage in Saru Lake, but were surrounded by “The Flats” surname at the Gwadalup river camp.
Experts say that there may be an attempt to avoid the need to carry flood insurance from the requests of the camp mistic to amend the map of FEMA, to reduce the insurance premium of the camp or pave the way for rebuilding or adding new structures under low expensive rules.
Pral said that the appeal was not surprising because the owners of communities and property have successfully used them to mold specific properties from regulation.
Ellie Hartman / AP 
Analysis found flood risk at both camp sites
Despite the determination of FEMA, the risk was clear.
At least 12 structures in Camp Mystic Guadalup were completely within the 100 -year flood ground of FEMA, and some were partially in that area, according to an AP analysis of data provided by First Street, according to an AP analysis, a data science company that specializes in modeling climate risk.
Jeremy Porter, head of climate implications at First Street, said FEMA’s flood insurance map reduces flood risks. This is because it fails to keep in mind the effects of heavy rainfall on small waterways such as streams and creek. The model of First Street puts almost all the risk of Camp Mystic Guadalupa during a 100 -year flood.
The buildings of the new Saruz Lake site are away from the south fork of the flood-prone river, but the Saru is adjacent to the creek. FEMA flooding does not consider small waterways a risk.
However, the model of First Street, which reaches Creek keeping in mind heavy rains and runoff, indicates that most of the Saruz Lake Site is within an area that is at risk during the 100 -year flood.
In a statement, FEMA reduced the importance of flood map modifications.
The agency wrote, “Flood maps are snapshots on time that are designed to show minimum standards for flood management and highest risk for flood insurance.” “They are not prophecies where it will flood, and they do not show where it is filled before.”
Appeal process can help property owners
Property owners challenging FEMA map designations have hired engineers to do detailed studies, showing that they should actually be prepared by the 100 -year flooding. This is a “very difficult process” that can cause more accurate maps while making it easier to build future, Chris Stubing, Executive Director of the Texas Fldplane Management Association, said, an industry group that represents floodplane managers.
Pral, who reviewed the amendments for AP, said that some exempted properties were within 2 feet (0.6 m) of FEMA flood ground by revised calculations of the camp, which he said that he left almost no margin for error. He said that his research suggests that FEMA approximately approximately 90% of the MAP modification requests, and this process can be rich and well -connected to the side.
A study published with researcher Davin Lee in 2021 analyzed over 20,000 buildings, which were removed from the FEMA flood map. It was found that the amendment was more often at places where property values were high, more white people lived and buildings were new.
The camp expanded after ‘tremendous success’
FEMA warned in its amendments that the flood maps in other parts of the camp remained on the map, and that the flood in “any future construction or adequate improvement” would be subject to plain management rules.
County officials not only allowed the camp to operate, but also expanded dramatically.
Considering the Texas royalty after decades of taking care of the daughters of elite families, Camp Mistic Owners Dick and Tweety Eastland quoted the “tremendous success” of their original camp, explaining the need of a second site nearby.
The expansion included new cabin and a dining hall, chapel, archery range and more. The camp had more than 100 employees between 557 campers and its two places, when a state licensing agency conducted an inspection on July 2, two days before the tragedy, shows records.
FEMA raised questions about the expansion of local authorities, who did not respond to messages seeking comment.
Since the flood, The officials of Ker County have repeatedly postponed the details of their response and time limit. The National Weather Service issued a flash-flood warning for mobile phones and Weather Radio at 1:14 pm on Friday on Friday. At 4:03 pm, the warning was updated in the flash-flood emergency.
The Kerville Police Department and the County Sheriff Office started posting on Facebook around 5:15 am to warn the residents of dangerous floods. But it is not clear that emergency officials coded, the seller used to consume the public for emergency situations and disasters.
but as Flood water increases rapidly In the early hours of July 4, there was no one on the Gwadalup River Outdoor siren or warning alarm To consume people for danger. Ker County Judge Rob Kelly, a top local government official, said in view of the flood that there is no “warning system in the region.”
Recording of radio traffic reviewed by CBS News reveals a fire fighter at 4:22 pm, about an hour in flood response, asked a dispatcher whether the coded system could be active.
However, no alert was sent by local government officials in Ker County or neighbor Bandera County, CBS news analysis The shows were 22 warnings sent by National Weather Service For Ker County and Kerville region.
Meanwhile, a long time municipal engineer Stubing in Texas said that rains and floods hit Ker County in a few hours, much more intense than doing anything in their history that it is difficult to say failure for flooding management.
Local authorities believed that they were following the existing rules when they allowed the camp to grow, but “then Mother Nature set a new standard,” he said.
He said, “You could manufacture more things 2 feet (0.6 m) high, 3 feet (0.9 m), and they can still take down,” he said.
