US EditionFEMA removed dozens of Camp Mystic buildings from 100-year flood map before expansion: Report
KERR COUNTY, TEXAS, JUL 12 – FEMA approved appeals that removed multiple Camp Mystic buildings from flood hazard maps, reducing oversight despite the camp being in a high-risk flood plain prone to flash flooding.
- Camp Mystic in Kerr County lost at least 27 campers, counselors, and owner Dick Eastland in historic floodwaters before dawn on July 4, 2025.
- The camp was located in a known flood-prone area called flash flood alley and repeatedly sought and received FEMA map amendments removing dozens of buildings from the 100-year flood hazard zone since 2011.
- These amendments lessened regulatory oversight and allowed the camp's operation and expansion, including opening a second site in 2020, despite expert warnings about underestimated flood risks.
- Experts including Syracuse University professor Sarah Pralle called it "particularly disturbing" that such a camp received exemptions, and data science expert Jeremy Porter said FEMA's flood maps underestimate risk.
- The tragic flood highlights the limits of FEMA's process, which officials say is arduous but necessary, and stresses the need for stricter regulations and cautious expansion in high-risk flood areas.
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176 Articles
East Bay Times
The Mercury newsFEMA OK’d requests to move Camp Mystic buildings from flood map
Experts say Camp Mystic's requests to amend the FEMA map could have been an attempt to avoid the requirement to carry flood insurance, to lower the camp's insurance premiums or to pave the way for renovating or adding new structures under less costly regulations.
FEMA Created 'Death Zone' By Stripping Camp Mystic of Flood Protections Before Disaster Struck
In the years leading up to the deadly flood that swept away children and counselors at Camp Mystic, federal regulators quietly and repeatedly granted appeals to remove the camp’s buildings from the government’s official flood [...] The post FEMA Created ‘Death Zone’ By Stripping Camp Mystic of Flood Protections Before Disaster Struck appeared first on The People's Voice.
Federal regulators repeatedly granted appeals to remove the Camp Mystic buildings from their 100-year flood map, loosening oversight as the camp operated and expanded in a dangerous floodplain in the years before…
FEMA approved removal of many Camp Mystic buildings from flood zones
In the years before floodwaters killed more than two dozen people at Camp Mystic in Texas, regulators approved a series of appeals that removed many of the camp's buildings from official federal flood zones, records show.
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