My wife, Karen, and I hosted dinner at our Austin home for 42 guests on Aug. 20. As they greeted each other with hugs and handshakes, there was sadness and weariness in the room—a mixture of anxiety and hope. And for good reason: These were parents of the 27 girls who died at Camp Mystic in the July 4 Guadalupe River flood near Kerrville, Texas.
They were in town to redeem the deaths of their daughters, to make from unbearable tragedy something good by pressing for a camp-safety law in Texas. The legislation would prohibit sleeping cabins from being built in flood plains and require comprehensive disaster plans, camp staff training, and better alarms and communications.
The dinner conversations were poignant and at times agonizing. Parents shared the moments they were told something horrible had happened, their frantic efforts to reach the disaster site, the days waiting for news and, worst of all, the requests to identify their children’s bodies. A father beside me at the table, John Lawrence, said the hardest thing he and his wife, Lacy, have ever done was tell their 15-year-old daughter, Harper, that her sisters Hanna and Rebecca were gone.
In the immediate aftermath, stricken families’ emotions ran to anger and retribution. But as days passed, their thoughts turned to how to honor their daughters, the “Heaven’s 27.” They focused on common-sense reforms so other families wouldn’t suffer what they had.
The Campaign for Camp Safety was organized by a coalition of these parents, including Matthew and Wendie Childress, who lost 18-year-old Chloe. A camp counselor, she died at her post, following the camp’s instructions to shelter-in-place with her 8- and 9-year-old charges. She would be going through rush as a University of Texas freshman this week.
Blake and Caitlin Bonner lost Lila, 9, a first-time camper. He says they “want Lila to be remembered not as a victim, but as a catalyst for changes that will save other families from similar tragedies.”
My wife, a respected lobbyist, became involved because friends of the families reached out. Fellow lobbyists Jim Grace and Kelly Barnes and advocate Elizabeth Phillips also volunteered. All worked pro bono.
Legislative sponsors stepped forward. Charles Perry is the state Senate Disaster Preparedness Committee chairman. State Rep. Drew Darby embraced the issue for personal reasons: He picked up his granddaughters from Mystic a week before the flood.
Earnest, respectful and thoughtful, the families of those who perished led the effort. They called legislators, shaped decisions and kept the focus. On Aug. 14, they met separately with Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (the Senate’s presiding officer) and House Speaker Dustin Burrows.
The families’ pleas were heard. The next day, the governor added camp safety to the special session call. Senate and House leaders gave each sponsor’s bill their chamber’s top priority. The following Monday, families met with legislators, and two days later, they testified before the Senate Disaster Preparedness Committee. It was brutal to talk about their loss, especially for CiCi and Will Steward, whose 8-year-old daughter, Cile, still hasn’t been found.
The measures came to each chamber’s floor last Thursday. They passed the House 136-1 and the Senate unanimously. The families were in the galleries. As the bill sponsors introduced them, lawmakers wept. Absent last-minute wrangling, both chambers are expected to approve the other’s bill shortly and the governor to sign them almost immediately.
