AUSTIN, TEXAS — Camp Mystic director Edward Eastland testified for several hours Monday in an Austin courtroom as part of an appeal of a judge's order requiring the camp to preserve flood-damaged areas of its grounds. The hearing, attended by families of victims, stems from lawsuits filed after a July 4, 2025, flood on the Guadalupe River killed 27 campers and counselors at the all-girls Christian summer camp.

A judge ordered Camp Mystic last month to preserve the damaged areas as evidence in several lawsuits filed by families of the girls who died. Camp operators have appealed that order. Families of several victims have sued the camp's operators, arguing that camp officials failed to take necessary steps to protect campers as floodwaters approached. The flood killed at least 136 people along a several-mile stretch of the Guadalupe River.

On July 2 and 3, the National Weather Service and the Texas Department of Emergency Management posted flood watch notifications on social media. On July 3, the National Weather Service issued an alert asking broadcasters to note that locally heavy rainfall could cause flash flooding in rivers, creeks, streams and low-lying areas. Eastland said he did not see those social media posts and was not following either agency on social media. He said he believed the local CodeRED alert system and phone weather apps were sufficient, and that he and other staff were signed up for an emergency warning system on their phones and used other weather apps.

Eastland said his father, camp co-owner Richard Eastland, typically monitored weather issues. Camp staff did not hold a meeting about the alerts and warnings on July 3, he said. "Taps" was played over loudspeakers at 10 p.m. on July 3 when campers went to bed, and Edward Eastland said he went to bed at about 11 p.m. Cellphones were not allowed in the cabins, and only some staff carried walkie-talkies for communication.

He said he did not receive a National Weather Service flash flood warning at 1:14 a.m. and slept through a CodeRED alert text at the same time that was specific to his area. The CodeRED text warned of a flood event that could last several hours. Richard Eastland contacted his son by walkie-talkie shortly before 2 a.m. to report hard rain and instruct him to move canoes and water equipment off the riverfront. Camp staff did not evacuate cabins at that time.

Eastland said the loudspeakers were not used to issue a weather warning. "It was not reasonable to do that at that time," he said. "The water wasn't out of the Guadalupe River. It was pouring down rain and lighting and the cabins were safe at that time." He said his father made the call to evacuate cabins at about 3 a.m.

"We did not expect what was going to happen," Eastland said. In a signed statement included in court filings, a counselor said she saw girls running for shelter during the storm. "The water was rising faster than anything I have ever witnessed," the counselor wrote.