AUSTIN, TEXAS — The Texas Board of Nursing suspended the nursing license of Mary Liz Eastland, the registered nurse who served as Camp Mystic's medical officer, accusing her of abandoning campers and staff during the July 4, 2025 flash floods that killed 25 girls and two teenage counselors along the Guadalupe River. The action is one of the first taken by the board against a member of the family that owns and operates the camp since the disaster.

An order signed by Kristin Benton, executive director of the Texas Board of Nursing, stated that allowing Eastland to keep practicing nursing would constitute a "continuing and imminent threat to public welfare." The order said she "abandoned the campers and staff when the camp site began to flood by evacuating herself and her children to higher ground without providing any assistance or direction to all of the other campers and staff." According to the order, the board will issue a final decision on her license within two months.

The complaint alleges that Eastland failed to develop adequate emergency plans and protocols for campers, staff, and nurses at the camp. It alleges that when floodwaters began rising around 2 a.m. on July 4, 2025, she evacuated herself and her children to higher ground without assisting campers or staff, never called her nursing team, and never contacted emergency services even after learning people were missing. The charges also state that she waited nearly nine months to report the deaths, despite a state law requiring reporting within 24 hours.

Camp Mystic attorney Joshua Fiveson said Eastland rejects the findings and will fight the suspension, adding that the board acted with less than a day's notice of a hearing and without taking testimony or conducting a full investigation. "This is a sad day for Mrs. Eastland as well as every licensed nurse in Texas," Fiveson said. "This was an exercise in premature punishment."

Eastland acknowledged in court that she never tried to reach children and staff in the low-lying area of the camp as the flooding worsened. Richard Eastland, Camp Mystic's owner and her father-in-law, died in the flood. In April, legislative hearings revealed that the camp lacked detailed planning for a flood emergency, relied on poorly trained staff, and missed chances to evacuate children from cabins near the river. During those hearings, she said she and her children left their house to join her mother-in-law, that water poured in and she broke a window to escape, and that her family reached higher ground. She said she and other staff gathered survivors for a head count and checked names against cabin rosters but could not pass through rising floodwaters to reach campers closest to the river. Asked if other staff could have helped with the camp evacuation, she said, "Maybe so."

Several families have filed lawsuits against the Eastlands. Last month, Camp Mystic canceled plans to reopen this summer.