KERR COUNTY, Texas – A spokesperson for the owners and executive directors of Camp Mystic now says it is not known whether Richard “Dick” Eastland received a National Weather Service alert on his phone. Eastland lost his life trying to save the camp’s youngest campers from July 4 flood waters.
On Monday, Jeff Carr told 2 Investigates family members thought Eastland received a 1:14 a.m. flood warning on his phone. Carr said family initially assumed he received the alert because that’s around the time he communicated via walkie-talkie with staff to begin checking the property due to heavy rain.
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Carr said upon further reflection family members told him they don’t know if Eastland received the alert because they weren’t with him at the time. Other family members told Carr they did not receive that alert on their phones.
“Cell service is very spotty in that area,” said Carr.
Carr said he later learned Eastland was awake at that time because he working an overnight shift watching the camp grounds.
“He was watching the weather gauge and saw it rained 2-inches in an hour, which is why he told everyone to start assessing conditions” said Carr.
Carr said a night watchman on duty that morning at the camp also did not receive the 1:14 a.m. alert, but said his wife did receive the alert and phoned her husband. Carr said the night watchman’s wife was at their home in the nearby town of Hunt.
Carr said evacuations of the camp started between 2 a.m and 2:30 a.m. Carr said he is still working with family to put together a concrete timeline of what happened the morning of July 4.
After the 1:14 a.m. alert, which did not call for evacuations, the National Weather Service continued issuing Flash Flood Warnings for the Guadalupe River until 4:04 a.m., when it issued a flash flood emergency.
A National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration gauge on the Guadalupe River at Hunt, the closest to Camp Mystic, showed water levels did not reach minor flood stage, 10 feet, until 3 a.m. By 4:30 a.m., the gauge, which stopped reporting data at 4:35 a.m., registered water levels of 29.45 feet. A temporary gauge brought in to that area reported the river cresting at 37.25 feet at 5:10 a.m.
The issue of alerts and warnings will be a topic of the upcoming special session of the Texas legislature. As KPRC 2 previously reported, Kerr County Commissioners discussed upgrading their flood warning system, but never moved forward with the plans.
