A Texas mother is speaking out after her three young daughters survived the deadly floods at Camp Mystic against all odds.
Lisa Miller, a former camper and counselor at Camp Mystic, explains that she and her husband Nicholas were celebrating their anniversary on a beach in France when they first heard about “some flooding” at the camp. Initially, Miller didn’t think it was serious.
Having once been stranded on a hill during a flood as a counselor, she says flooding at the camp is usually minor, and there’s a clear protocol until waters subside.
However, when Miller learned that two girls from her friend’s youngest daughter’s cabin were found down the Guadalupe River, she realized the situation was truly “catastrophic.”
Though she didn’t immediately receive updates from camp staff—who were “consumed with the crisis” — after texting camp director Mary Liz Eastland, Miller was relieved to find out her daughters were safe. However, dozens of campers and an entire cabin were missing.
The camp director’s father-in-law, Richard “Dick” Eastland, who owned the camp, was also missing and was later found dead.
The way Miller’s daughters managed to escape the rising floodwaters still amazes her.
Her oldest daughter Eliza, 14, was on “Senior Hill,” at the camp’s highest point, and experienced a “typical” flood. Her cabin was isolated from the rest of the camp, and at first, the girls thought they were simply enduring a bad storm — even taking photos, unaware of the danger below.
Genevieve, 12, was in the last cabin in an area called “the flats.” Miller says a counselor ran to the camp office around 2 a.m. to report their cabin was flooding.
That warning prompted an evacuation, with the camp owner driving campers—including Genevieve—to safety at the Rec Hall. But as water rapidly filled that building, they moved to a balcony above.
“The water kept rising, nearly touching the balcony, with waves crashing right beneath,” Miller recalls. The girls were frightened, but heroic counselors kept them calm by singing camp songs and praying until the waters finally receded.
Miller’s youngest, 9-year-old Birdie, woke up around 2:30 a.m. due to the storm. She went to the bathroom and noticed the floodwaters.
Counselors soon woke the children and told them to put their belongings on the beds because the flood outside made the door impossible to open.
After a counselor broke a window, the children were handed one by one to the camp owner for evacuation. Birdie told her mom the water reached her shoulders and that a counselor eventually lifted her onto their back to carry her to safety.
All three girls were airlifted by Black Hawk helicopter to a reunification center, where they were reunited with Miller’s mother and stepfather while she and her husband were still abroad.
“I am still overwhelmed,” Miller admits. “The layers of this loss are unimaginable — the heartbreak over the missing children and their families is foremost in everyone’s minds.”
Though floods have occurred before, Miller says nothing could have prepared anyone for the scale of this disaster.
While she believes government budget cuts played a role, Tom Fahy, legislative director for the National Weather Services employees’ union, told CNN the office had “adequate staffing and resources.”
Fahy noted that the Austin-San Antonio office, key for flood forecasting and warnings in the area, lacks a warning coordination meteorologist—a crucial link between forecasters and emergency management.
For now, Miller describes her feelings as a mixture of “heartbreak” over the tragedy and “gratitude” that her daughters are safe, as well as appreciation for the staff who saved them.
“We received the first letters of the term the day the girls returned — each said it was ‘the best term ever,’ and they were thrilled to be back with friends,” Miller says. “They all said their counselors were the best they’d ever had.”
Those “incredible” counselors, she adds, “saved their lives with quick thinking, and we can never repay them enough.”
