The top medical officer at Camp Mystic evacuated herself and her kids and didn’t contact staff as a deadly Texas flood hit last summer, official documents show.
Mary Elizabeth Eastland, the chief health officer at the all-girls Christian camp, “abandoned” campers and her colleagues when water from the Guadalupe River began to flood the campsite in the early morning hours of July 4, 2025, according to an order from the Texas Board of Nursing.
In one of the biggest horrors of the flood that ravaged Kerr County, 25 young campers and two teen counselors were killed.
The order entered Tuesday temporarily suspends Eastland’s nursing license, listing what the board found to be violations during her time at Camp Mystic. Eastland’s attorney, Joshua Fiveson, has said his client denies the allegations against her.
By evacuating herself and her kids to higher ground without helping the campers and staff, the board found that she “unnecessarily” exposed others to a “risk of harm.” Eastland is part of the Eastland family, who owns and operates Camp Mystic. She and her husband also serve as co-directors of the campsite.
The board also alleged that Eastland failed to contact the nursing staff to provide instructions and failed to contact emergency services at any time during the flood. She also did not communicate with emergency services after becoming aware that campers and staff were missing, the documents claimed.
Hundreds of first responders combed through Kerr County after the flood, looking for those unaccounted for. In the days that followed, campers’ belongings left behind were photographed. Pops of hot pink scattered throughout piles of clothes and stacked twin-sized mattresses were seen on the lawn of the campsite.
One of the rescuers, Petty Officer Third Class Scott Ruskan with the Coast Guard, recalled finding survivors of the camp’s tragedy, telling The New York Times, “Kids were in pajamas.”
Eastland’s alleged actions “resulted in the campers and staff not getting the health care, support, and supervision they needed to manage physical harm, emotional harm, psychological harm, and loss of life,” according to the documents.
Attorney Fiveson claimed the board’s order of temporary suspension was handed down without “the benefit of testimony, evidence or a complete investigation,” in a statement shared with The Independent.
He called it a “sad day” for Eastland and “every licensed nurse in Texas.”
“Mrs. Eastland has admirably committed herself to service of others for the last 18 years,” the attorney said, adding that the order is a “premature punishment.”
Fiveson said Eastland “rejects the Board’s allegations and looks forward to defending her rights before the State Office of Administrative Hearings.”
The board also alleged that Eastland didn’t have “adequate” emergency plans for campers and staff before the flood.
In a “deceptive” move, Eastland also failed to report the 27 Camp Mystic deaths within 24 hours, as part of the Texas Administrative Code, according to the documents.
The board said that allowing Eastland to continue to practice nursing would be a “continuing and imminent threat to public welfare.”
Camp Mystic decided not to reopen this summer, saying in a statement shared by several news outlets, “No administrative process or summer season should move forward while families continue to grieve, while investigations continue and while so many Texans still carry the pain of last July’s tragedy.”
Cici and Will Steward, whose daughter Cile’s body has still not been found as of late April, said in a statement shared by news outlets, “We are grateful that no child will be placed in the Eastlands’ care this summer.”
