Families of those who perished in raging floodwaters at an all-girls camp in Texas this summer are suing the camp and its owners and operators, accusing them of negligence and reckless disregard.

At least 27 campers and counselors at Camp Mystic, along the Guadalupe River in the Hill Country of Central Texas, died as flash floods swept through the area in the early morning hours of July 4.

As the floodwaters rose, the suit alleges, camp leaders instructed groundskeepers to spend more than an hour relocating camp equipment instead of people from the site.

“These young girls died because a for-profit camp put profit over safety,” it said, naming the camp and members of the Eastland family, the site’s longstanding owners, among the defendants.

The 32-page suit, filed in state court in Austin, accuses Camp Mystic of placing campers in cabins located in flood-prone areas and failing to develop necessary evacuation plans.

“The Camp chose to take no steps to protect its campers and counselors while it knew a storm and ‘life threatening flash flooding’ were approaching,” it said. “Finally, when it was too late, the Camp made a hopeless ‘rescue’ effort from its self-created disaster in which 25 campers, two counselors and the Camp director died.”

In response to a request for comment on the lawsuit, Camp Mystic issued a one-sentence statement: "We continue to pray for the grieving families and ask for God’s healing and comfort," it said.

Jeff Ray, the camp's legal counsel, said the defendants "disagree with several accusations and misinformation" in the suit "regarding the actions of Camp Mystic and Dick Eastland, who lost his life as well."

"We empathize with the families of the campers and counselors and all families in the Hill Country who lost loved ones in the horrific and unprecedented flood of July 4," Ray said. "We intend to demonstrate and prove that this sudden surge of floodwaters far exceeded any previous flood in the area by several magnitudes, that it was unexpected and that no adequate warning systems existed in the area."

The lawsuit said that while youth camps provide the chance to form lifelong bonds and enjoy nature, “this ideal exists only when youth camp operators take reasonable and required precautions to ensure the safety of children and counselors invited to their camps. When they fail to do so, tragedy is sure to follow.”

It also charges the camp’s owners with deepening the families’ pain with their actions since the tragedy, including their recent declaration of plans to reopen for business even as one victim of the disaster remains missing.

“The Camp has caused further trauma to these distraught families,” it said. “And through it all, the Camp refuses to accept any responsibility for its actions and failures to act, defiantly blaming this tragedy on ‘an act of God’ that no responsible steps could have avoided.”

The plaintiffs are asking for damages of at least $1 million.

'A bull's-eye for flash flooding'

The July 4 flooding killed at least 135 people, 116 of them in Kerr County, after heavy rainfall caused the Guadalupe to overflow its banks.

Experts say multiple factors converged in early July in a region that political scientist Roger Pielke Jr. referred to as “a bull’s-eye for flash flooding” to unleash the deadly scenario.

Up to 16 inches of rainfall drenched the Hill Country area from July 3 to July 5, a landscape known for rapid, raging flooding in extreme rain boosted by moist gulf air moving over the dry, dusty hills.

On the morning of July 4, precipitation was falling at 3 to 4 inches an hour, according to the National Weather Service; some locations recorded up to 7 inches, or 122 million gallons of water per square mile, in three hours.

The deluge caused the Guadalupe River to rise more than 20 feet in just hours as it headed downstream in a deadly torrent through Kerr County.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Families of girls killed in Texas flooding sue, say camp owners 'put profit over safety'

Reporting by Marc Ramirez, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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