Camp Mystic hopes new flood warning system will prevent future catastrophes

2 days ago 8

Kerrville, Texas — At the country of one of the deadliest flash floods successful Texas history, 8-foot-tall aluminum towers are starting to look connected the banks of the Guadalupe River, portion of a flash flood informing strategy that is being installed.

In aboriginal July, much than 130 radical were killed successful catastrophic flash flooding successful the Texas Hill Country region, including 27 campers and counselors at Camp Mystic, a backstage Christian summertime campy for girls. In the days instantly aft the flooding, officials said the Guadalupe River roseate rapidly and with small warning.

Ian Cunningham, CEO and Founder of River Sentry, is starring a tiny squad that is conducting operation installations for Camp Mystic's Cypress Lake location, which is uphill from its sister camp, Camp Mystic Guadalupe, wherever the deadly flooding struck.

In September, Camp Mystic announced it would reopen its Cypress Lake tract adjacent summer.

It besides announced earlier this period that it was implementing information upgrades and installing the caller informing system. The campy said the informing strategy being installed by Cunningham and his squad volition beryllium successful summation to a caller flood siren system being installed under legislation passed by Texas authorities lawmakers.

Cunningham, a Navy seasoned and commercialized pilot, planned to donate the units to the camps, but a backstage instauration stepped successful and covered the backing for 100 towers, which are estimated to outgo $7,500 each. The sirens chosen for the towers are intended to nutrient 75 decibels of sound wrong a operation successful bid to aftermath radical up. The towers volition beryllium placed astatine 5 feet little than the operation — the compartment oregon home, for illustration — that they're protecting, and are utilizing the metric of h2o rising 1 ft per minute, which would springiness radical 5 minutes to escape.

Britt Eastland, the manager of Camp Mystic Cypress Lake, spoke exclusively with CBS News astir the caller alarms.

"That's different crushed wherefore we similar this product, is, it volition respond and bash what it's expected to bash without idiosyncratic needing to beryllium awake to acceptable disconnected the alarm," Eastland said.

Eastland explained that the campy is looking to bash adjacent much than the authorities volition provide. In September, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed 2 bills aimed astatine improving campy information successful the aftermath of the tragedy. The bills, present laws, necessitate camps to instal and support exigency alert systems, bid unit connected exigency routes, necessitate cabins to beryllium located distant from flood plains and mandate authorities inspections, among different things. Camp Mystic has vowed to spell supra and beyond authorities requirements.

"We needed thing that was going to supply america confidence, and each the parents' confidence, thing that would marque definite this ne'er happened again," Eastland said.

The families of respective of the campers and counselors who died sued Camp Mystic and its owners past month for gross negligence and reckless disregard for safety. The lawsuit, filed successful Travis County District Court, seeks accountability for what the plaintiffs described arsenic an "entirely preventable tragedy."

Cunningham told CBS News that, similar galore people, helium asked himself astatine the clip however specified a calamity could person happened.

"And it's happened before, aggregate times present successful Texas," Cunningham said. "And I benignant of think, this has to beryllium technologically solvable."

Cunningham said helium didn't look astatine this process similar a business, but arsenic a mode to prevention lives.

"My 2 daughters are campers," Cunningham said. "I can't ideate what those parents are going through. Like, I shudder astatine the thought."

In an airplane hangar extracurricular of Austin, Cunningham and his squad combined h2o sensors from sportfishing boats with sirens and lights from ambulances to enactment unneurotic the flash flood informing system.

Crucially, the strategy is designed to enactment adjacent if powerfulness and compartment towers spell down. The probe and plan took them little than 2 months.

"You know, astatine a basal level, we're providing a fume detector for floods connected your spot perimeter," Cunningham said of the system.