‘My daughter was stolen from us’: Texas parents who lost children in Camp Mystic flooding speak at hearing

The parents of the children who were among the 27 were killed in the Mestic camp on the Guadalobi River in Texas during the fourth historic flood of July, which destroyed the Hill Control region on Wednesday in front of a legislative committee for the state that was investigated by the disaster.

A coalition of Sufi parents in the camp witnessed before the Senate endurance and flood committee in Texas, which is considering reforms to increase safety in youth camps throughout the state.

Cici Williams Steward told the committee that her 8 -year -old daughter is the only mystical vehicle that is still missing, and one of the flood victims that are still missing in the wake of the disaster.

“Three generations of women in my family went to the Mystic camp. This year, he was the role of Cile. She was 8 years old, went for the first time, and her heart full of excitement to join her mother’s tradition, aunt, grandfather, aunt, and five cousins.” “For Cile, the camp means adventure, memories, friendships and lessons that must be affected by life. This means that watching my child grows and learns, but always under the assertion that it will be safe.”

Steward added: “It is not possible to exist with joy and growth without safety. It was an opportunity to try an existing camp only because I was sure of its safety and the safety of all young girls. I ask you, what could have been more important than that?

Steward, who was sitting next to her husband, said that the painful experience is awaiting the remains of her daughter, who must be redeemed, had left her and her family in a “uncertainty torture room”.

“The life of Kiel is over, not because of the inevitable work of nature, but because of the failures that can be prevented on its fifth day of the camp,” said Steward storming tears.

Steouard and the other fathers who witnessed the committee asked to pass the Senate 1 draft law, a measure that enhances safety in the camps along the Guadalopy River, where Camp Mitik was destroyed during the flood.

A campaign for the safety of the camp, a group that includes the fathers of the Sufi camp, said in a statement issued this week before the session on Wednesday: “The lives of our children were shortened because the guarantees in their place were not sufficient.” “We ask legislators to ensure that there is no other family ever bearing the pain we lived with every day since July 4.”

The proposed bill aims to enhance the safety of the camp

The Senator Charles Perry in Texas said that the Senate Bill will put “the basic safety of the camp’s safety” on the camps, which requires them to have emergency plans in the province, prevent cabins from being built in the plains of the flood, and canceling the camps of supplying the cabins with ceiling stairs and radio devices and asking them to be at least from a separate internet link.

Perry said that if there was doubt that the “Safety Law in the Camp” in the Senate – which will be renamed “Camp Safety Law 27” – I have no doubt that some lives, if not all souls, would be saved on the camp front. “

On Wednesday’s parents were expected to make additional suggestions on how to improve the safety of the camp along the Guadalpe River. In its statement, the group said that it wants legislators to request camps in the 100 -year -old flooding plains, such as Camp Mystic, to supply the cabins with emergency stairs on the surface and develop flood evacuation plans.

“I didn’t even express my mind that a camp like mystic would not have a detailed emergency action in his place. When action was recently taken, it wasn’t very late, very late,” said Michael Macokon, whose 7 -year -old daughter, Lenny Makkon, died in the floods. “We did not send Lini to a war area. We sent it to the camp. We have trusted that it will be safe. The father should not face what we live in now.”

“Not only was it safe, it died.”

Carrie Hanna described her 8 -year -old daughter, Hadley, as “a little girl, gentle, care, ridiculous, and loved she always wanted to help others.”

Hanna said: “I told that her camp was the safest places where she could be, and she will be new friendships and learn new things.” “I lied to her. She was not only safe, she died.”

Hanna said that her daughter died, “Because there was no plan, because there was no reserve system or alarm bicycles, because the gentle consultants from 18 and 19 years old did not receive the training they needed.”

“Instead, they were told to stay in their place, a rule that has proven to be fatal,” Hanna said.

Clark Baker, who wiped tears, wipes a picture of his 8 -year -old daughter, Marie Grace Baker, carrying a caught fish.

“This image that I see was the last living memory of my daughter,” Baker said.

“I sit in front of you a broken man”

Brandt Delon, whose daughter, who was 8 years old, appealed to Lucy, with the committee not to allow the Senate 1 draft law that it was “penetrating” before its approval.

“When I left Lucy to the camp, this was the first time that she slept away from us,” said Delon. “We cost us to take care of the camp operator and we did not think for a moment that it would be returned in the coffin.”

His daughter called “his best friend, my greatest contribution to society,” and told the committee, “Today I sit in front of you a broken man.”

“I will never forget the emotional invitation that is simply missing,” Delon recalls. “We must make sure that when parents entrust their children to the camps that they can have confidence that the facilities are safe, that the operators are ready and the emergency plans are sufficient and implemented. I will add, assumption as well.”

Ryan Diite told the committee that he left two daughters in the Mestic camp and only one returned home. In his testimony, he recalled his final farewell with his younger daughter, Molly, who is 9 years old.

She said, “She said:” You went up to me. You are on one knee. You gave me a great hug. I withdrew.

The tragic certificate transferred the committee members to cry.

“I want you to know, hear,” Senator Luis Kulkorst told parents who witnessed. “You affect life.”

Camp Mestic, one of the summer camps for youth 19 on the Guadalobi River near Hunt, Texas, was shown on July 4 when heavy rains fell over a short period of time, causing the river to flow in the early morning hours of July 4, besieging many camps in their cabin. Officials in the Care Hayes County, where the Mestic camp is that more than 12 inches of rain fell in less than 6 hours, and that the Guadalobi River rose more than 20 feet per hour during the storm.

Officials said at least 138 people were killed in floods and luminous across the Hill Control region, including 117 in CARE.

During a hearing on August 1 of Texas and Senate committees on the willingness of floods and floods, the emergency department director in Kiir Province admitted that he was sick and sleeping as water rises to historical levels on the Guadalobi River.

Kiir County officials believed that an insufficient warning system on the source contributed to the disaster.

Care Rob Kelly Province judge witnessed that in the wake of the flood, the province cost an independent hydrology study that confirmed that the weather in July was a 1000 -year -old flood.

“By the time when the flood became visible in the direction of the river, societies were in the direction of the source, including the multiple youth camps, already underwater,” Kelly said.

When the members of the committee asked Kelly about the reason for not issuing the evacuation order, he said: “It is too late.”

ABC News’ Jeffrey Cook contributed to this report.