A hearing is underway in Travis County, Texas, concerning civil lawsuits filed by several families who lost children in the deadly central Texas flooding last July. Those families want their day in court against the camp's operators, claiming they were negligent in their planning.

The catastrophic flooding killed 25 girls and two teenage counselors in the Hill Country. Cile Steward, 8, is the only child who has not been found. Her parents are seeking more than $1 million dollars in damages.

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Attorneys for the families and Camp Mystic LLC gathered in court to argue whether the case will be privately arbitrated out of court or not.

The attorneys representing the families argued that the defense counsel previously said they planned to  disclose everything  and  forfeited the right to seek arbitration. 


Last month, a Texas board suspended the nursing license of Camp Mystic's co-director in a scathing order that accused her of not helping children evacuate during last year's catastrophic floods.

Mary Liz Eastland, the camp's co-director and medical officer, acknowledged in court that she never tried to reach those in the low-lying area of the camp as flooding worsened.Her father-in-law, Camp Mystic owner Richard Eastland, also died in the flood.

It's one of the state's first actions against a member of the family that owns and operates the all-girls Christian camp since the July 4 flood. Camp Mystic canceled plans to reopen this summer in the face of outrage from victims' parents.

Allowing Mary Liz Eastland to keep practicing nursing would constitute a  continuing and imminent threat to public welfare,  according to an order signed by Kristin Benton, executive director of the Texas Board of Nursing.

Eastland  abandoned the campers and staff when the camp site began to flood ... by evacuating herself and her children to higher ground without providing any assistance or direction to all of the other campers and staff,  the order reads.

Eastland rejects th

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