Dozens of bills were rejected over nearly 60 years, ProPublica and The Texas Tribune found. Some measures would have prohibited youth camps and new construction in high-risk flood areas.
Emily Foxhall
Emily Foxhall is The Texas Tribune's climate reporter. She joined the Tribune as an energy reporter in December 2022, focused on the state’s transition to green energy and the reliability of the power grid. She completed a year-long Knight Science Journalism Fellowship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in May 2025. Emily is based in Houston, where she grew up. After a stint as a Tribune student intern in 2012, she began her career at the Los Angeles Times and its community papers. She later worked at the Houston Chronicle where her environmental reporting uncovered the effects of climate change and pollution on the region. She won several Texas Managing Editors awards and was part of the 2017 team that was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for breaking news coverage of Hurricane Harvey. Emily graduated from Yale University in 2013, where she studied English and was a Yale Journalism Scholar.
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Hill Country floods
Camp Mystic abandons bid to reopen this summer
Twenty-five campers, two counselors and the Hill Country Christian camp’s executive director died in a devastating 2025 flood. Families of victims had criticized plans to reopen.
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Hill Country floods
Camp Mystic director apologizes to families of campers, counselors who died in flood
Parents confronted the Eastlands in an emotional hearing Tuesday over the camp’s failure to protect the children it was entrusted to care for.
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Hill Country floods
Poor preparation doomed Camp Mystic victims, investigator tells Texas lawmakers in harrowing account
The summer camp hadn’t prepared counselors and staff with adequate emergency training, an evacuation plan or flood preparedness supplies, the investigator concluded.
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Hill Country floods
Texas agency finds Camp Mystic emergency plan insufficient
The camp has 45 days to revise its plan as it aims to reopen for campers this summer. Other youth camps also had deficiencies to correct in their plans, according to the agency that must review them.
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Economy
How Texans can purchase tax free emergency supplies
From April 25–27, certain emergency supplies are tax-free if their total cost (including shipping and handling) stays below set limits.
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Hill Country floods
Texas summer camps sue to block new internet rule, saying it threatens their ability to operate
A group of 19 camps said fiber-optic internet that lawmakers ordered them to install after last year’s floods is too expensive or impossible to get.
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Hill Country floods
Amid license review, Camp Mystic being investigated by Texas Rangers and state health officials
Camp Mystic filed to renew its license in March. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has repeatedly urged state officials to reject the application.
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Hill Country floods
Camp Mystic can’t alter flood-damaged area while civil suit proceeds, judge rules
Cabins, grounds and other buildings hit by the July 4 flood on the Guadalupe River cannot be renovated or removed, according to the order.
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Hill Country floods
Dan Patrick seeks to block Camp Mystic’s summer reopening pending inquiry into July 4 flood deaths
The lieutenant governor’s request to delay renewing the camp’s license came hours after parents who lost children in the July 4 flood sued the state for its alleged failure to enforce an evacuation plan requirement.
