FEMA approved multiple appeals to remove Camp Mystic's buildings from a designated flood zone, allowing the girls' summer camp to expand in a known hazard area along the Guadalupe River before flash floods killed at least 27 people there on July 4.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) first placed Camp Mystic in a "Special Flood Hazard Area" in 2011, which should have triggered stricter safety standards and insurance requirements, the Independent reported. But within two years, that designation began to erode as FEMA granted a series of map amendments, removing dozens of camp structures from the zone. Records show the exemptions covered key buildings later destroyed or damaged in the flood.
