Federal regulators repeatedly granted appeals to remove Camp Mystic’s buildings from their 100-year flood map, as the camp operated and expanded in a dangerous flood plain.

Camp Mystic owners successfully appealed to the Federal Emergency Management Agency to redesignate some buildings that had been considered part of a flood-hazard zone.

Catherine Wendlandt, a freelance writer in Texas who has written stories for Chron, attended Camp Mystic as a camper from 2004 to '13, then served as a counselor from 2014 to '16. Wendlandt shared this tribute to camp counselors, some of whom lost their lives in catastrophic Guadalupe River flooding on July 4.