Mary Cummins Investigative Reporter Los Angeles, California

Saturday, July 5, 2025

Cause of Camp Mystic Flooding is Poor Texas Zoning Regulations by Mary Cummins

July 5, 2025 intense rain and flooding at Camp Mystic in Hunt, Texas caused loss of life and missing campers. Everyone is blaming someone else but there is one main cause of this tragedy. The main reason is the camp is built in a high risk flood zone on the banks of the Guadalupe river.

The camp is built in a high risk flood zone A and AE, see map above. Here is the address, Camp Mystic 186 Felix Fisher Rd S, Hunt, TX 78024 GPS 30.00485531885247, -99.37327619243185. Camp Mystic itself states on their website they're built on the banks of Guadalupe river, "Established in 1926, Mystic is nestled among cypress, live oak, and pecan trees in the hill country of west-central Texas on the banks of the beautiful Guadalupe River." https://www.campmystic.com/ It looks like the cabins are built right next to Cypress Creek which is off South Fork of Guadalupe river as far as I can tell. Below is the flood map for the area. Cabins built in a flood zone. The red star are the cabins.

This is the definition of a high risk flood zone, "high risk of flooding, specifically a 1% annual chance of experiencing a flood event, also known as the 100-year floodplain." Generally you would not build a living quarter in this area. If you do, it must be mitigated which generally means raising it off the ground on a strong foundation. "Structures in Zone AE must adhere to specific building standards, such as elevating the lowest floor to or above the BFE and ensuring enclosed areas below the BFE are not used as living spaces, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers." This is a 1926 camp. I doubt it was up to flood code.

Texas is known to be very lax with zoning especially when it comes to flood zones. They allow building in aqueducts, flood plains and high risk flood zones. I've previously written articles about this especially after Hurricane Harvey. This is why people are flooded over and over again and FEMA keeps paying them over and over again. FEMA will be gone by next year so Texas needs to make some changes. Below is map from Camp Mystic website.

Below is a Google map of Camp Mystic

In 1987 and 1998 Guadalupe river flooded. In the 1987 Guadalupe River flood ten teenagers drowned when trying to leave a church camp. Camp Mystic is a religious Christian camp.

In case their website is still down https://web.archive.org/web/20250124220815/https://www.campmystic.com/

Mary Cummins of Cummins Real Estate is a certified residential licensed appraiser in Los Angeles, California. Mary Cummins is licensed by the California Bureau of Real Estate appraisers and has over 35 years of experience.

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Friday, July 4, 2025

Los Angeles July 4th Protest, March at LA City Hall by Mary Cummins

July 4, 2025 protest and march at Los Angeles City Hall. The event began at 9:30 a.m. with live music. Speakers started around 10:00 a.m. Around 12:00 p.m. we marched from LA City Hall 200 N Spring St to the Federal Building at 300 N Los Angeles St and then to the Federal Detention Center at 535 N Alameda. A large truck led the protest with speakers standing in the back. The truck would stop every block or so for speeches and chants.

There were a few thousand people today per local news stations covering the event. The groups Ice Out of LA, 50501, @50501_socal, @ice_out_ofla , End the Occupation, Free America were there besides others. There were two stages of speakers at once for an hour or so at LA City Hall and Grand Park. They were bot on large trucks. Assembly member Isaac Bryan of the 55th district gave a great speech. There was also great live music. Wish I knew the band and singers' names but I can never find an event schedule for these events. Found the band on the Grand Park side with 50501 Los Jornaleros del Norte. http://losjornalerosdelnorte.com/ https://www.instagram.com/losjornalerosdelnorte/ #marycummins #losangeles #california #protest #march #July4th #iceoutofla #lamuertamaria #mariaflores #catrina #mexico #mexican #immigrantrights #50501 #freeamerica

A news outlet asked who are the women dressed in the colorful dresses and what is their purpose. The women including myself are dressed as Catrinas. La Catrina is generally associated with the Mexican tradition of Dia de Muertos, Day of the Dead. La Catrina is a skeleton lady in fancy dress. While she was first conceived by Jose Posada, Diego Rivera turned La Catrina into a national symbol of Mexico.

We are dressed as Catrinas to represent our immigrant roots to support immigrant rights. Some of us carry or wear the Mexican, Guatemalan, El Salvadoran ... flag and/or colors to support immigrants. It's not because we want Mexico or Mexicans to over throw the government which is ridiculous. We're all US citizens. Many of us wore both Mexican and USA flags together to show we represent and support both nations, cultures and people.

Maria Flores aka @lamuertemaria https://www.instagram.com/lamuertemaria/ is a Los Angeles artist and designer who designed and made six of those dresses today. https://www.instagram.com/p/DLtRITwJrIl/ They were generally all standing together, see photos below. Maria is dressed as a Catrina generally with a skeleton face which represents death. Maria Flores' Catrina dresses are hand painted with political images and text, see photos below and in her linked Instagram account. Flores' dresses are her artistic political statement supporting immigrant rights and speaking out against Donald Trump, fascism and the destruction of the United States of America.

Some other women were dressed in native Mexican clothing such as Folklorico skirts, dresses, embroidered tops and were wearing Mexican sombreros, crowns or braids with colorful ribbons. I wore a Folklorico ribbon skirt with an embroidered huipil "shirt." I also wore a flower crown with red, white and green flowers to represent the colors of Mexico because my family is from Mexico. The purpose is to show our support for immigrant rights.

My speech on the steps of Los Angeles City Hall
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/8qc7xXqmGFA

Full video of the event
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EmATxB3czI

Isaac Bryan speech
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hCq0C2NlTE&feature=youtu.be

Great singer singing "Which Side are You on."
https://youtu.be/agOAe7id5yM

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Sunday, June 15, 2025

No Kings Protest Los Angeles City Hall, Pershing Square by Mary Cummins

No Kings Protest June 14, 2025 at Los Angeles City Hall. We later marched to Pershing Square and back. It was a peaceful protest with speakers, singing, dancing and love. I saw no illegal acts or scuffles. People were leaving flowers at the feet of National Guard. The protest ran from 9:30 am to 1:30 pm. #nokings #protest #losangeles #marycummins #california #cityhall #pershingsquare #noice #march

Eight minute video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rq0c-C8XQdM

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Monday, June 9, 2025

ICE Protest in downtown Los Angeles, California June 9, 2025 by Mary Cummins

Peaceful anti ICE protest today in downtown Los Angeles, California. I was there from 2:00 pm to 3:45 pm June 9, 2025 at the Federal Building at 300 N Los Angeles St and the back of Edward Roybal Bldg. 255 E Temple. I parked at Union Station and walked over. LAPD, CHP, LA Sheriff were there along with maybe 20 California National Guard. The National Guard just stood in front of a building with LAPD. They looked about 19-25 years old and bored.

LAPD was the lead agency. They were basically corralling people into different areas. They gave a notice to disperse a few times in English and Spanish. They kept giving five minute, ten minute warnings but only moved after 1.5 hours. LAPD added more people and rushed the crowd to move people off of Alameda. The street was already blocked by LAPD squad cars. The lead officer said over a bullhorn to "only engage with agitators." The officers looked pretty young and new. One officer tripped over nothing and fell in the street. They kept getting their orders to form lines mixed up like they were new cadets.

CHP kept the freeway entrances and exits blocked with cars, motorcycles and officers. LAPD controlled the streets. They used LAPD squad cars to block off Alameda and another street. One photo below shows burned Waymos being taken out on a flat bed.

Full video from today. 5 minutes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgmvVCfEilk

#ICEprotest #losangeles #california #marycummins #LAPD #lasheriff #nationalguard #protest