When a flood in Texas killed dozens of young campers, AP reporter Ryan J. Foley's accountability coverage helped reveal how children were put at risk. Here's what he said:
After dozens of girls at a summer camp and many others were swept away in July 4 flooding in Texas, AP journalists were on the scene reporting on the heartbreak and devastation. I joined a team with a bigger picture view, looking into how this could have happened and who should be held accountable.
Soon our team received a tip, a document that appeared to show that the owners of Camp Mystic had once tried to get the property removed from FEMA’s 100-year flood map, but it was unclear whether they were successful.
Riddled with bureaucratic jargon I didn’t yet understand, I put the tip aside. In the immediate aftermath of the flooding, we focused our reporting on how county officials knew for decades about the deadly flood risks along the Guadalupe River yet failed to invest in warning systems or other preventive measures.
When the dust settled on our initial stories, I returned to the tip. After talking to experts and learning how to pore through FEMA’s database of flood map amendments, I found some bombshell news: Documents showed that FEMA had granted appeals to remove dozens of buildings at the camp’s address from the hazard area in 2013, 2019 and 2020 at the camp’s request. Our reporting showed these amendments allowed the camp to keep expanding in a known floodplain in the years before the tragedy, putting hundreds more campers at risk while likely lowering its insurance costs.
Lawmakers in Texas responded quickly, passing new laws requiring camps to install emergency warning systems and tell parents if they are located in floodplains. They also prohibited the state from licensing camps if they have cabins near the dangerous part of a river. The findings quickly reverberated across the country as camps in other states faced questions about their proximity to flood zones, too.
For me, it was yet another reminder of AP’s unique and critically important ability to uncover hidden facts that the public needs to know.
