By Rebekah Riess

(CNN) — Courageous and plucky with “absolutely killer style,” 8-year-old Cile Steward was a force of nature, her family says.

It’s been two months since an entire summer’s worth of rain fell on July 4, triggering the flash floods that rushed through Texas Hill Country and converged around Camp Mystic, killing at least 26 campers and counselors in Kerr County.

Cile, a camper at the all-girls camp, is still missing, and her mother, CiCi Williams Steward, said summer camps in the state must be properly equipped and held accountable to protect children in the future.

“Obvious commonsense safety measures were absent. Protocols that should have been in place were ignored,” Steward said. “She was stolen from her family, from her future, from the world she lit up with her independence and spunk.”

Steward, along with the other parents who lost their daughters to the devastating floods, has called for stronger safety standards at youth camps in Texas.

She and the families of the campers and counselors that died in the flooding joined Texas Gov. Greg Abbott who signed Senate Bill 1, a camp safety bill addressing these standards, in a ceremony at the governor’s mansion on Friday in Austin. Senate Bill 1 is also known as the “Heaven’s 27 Camp Safety Act,” in commemoration of the campers who lost their lives in the tragedy.

Abbott also signed House Bill 1, called the Youth CAMPER Act, and Senate Bill 3.

The new laws aim to address gaps in disaster preparedness by improving camp safety and streamlining the emergency response.

“Every child who goes to camp should come home to their families. No parent should ever have to outlive their child or endure this kind of loss,” Abbott said, before signing the legislation with multiple pens to give to the families after the ceremony.

The new laws “create a youth camp safety team, establish minimum camper-to-counselor ratios” and “mandate state inspections to ensure compliance with emergency procedures,” the governor said Friday.

The suite of legislation also requires “local governments in flood-prone areas to install outdoor siren and warning systems,” and camps must “install and maintain emergency alert systems, train staff on evacuation routes and procedures … develop emergency plans, require cabins to be located away from flood plains, (and) be able to communicate with campers and staff during emergencies,” Abbott said.

Camps must also have emergency rooftop ladders in every cabin in a 100-year floodplain. At Camp La Junta, an all-boys camp in Kerr County, Texas, several campers were placed on their cabin’s wooden beam rafters by camp counselors to escape the rising floodwaters below.

Abbott said the Texas Legislature “understood the urgency” to deliver these laws.

“They dug into details, they tapped into empathy and they delivered laws that will be in effect when camps open this next summer,” he said. “Laws that make youth camps safer.”

Applause intermingled with tears as the families of the Camp Mystic campers and counselors looked on, many with small children fidgeting in their Sunday-best attire behind the governor.

“These are courageous families,” Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said, adding that the two camp counselors who died in the floods are “true Texas heroes that … should go down with the great names of Texas history.”

“They stayed behind when they could have gotten away,” he said. “They stayed and sacrificed their lives.”

Two weeks ago, many of the families who lost their daughters in the floods testified before the state Senate, through tears and anger, in support of the bill. Some of the parents wore buttons bearing the words “Heaven’s 27” in pink, in memory of their daughters.

“What’s being laid out in this bill should be the bare minimum for what these camps should be looking to implement,” Ryan DeWitt, who lost his 9-year-old daughter Molly, told NBC on Thursday.

Camp Mystic issued a statement to Texas leaders on Thursday, reaffirming their support for the legislation “that will make camps and communities along the Guadalupe River safer” and commending “the families of the 27 precious campers and counselors for their meaningful advocacy” and leadership in promoting the bill.

“Regardless of the provisions of Senate Bill 1 and House Bill 1, our planning and procedures will reflect the catastrophic 1,000-year weather event that occurred on July 4, including never having campers return to cabins that had floodwaters inside them, despite the fact that all cabin floors are already outside of the 100-year flood plain,” the camp’s statement said.

The camp’s owner and executive director, Dick Eastland, died in the floods while trying to rescue the youngest campers who slept in a cabin close to the banks of the Guadalupe River. He saw floods damage the camp over and over and had warned for decades about the dangers of the river.

While some youth camps have voiced their support for Senate Bill 1, others worry about the cost to implement these measures.

“The combination of devastating floods and the heavy financial burden proposed under new state regulations, presents an impossible challenge,” three of Kerr County’s longest-standing youth camps wrote in a letter to Patrick obtained by CNN affiliate KSAT.

“We are committed to working with lawmakers to strengthen standards that protect children. But the costs of compliance must be met with partnership and support, not mandates that dismantle the very institutions that have nurtured children for over a century,” the letter said.

But the parents who have been advocating for Senate Bill 1 stand behind their efforts to push through the bill.

“We would have been doing a massive disservice to our daughters for not running with this and seeing this through,” Johnny Stevens, who lost his 8-year-old daughter Mary Barrett Stevens, told NBC.

The families, united in their sorrow, told NBC their advocacy for the bill has brought them closer, “a bright light in the midst of all the grief and darkness.”

“The Heaven’s 27 family is a way for us to never, ever let the world forget these girls,” DeWitt said.

This story has been updated with additional information.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.