After deadly Texas floods, how are Long Island camps preparing for emergencies here?

The severe storm that rocked Suffolk County last August, damaging homes, businesses and roads, was a wake-up call for the Ivy League School and Day Camp in Smithtown.

The camp, which serves children from 18 months through 10th grade, sustained extensive damage to its 16-acre campus in the overnight storm, director Noah Cooper said in an interview. In some areas, he said, there was nearly four feet of water.

"The extent of the 2024 flooding caught us off guard," said Cooper. "We were fortunate no one was here at the time, but we knew immediately that we had to adapt."

The storm prompted camp officials to reevaluate their emergency protocols and put measures in place to mitigate future flooding, Cooper said. The camp now has a staffer who monitors the weather and alerts the camp of any problems, designated indoor shelters where campers can go if there is a flash flood warning and procedures in place to "quickly" relocate children and staff to higher ground, he said.

The camp has also installed a subsurface water collection system and a pump to remove water and added more drainage throughout the property, he said.

The dangers of such extreme weather events have been top of mind for camp officials on Long Island after flash flooding in Kerr County, Texas, last week killed at least 120 people, including more than two dozen children and staffers at Camp Mystic, an overnight girls camp along the Guadalupe River. More than 170 people are still believed to be missing.

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump toured the devastated area on Friday. Afterward, the president lamented the loss of life in the July 4 floods, saying “dozens and dozens of precious children taken from us," The Associated Press reported.

Questions have been raised about preparations for the storm and when warnings were sent out to the community. Trump said Friday that he thought “everyone did an incredible job under the circumstances." 

On Long Island, camp officials said the tragedy has prompted them to take another look at their own safety and emergency plans.

"I haven’t slept a full night since that happened just thinking about the children, the families, the people who ran the camp who lost their lives protecting the children," Cooper said. "The idea that sometimes no matter the amount of planning that you do, you can’t control every single thing that happens, but what you could do is learn from every single thing that happens and evolve accordingly."

'It hits harder'

The floods also struck a chord with the staff at Rolling River Day Camp in East Rockaway, said the camp’s director, Marissa Allaben.

"For us, we are along a river, so it hits harder, seeing that something like this could happen with a water and flooding emergency," she said.

During Superstorm Sandy in 2012, the camp experienced major flooding. Allaben said "luckily," camp was not in session, but "We saw the potential of what can happen with flooding here and that changed our outlook at the time and we made changes to what we do on the campus."

Like Ivy League, Allaben said Rolling River has someone who monitors the weather, using apps, radar and news broadcasts. Allaben said the camp has a "command center" dedicated to tracking storms and officials have designated "pop-up" storm locations — elevated spots in buildings where kids and staff can shelter.

The camp also has an emergency handbook and workplace safety plan that is reviewed by staff members and local law enforcement throughout the year, she said.

"We make sure that information is given out" to families, said Allaben, who is also president of the Long Island Camps and Private Schools Association.

Both Ivy League and Rolling River, which each have about 700 campers and 300 staffers, have also implemented services to alert parents via text and calls of emergencies, camp officials said.

Year-round preparations

All camps in New York are required by the state Department of Health to have a safety plan, officials said. Camps can also opt to be accredited by the American Camp Association, which they said has more rigorous standards.

Alicia Skovera, executive director of the American Camp Association of New York and New Jersey, said camps are required to identify potential risks and have written plans for emergencies like natural disasters.

The regional association supports about 600 camps in the Northeast. Skovera said camps do a lot of preparation during the year for emergencies, such as cutting and planting trees and purchasing generators.

"Emergency planning is something that camps do day in and day out," she said.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.