As wildfires burn in Colorado, summer camp directors like Jeff Cheley are well aware of the threat a natural disaster like a fire or flood could mean for campers. That’s especially true after the flash flooding at Camp Mystic in Texas, which killed 27 counselors and campers earlier this month. The deaths have had a profound impact on Cheley, who heads up Cheley Colorado Camps in Estes Park, a camp his great-grandfather founded more than a century ago.
“It was heart-wrenching,” Jeff Cheley said of the news of the July 4th fatalities. “The camping community is a very tight-knit group of people. We have many friends that attend camps in the [Texas] Hill Country, so many of our families knew people that were impacted … and I couldn’t imagine what they were experiencing.”
Critics have said there were multiple failures that resulted in the deaths, including the location of cabins in flood zones, poor cell phone service in the area, and delayed evacuation orders despite a flood alert from the National Weather Service…