Families of nine victims of last summer's deadly flooding in Texas are suing the state, alleging it failed to enforce a requirement that a girls' camp where 27 campers and counselors died have an evacuation plan.

The civil claim, filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Austin, alleges the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) and six of its officials denied the victims their constitutional right to "life and bodily integrity" by approving Camp Mystic's licenses even though, the suit claims, it lacked a required evacuation plan.

The nine represented victims are seven girls who were attending the summer Christian camp and two teen girls there as camp counselors.

The suit alleges that a lack of an evacuation plan caused camp staff members to panic as the floodwaters rose on July 4, causing them to delay moving the girls to safety "until it was too late."

"They died because the camp had no plan to evacuate the riverside cabins where the girls slept," the suit says.…