Texas lawmakers meeting in a special session this week are focusing on more than redrawing congressional districts.
They are also considering a list of bills aimed at better preparing communities for the kind of historic flood that claimed so many lives on July 4 in the central part of the state known as flash flood alley.
The legislation would mandate outdoor warning sirens in flood-prone areas and set aside funding for installation.
Kerr County, where the worst of the flooding occurred, had deferred the development of a modern flood warning system for years after failing to find a source of funding.
Another bill in the statehouse would give counties more power to limit construction in floodplains as the state's population swells, along with the number of extreme weather events.
"We had the wettest July in my county ever last July," Johnson County Commissioner Rick Bailey said Friday during a hearing in the House of Representatives. "Homes that have never flooded are now flooding due to upstream development."
RELATED STORY | Inside the harrowing search: AI and sonar used to find flood victims in Texas
Many of the bills focus on tightening rules for youth summer camps, a response to the deaths of 27 girls and counselors at Camp Mystic, where the Guadalupe River rose suddenly as campers slept.
During a Senate hearing on Wednesday, parents of the girls offered emotional remembrances of the young lives lost and pleaded with lawmakers to act.
Cici Williams Steward spoke of her daughter Cile, the last Camp Mystic camper still missing.
"This legislation cannot bring back our daughters," Steward said. "But it is the beginning of change that must occur so that this tragedy never happens again, so that their lives and their deaths will mean change."
The new safety rules for camps may include no new licenses for campgrounds located in areas known to flood, the use of weather radios and at least two internet lines, escape hatches on the roofs of cabins near rivers, and written emergency plans for all disasters, including tornadoes and wildfires.
A bill would also require the evacuation of campers to higher ground when the National Weather Service issues a flood warning.
