Texas, FEMA and flash flooding
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Experts share key questions parents should ask about summer camp safety following the deadly Texas flooding that left dozens dead at a girls’ camp.
Camp Mystic owners successfully appealed to the Federal Emergency Management Agency to redesignate some buildings that had been considered part of a flood-hazard zone.
Federal regulators repeatedly granted appeals to remove Camp Mystic's buildings from their 100-year flood map, loosening oversight as the camp operated and expanded in a dangerous flood plain in the years before rushing waters swept away children and counselors, a review by The Associated Press found.
After deadly floods ripped through Texas last week, the state's rules and regulations about housing and construction and summer camps have come under scrutiny by some environmentalists and urban planners.
Kerr County had discussed buying such things as water gauges and sirens after previous flood disasters. But as with many rural Texas counties, cost was an issue.