The deadly Texas floods have brought the state's approach to land approvals, especially in flood-prone areas, under more scrutiny.

The survival of people in local camps and low-lying areas depended not on official evacuations but on whether they were paying attention, on their own, to weather alerts in the middle of the night.

Plans to develop a flood monitoring system in the Texas county hit hardest by deadly floods were scheduled to begin only a few weeks later.

The loss of more than 100 lives, many of them children, to Hill Country floods over the July Fourth weekend has shaken Texans to the core. Closer to home, at least 16 people have died in floods in the Austin area .More than 170 people are still reported missing.

As the Guadalupe River swelled from a wall of water heading downstream, sirens blared over the tiny river community of Comfort — a last-ditch warning to get out for those who had missed cellphone alerts and firefighters going street-to-street telling people to get out.