In what experts call "Flash Flood Alley," the terrain reacts quickly to rainfall steep slopes, rocky ground, and narrow riverbeds leave little time for warning.

KERRVILLE, Texas (AP) — Over the last decade, an array of Texas state and local agencies missed opportunities to fund a flood warning system intended to avert a disaster like the one that killed dozens of young campers and scores of others in Kerr County on the Fourth of July.

Many Catholics in the region have been stepping up to help, converging on Notre Dame Parish in Kerrville, located in the hardest-hit community along the Guadalupe River.

With more than 170 still missing, communities must reconcile how to pick up the pieces around a waterway that remains both a wellspring and a looming menace.

Two days before flash floods on the Guadalupe River in Texas killed dozens of campers at a Christian girls summer camp, a state inspector approved operations, noting there was a written plan for responding to natural disasters.

In other words, we keep playing a game of chance with forces indifferent to us—until we are finally reminded of the cost of losing.

Catastrophic flooding in Texas has devastated faith-based summer camps, including Camp Mystic, where at least 27 people have died.

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) owns property on the Guadalupe River in Texas that was affected by the deadly July 4 floods. His family members are safe.