People awoke from water rushing around them during the early morning hours of July 4, all along the Guadalupe River in the Texas Hill Country. Residents were seemingly caught off guard, but warnings had been issued days and hours before floodwaters began carrying away homes,

A First Warn Weather Day and Extreme Heat Warnings remain in place through Thursday. Flash flooding is possible in some areas.

“If you’ve never seen water rise in front of you in minutes, it’s hard to conceive of how quickly that can happen—and how quickly your life and property can be at risk,” said Rachel Hogan Carr, executive director of the Nurture Nature Center, a nonprofit focused on flood-risk communication.

The owner of Camp Mystic has been accused of failing to evacuate campers until an hour after the first official alert warning of oncoming catastrophic Texas floods.

River gauges, sirens and clear alerts can together help emergency managers anticipate flash floods and communicate life-saving information.

On Monday at 3:37 p.m. the National Weather Service released a flash flood warning in effect until 7:45 p.m. for Carbon and Monroe counties.

Flooding has been at the top of Texans’ minds this week, but this is not the first time that the need for flood-related measures has come up among local officials.

Accurate weather warnings are useless if they don’t reach residents in time. Take these steps to avoid mistakes that may have contributed to the tragedy in Texas.

On Sunday at 10:03 p.m. a flash flood warning was issued by the National Weather Service in effect until Monday at 1:15 a.m. for Lycoming and Sullivan counties.

On Saturday at 7:27 p.m. the National Weather Service issued a flood warning in effect until 9 p.m. for Limestone and Madison counties.