The death toll from Texas flash flooding around the July 4 holiday is now more than 130.

And at least 27 of those deaths were young girls or staff members staying at Camp Mystic along the Guadalupe River.

One of the young Texas flooding victims was an 8-year-old girl from Alabama who was staying at Camp Mystic. And four people from a Mobile family also died when their cabin was swept away by the floods along the same river.

The tragedy has shaken many, especially parents, and caused them to wonder, could this happen in Alabama?

And what can outdoor camps do to prevent such a disaster from happening again?

“It’s a heartbreaking tragedy. And it really highlights the vulnerability that we all have across our entire country, especially in Alabama, to severe weather,” said John De Block, the warning coordinating meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Birmingham.

Camps are essentially on their own in terms of crafting a plan to deal with weather emergencies.

Alabama camps must get permits from the Alabama Department of Public Health’s Division of Food, Milk and Lodging, according to Henry DeHart, interim president and CEO of the American Camp Association.

“This is administered through their county health departments. The rules they must follow are related to ”the safety and sanitation of food, sanitation of lodging facilities,” DeHart said in a statement.

But weather doesn’t fall under that umbrella, according to the Alabama Department of Public Health.

And it appears there is no state agency that sets guidelines on weather safety. That leaves camps to set safety protocols on their own.

Many camps look for guidance from the American Camp Association, which offers accreditation services for camps nationwide.

“ACA offers a voluntary educational accreditation program for camps. ACA accreditation is a voluntary process, separate from state permitting, through which camps agree to meet ACA’s national standards for health, safety, and risk management,” DeHart said in his statement.

 Accreditation involves a review process and a site visit by ACA reviewers, he said.

There are about 20 camps in Alabama that have ACA accreditation, according to the group.

ALABAMA WEATHER WORRIES

Severe weather is a fact of life in Alabama.

While flash flooding is a concern in some areas, the entire state is vulnerable to tornadoes or severe thunderstorms nearly year round. That means lightning and winds that could knock down trees and heavy rain.

All things that put campers at risk if they’re caught off guard.

The weather service’s De Block said tornadoes and thunderstorms with damaging winds and lightning are some of the biggest concerns when it comes to campers spending time outdoors in the summer months.

While tornadoes are possible year round in Alabama, typically their numbers go down during June, July and August (unless a tropical storm or hurricane affects the area).

But that doesn’t mean there’s no cause for vigilance, he said: “But you know what happens probably four out of seven days in the summer in Alabama in the summer is a thunderstorm and the threat for lightning. Making sure that people are aware if you hear thunder, go indoors. If it roars, go indoors.”

He continued: “We typically don’t have hail but we can get localized flash flooding from thunderstorms that develop and move very slowly. You can wind up with significant flash flooding very easily in many locations across Alabama.”

The National Weather Service office in the Texas area hit by the deadly flooding has come under fire, but reports show the areas hit hardest had timely flash flood warnings, and a flash flood watch was issued days in advance.

But the flooding escalated very quickly — some reports have in less than an hour — and happened in the middle of the night when most were sleeping.

Questions remain about whether those in charge of the camps got the warnings.

And that’s the challenge the National Weather Service faces nationwide.

You can have the best warnings in the world, but they are for nothing if they are not heeded.

“My heart sinks when I realize that some people didn’t get the message,” the weather service’s De Block said about the Texas floods.

“We try time and time again to remind people of the importance of being weather aware. When a watch is issued you need to pay attention to what is going on. You need to make sure that you have multiple ways to get those weather warnings, whether it’s a flash flood warning or a tornado warning. You’ve got to be aware, especially when there’s a watch out … the watch is to get your attention. You need to be ready to see those warnings and act on them.”

THIS CAMP DOES IT RIGHT

One camp in Alabama is an example of how to be prepared. Children’s Harbor is a 36-year-old nonprofit organization that has a mission is to provide respite, resources and refuge for families of children with serious illnesses or disabilities.

Children’s Harbor runs year-round camps or retreats at its 66-acre campus at Lake Martin (there is also another facility, the Harbor Family Center, at Children’s Hospital in Birmingham). Visitors can range from children or teens facing medical challenges to their families. The summer months are particularly busy with weeklong camps for various groups.

Weather is a big concern for camp officials.

“Weather is on our mind every single day,” said Vicki Tuggle, the chief operating officer for Children’s Harbor.

“A tornado can happen any time of the year in Alabama. While Texas and New Mexico are dealing with floods, chances are we are not going to see something like that here just because of the lay of the land, but we know that tornadoes are real and they have happened. The tornadoes in 2011 really changed Children’s Harbor. We lost over 500 trees on campus when that came through.”

Since then, Tuggle said, any time a new building goes up on campus “we try to put in some sort of storm shelter. So we have at least four storm shelters on the property,” she said.

One of those shelters was built using donations from Bo Jackson’s Bo Bikes Bama. That storm shelter is also made available the the local community, Tuggle said.

Children’s Harbor allows campers a lot of time on the water, so severe storms and lightning are major concerns as well, Tuggle said.

The group reached out to the Elmore County Emergency Management agency for advice while going through the accreditation process with the American Camps Association, which has “very firm standards when it comes to emergency notification type systems and emergency procedures,” Tuggle said.

Now, she said, camp officials are automatically notified of any sort of hazardous weather.

“We can be notified automatically about watches and warnings and then we have a lightning detection software that we subscribe to,” she said.

“So when that happens we have a mass notification system that goes off. And it’s a huge speaker array, very tall pole that has loudspeakers and it will scare you if you’re not prepared for it, but we wanted to get their attention. We have it set up for a 15-mile radius, and I know that sounds far away … if they’re out on the water in a boat, then they have plenty of time to get back. Those are the biggies for us, is lightning, getting them off the water and out of the pools. And then any sort of thunderstorm or tornado activity you’re expecting.”

WEATHER SAFETY

But other camps may not have those same policies. That’s when it pays to be weather aware, whether you are the one camping or sending a child away to camp.

That may mean doing some research beforehand.

“Certainly as a camper you need to be aware of your surroundings,” De Block said.

“When you check out a campsite, find out if they have any kind of notification systems. Do they have anybody that’s watching the weather? Do they have recommendations on where to go in case of a tornado? Do they have sheltering on site? Do they have high ground nearby?

“You want your vacation and your camping experience to be as enjoyable as possible. And certainly you want to come home from your camping experience, so it’s a little bit incumbent on the camper to ensure that they’re coming to a place of safety. And … if you’re at the water’s edge, you’ve got to realize that water rises. Whether you’re the beach or a river or a lake, you need to assess the threat for flooding that’s associated with that body of water.”

The weather service continually stresses the importance of having multiple ways to receive weather information, so that if one fails there is a backup and critical warnings are received.

One of most accessible and least expensive warning alert methods is a weather radio.

“A weather radio is a very reliable device for about $30-$40,” De Block said.

“It’s a smoke detector for weather that, if I were responsible for a group of people, whether it’s kids or adults, staying at my camp, I would want to know that I have a way to be alerted of significant-impact weather. I would use a NOAA Weather Radio. I would find out in my county if there is a subscription service available that I could get phone calls for impending hazardous weather.”

Then get a phone app — many are free— that can alert you about severe weather.

And, don’t forget about federal Wireless Emergency Alerts.

“That’s also automatically installed on your phone,” De Block said. “ (And) make sure that it is on for tornadoes and flash floods. I don’t necessarily want to receive all the other options that are available to be alarmed on my phone, but tornado and flash flood … I’ve got to have those alerts.”

Because you never know how a potential disaster could unfold, he said.

“Is the cell phone coverage going to go out? You hope and trust that the weather radio will still be up. If the weather radio goes out, hopefully you still have internet access and you’ve got apps on your phone. You’ve got telephone service to fill in those gaps. By having multiple systems you have redundant methods of receiving those life-saving warnings,” he said.