When tragedies are in the news — natural disasters, plane crashes, fires — parents naturally and unavoidably react by thinking about what might happen to their own children. And children worry in turn about what might happen to them.

As floodwaters rose in Texas, camp counselors hoisted children onto rafters, carried them to dry ground and sang with them to keep them calm.

Brooklyn and Bailey McKnight's little sister, Paisley, was at a camp on a smaller arm of the Guadalupe River. The 14-year-old was "just miles" away from Camp Mystic in Central Texas, which has been devastated by the deadly floodwaters spurred by extreme rainfall on July 4.

At least 27 died in one of the worst disasters ever for summer camps. The tragedy shines a spotlight on America's camps and whether they're safe.

In 1987, sudden and intense rainfall caused the river to surge at an unprecedented rate in mid-July, leading to a tragedy that killed 10 campers at Pot O' Gold Christian Camp, a summer camp near Comfort, Texas. The campers drowned when their bus attempted to evacuate them and was overtaken by floodwater.

One local summer camp in the path of the disastrous flooding in central Texas was able to avoid any loss of life by closely monitoring weather reports.

Heat domes centered over Texas can feel hotter, but that's largely because of the Gulf of Mexico and the humidity brought by onshore winds.

Richard "Dick" Eastland, the owner of Camp Mystic, the girls' camp on the Guadalupe River which was hit by flooding in Texas on the Fourth of July — killing some of the campers and leaving others miss

The American Camp Association advises parents to ask camps about their safety plans, including severe weather protocols and relationships with local emergency services. Some camps, even those far from danger,