Richard “Dick” Eastland, the hero director of Camp Mystic, had battled floods on the grounds for decades and even once saw his pregnant wife airlifted from the Texas property because of a deluge, prompting him to repeatedly urge better warning systems in his flood-prone Kerr County.

Eastland had been part of the private Christian girls' camp since purchasing it in 1974 and had served as its director.

Taaffe called the counselors at Camp Mystic “heroes” and wore a tie to honor them and the young girls who died during the Central Texas flood.

About 1,000 miles away, Texas Longhorns safety Michael Taaffe stood before reporters, wearing a tie with the initials of the 28 victims from Camp Mystic.

A Camp Mystic program director said she went from sleeping in her bed early Friday morning to standing on the rooftop less than an hour later.

A few specific sounds punctuate summer evenings in rural Iowa. A chorus of spring peepers, for example, or the shrill conk-la-ree of a red-winged blackbird on the side of a county road. But only one demands a response: the hostile, metallic beep of a NOAA weather radio.