The camp where 27 girls died successfully challenged initial risk designations by US regulators, according to reports.

The July Fourth flood moved so quickly in the middle of the night that it caught many off guard in a county that lacked a warning system.

Bubble Inn saw generations of 8-year-olds enter as strangers and emerge as confident young ladies equipped with new skills from the great outdoors and lifelong friends – bonds that would one day prove vital in the face of unfathomable tragedy.

Katherine Ferruzzo had been accepted to the University of Texas at Austin for the fall semester and planned to become a Special Education teacher, her family said.

"And our cabins are high up, and for them to be flooding, it's like, you know, something's wrong," Georgia Jones said.

At least 19 of the cabins at Camp Mystic were located in designated flood zones, including some in an area deemed “extremely hazardous” by the county.