Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick told CBS News Monday that the state of Texas could pay for storm sirens along the Guadalupe River.

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

In the last nine years, federal funding for a system has been denied to the county as it contends with a tax base hostile to government overspending.

As questions mount over warning systems during the deadly Texas flooding, Channel 9 learned that sirens intended to save lives in the North Carolina mountains failed to work during Helene. Sirens along Wilson Creek in Caldwell County are supposed to go off during flash flooding emergencies.

State Rep. Wes Virdell, whose district includes Kerr County, voted against House Bill 13 earlier this year. The bill would have funded a statewide rural alert system. But after spending the weekend assisting in disaster zones caused by the floods, the state rep voiced a change of heart, per the Texas Tribune .

Gov. Greg Abbott has promised to add flood response to the agenda for the July 21 special session, with an expected focus on alert systems and local recovery.

KERRVILLE, Texas (AP) — Over the last decade, an array of Texas state and local agencies missed opportunities to fund a flood warning system intended to avert a disaster like the one that killed dozens of young campers and scores of others in Kerr County on the Fourth of July.

A small Texas town that recorded no deaths in last weekend’s flood disaster had recently upgraded its emergency alert system — the kind of setup state, county and federal officials