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

Could sirens save lives in future flash floods? Texas officials say they intend to install sirens in Kerry County. Experts agree that sirens are an important tool for warning people about flash floods in rural areas.

State and local officials in Texas have come under scrutiny over the lack of sirens in place to warn people of impending flash flooding.

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

Texas county commissioners previously suggested "river calling," an informal phone chain used by summer camps, would be better than installing new flood sirens.

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. ALSO READ: Harrowing stories of rescue emerge from Texas floods as crews search for over 160 reported missing Sirens along Wilson Creek in Caldwell County are