AUSTIN, Texas — After several hours of emotional debate on Thursday, the Texas House advanced a package of bills in response to the deadly July floods across the state.

The proposed improvements include helping communities buy and upgrade emergency communication systems, requiring youth camps to have an emergency plan and mandate new training and licensing for local emergency management coordinators and justices of the peace.

The devastating July 4 weekend flooding killed at least 138 people, the majority of them in Kerr County, along the Guadalupe River. Ten people died in the flooding in Travis County.

A total of 27 campers and counselors died at Camp Mystic, as the flash flood swept through the camp and surrounding areas. Several parents who lost their daughters in the flooding were

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