More than an hour passed between Camp Mystic receiving a severe flood warning and a decision to evacuate young campers asleep in cabins by the Guadalupe River.

The Fourth of July flood bore a striking similarity to the Hill Country flood that killed 10 summer campers in 1987. In the following years, officials took little action to protect against the next storm.

At least 18 youth summer camps across North Carolina stand on or are very near federally designated floodways and flood zones, according to state and federal maps reviewed by The News & Observer. Three of those are located in high flood risk areas, as defined by federal regulators.