When the precipitation intensified in the early morning hours Friday, many people failed to receive or respond to flood warnings at riverside campsites known to be in the floodplain.

Meteorologists point out that hurricanes and flood-making storms possess extraordinary amounts of energy that humans can't reproduce or control.

A stout area of high pressure spinning near El Paso has been pulling in moisture leftover from Hurricane Flossie. To the east, an area of low pressure offshore of New Orleans is also churning Gulf moisture, wrapping around it, sending it into Central Texas.