Two dads whose children died in floods at Camp Mystic in Texas last year are pushing for changes to safety laws so other families can avoid similar tragedies, reports CBS News.

Matthew Childress' 18-year-old daughter, Chloe, and Ryan DeWitt's 9-year-old daughter, Molly, were two of 27 young campers and teen counselors who died as devastating floods tore through the all-girls Christian camp along the Guadalupe River in Texas Hill Country on July 4.

State investigators said there were at least 39 adults on the Texas Hill Country retreat's grounds who could have helped evacuate children as the disaster approached. But none of them were summoned, and they remained unaware of the crisis as it occurred.

They also said Camp Mystic had no written flood evacuation plan and never briefed staff, counselors, or campers on evacuation procedures.

Its public address system also was not used to issue evacuation instructions during the catastrophe, despite being operational.

Childress told CBS News the families "could physically feel the weight on our shoulders being lifted, that that truth was being told to the public."

Added DeWitt: "Make no mistake about it, that doesn't mean that the road ahead is not still really, really difficult for us to be able to be at the leading edge of meaningful change — that keeps our daughters' purpose and their spirits alive."

Victims' families have filed lawsuits accusing the camp of failing to protect the girls as the powerful floodwaters approached.

Camp Mystic's owner, Richard Eastland, also died in the flood.

This April, Texas state regulators found nearly two dozen deficiencies in the emergency operations plan submitted in Camp Mystic's bid to reopen.

The 11-page letter from the Department of State Health Services notes deficiencies that include problems with flood warning evacuation plans, use of an emergency warning and public address system, monitoring safety alerts, and training campers on safety.

So far, laws in three states have changed following the disaster: in Texas, Oklahoma, and Alabama.

And legislators in Texas are preparing to take up more camp safety and disaster preparedness legislation when they return to Austin in January.

DeWitt told CBS News he and Childress couldn't sit back and do nothing because if "this happened again for another father, another mother … we would be reliving the pain with them."