At a Wednesday morning press conference, Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha declined to answer a question about delayed emergency alerts, saying that an "after-action" would follow the search and rescue efforts. "Those questions are gonna be answered," he added.

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.

Nearly a week after deadly floods struck Central Texas, search and rescue teams are continuing to probe debris for those still missing.

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.

At least 119 people have been found dead in nearly a week since heavy rainfall overwhelmed the river and flowed through homes and youth camps in the early morning hours of July 4. Ninety-five of those killed were in the hardest-hit county in central Texas, Kerr County, where the toll includes at least three dozen children.

Plans to develop a flood monitoring system in the Texas county hit hardest by deadly floods were scheduled to begin only a few weeks later.

A Kerrville-area river authority executed a contract for a flood warning system that would have been used to help with emergency response, local officials said.

Crews are using construction equipment to clear vehicles, trees and homes in a race to locate the 161 people still missing since Friday’s devastating flood.

While Kerr County officials say they didn’t know how bad the July 4 flooding would be, it warned residents nearly eight years ago to “be flood aware” about the ongoing potential

The grim task of searching for the scores of people missing from the devastating flood that struck Texas Hill Country nearly a week ago is taking an agonizing toll on searchers.