Texas, floods
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Texas, flash flood and Kerr County
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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.
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.
Kerr County repeatedly failed to secure a warning system, even as local officials remained aware of the risks and as billions of dollars were available for similar projects.
As the Guadalupe River swelled from a wall of water heading downstream, sirens blared over the tiny river community of Comfort — a last-ditch warning to get out for those who had missed cellphone alerts and firefighters going street-to-street telling people to get out.
The search for bodies continued nearly a week after deadly flooding in Texas. With 121 people confirmed dead and at least 161 still missing, officials there are facing scrutiny. The National Weather Service issued several watches and warnings before midnight on July 3,
Kerr County applied for federal grants to build a warning system to protect residents from flash floods. Under the Trump Administration, that kind of funding is drying up.