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.

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 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.

A major flood event also struck the Texas Hill Country in July of 1987 after a series of 17 thunderstorms moved slowly, in succession, over the headwaters of the Guadalupe River in Kerr County. Anywhere from 5 to 10 inches of rain fell on the flood-prone areas, now deemed “Flash Flood Alley,” according to a National Weather Service report.

With more than 170 still missing, communities must reconcile how to pick up the pieces around a waterway that remains both a wellspring and a looming menace.

Newly released satellite images reveal catastrophic damage caused by the Hill Country floods along the Guadalupe River.