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.

At least 120 people are dead from the devastating flooding in the Texas Hill Country. Kerr County was hit the hardest, with at least 95 deaths, including 36 children. President Donald Trump signed a disaster declaration for the county and the Federal Emergency Management Agency is on the ground there.

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.