Texas Flooding Death Toll Climbs
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The threat of heavy rain is “slight” for this weekend, but with the ground fully saturated in Kerr County, even small amounts of rainfall could cause flooding.
At least 161 are still unaccounted for after the July Fourth floods that saw the waters of the Guadalupe rise to historic levels in Central Texas, officials with Kerr County said Friday. Authorities have confirmed 103 deaths, 36 of whom are children.
The catastrophic Central Texas floods have claimed at least 121 lives and left 173 missing, as a report reveals that Kerr County officials were repeatedly denied state funding for an emergency flood warning system.
Twice, the Texas Division of Emergency Management turned down Kerr County's requests for money to improve flood warnings.
The same region of Texas that experienced catastrophic, deadly flooding over the Fourth of July weekend also experienced massive flooding in the past. A 1987 flood in Kerr County resulted in the death of 33 people,
The reporter said that several families were angry because they felt that alerts for the flood did not go out in time.
The Houston Texans were the first to announce their donations on Saturday, July 5, with more coming throughout the week. The Dallas Cowboys and the NFL Foundation joined the Texans on Sunday, July 6, with each contributing $500,000 in a $1.5 million total donation.
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.