FEMA records show Kerr County officials did not use FEMA’s system to send warnings to phones in the critical hours as the flooding began on July 4.

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.

Days after flash floods killed over 100 people during the July Fourth weekend, search-and-rescue teams are using heavy equipment to untangle and peel away layers of trees, unearth large rocks in riverbanks and move massive piles of debris that stretch for miles in the search for the missing people.