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.

Sisters Blair Harber, 13, and Brooke Harber, 11, were killed, along with their grandparents, when surging floodwaters ripped through the community. Their parents were staying in a different home at Casa Bonita and survived, according to the family's GoFundMe.

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.

The number of people reported missing in Kerr County, Texas, as a result of last week’s flash floods continues to soar. Authorities say search teams combing through the debris and destruction there are looking for more than 160 people who disappeared in the raging waters.

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.

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.

Officials in Kerr County, the hardest-hit region, said the number of missing remained unchanged since Tuesday, at 161. The floods have killed at least 120 people statewide.

Dispatch audio has surfaced from the critical hours before a deadly flood hit its height in Kerr County, helping piece together the timeframe local officials have yet to provide amid public