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.

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 organizations working together to help the flood victims said that 'no additional in-kind donations (clothing, food, supplies) are needed in Kerrville.' They said the best way to help is with monetary donations.

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.

Kerr County first tried to secure $1 million for a flood warning system in 2017, but could not. Could such a system have prevented loss of life on July 4?

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.

The Guadalupe River flooded early July 4 as heavy rains prompted all in the area to evacuate. Additionally, emergency responders are frantically searching

Miriam "Holly" Frizzell of Abilene was remembered for her vibrant life and love of the normally tranquil Guadalupe River.

The recent disaster has some thinking back to a similar tragedy almost 40 years ago that occurred in the same month and nearly the same place.

This isn't the first time flooding along the Guadalupe River has claimed lives. Jim Moore was a reporter who covered an eerily similar flood nearly four decades ago.