Two top leaders in a rural Texas county were asleep and a third was out of town in the initial hours of a catastrophic flood that caused widespread destruction and killed more than 130 people.
Texas police described some of the harrowing rescues they conducted after flash floods engulfed camps and homes in the state's Hill Country.
Officials in Texas are facing questions about whether they did enough to get people out of harm’s way before a flash flood swept down the Guadalupe River and killed at least 120 people, including more than two dozen children and counselors at an all-girls Christian camp.
In the days after the devastating flood that killed dozens in Central Texas, local officials have deflected direct questions about preparations and warnings in advance of the storm that struck July Fourth.
The death toll from flash floods that raged through central Texas has risen to 82 after searchers found more bodies.
Hours before a massive wall of floodwater barreled down a river in the heart of Texas Hill Country before sunrise on Friday, forecasters with the National Weather Service warned people that dangerous conditions were brewing.
Devastating flash floods from a storm that pounded central Texas have killed at least 51 people.