KERRVILLE, Texas (AP) — Over the last decade, an array of Texas state and local agencies missed opportunities to fund a flood warning system intended to avert a disaster like the one that killed dozens of young campers and scores of others in Kerr County on the Fourth of July.

Rain rushing to the Guadalupe took it from a depth of less than 8 feet to 37.5 feet, a deluge with as much volume as an aircraft carrier over five minutes.

Flash floods surged through in the middle of the night, but many local officials appeared unaware of the unfolding catastrophe, initially leaving people near the river on their own.

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.

Local businesses and vacationers are picking up the pieces after devastating flooding along the Guadalupe River in Kerrville.

New human settlements constructed in recent years have made the waterway more hazardous, UT-Arlington civil engineering professor says.

As floodwaters from the Guadalupe River begin to recede, the emotional and physical toll on Hill Country residents is only just beginning to show.

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.

Greg Adkins showed KHOU 11 News the debris left behind in his backyard, which sits right next to the Guadalupe River.