Rescue efforts included over 2,100 responders on the ground, private helicopters, drones, boats and cadaver-detecting dogs.

This part of Texas Hill Country is known for flash floods. Why were so many people caught off guard when the river turned violent?

The first weather emergency alert sent by the National Weather Service with urgent language instructing people to "seek higher ground now" was sent at 4:03 a.m. local time.

The alert, a Blue Alert issued by the FBI, named Benjamin Song, 32, as the suspect wanted in the July 4 shooting of a police officer at the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarad

Weather warnings predicted devastation from both the Texas floods and Hurricane Helene. But in both disasters, people were left in harm’s way.

Officials in Kerr County, where the majority of the deaths from the July 4 flash floods occurred, have yet to detail what actions they took in the early hours of the disaster.

A small Texas town that recorded no deaths in last weekend’s flood disaster had recently upgraded its emergency alert system — the kind of setup state, county and federal officials

Flooding is the deadliest natural disaster facing Oklahomans, a threat far greater than tornadoes. In the United States, flooding kills an average of 103 people a year. Tornadoes, however, caused 48 deaths on average during the same period, according to the National Weather Service.

Volunteers in Texas are searching for flood victims and combing through debris along a 30 mile stretch of the Guadalupe River. CNN’s Ed Lavandera spoke with Texans who are coming together to bring closure to their community.