Using Fredericksburg as a proxy for the region, the average July rainfall over the last about 40 years is 2.2 inches. But most of the time, July seems to be closer to either extreme, whether it’s less than an inch or more than four.

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

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.

Federal forecasters issued their first flood warning at 1:14 a.m. on July 4. Local officials haven’t shed light on when they saw the warnings or whether they saw them in time to take action.

FEMA records show Kerr County officials did not use FEMA’s system to send warnings to phones in the critical hours as the flooding began on July 4.

In Center Point, Texas, pumps from Kilgore are being used to drain specific areas so that responders can better search. They are carefully sorting through debris as part of a sensitive process to find the bodies of those still missing.

Residents say Kerr County’s use of CodeRED alerts was sporadic and inconsistent. Local officials have not answered questions about when and how they utilized the system, which has been in place since 2009.

Jeffrey Beri, the founder of animal rescue organisation No Dogs Left Behind, is on the ground with 10 of his trained dogs, some of whom he says specialise in explosive detection, to help the rescue effort. He says he was looking for a mother and father who were reported to have washed away in Hunt, Kerr County.