With the search for the missing reaching an end, the recovery phase of the Texas flood disaster begins.
The river has receded and crews are focused on hauling away steep piles of debris, while the community memorializes the lives lost and seeks answers to questions about whether those in power could have done more to keep people out of harm's way.
While loss of life may have been inevitable after the Guadalupe River flooded in the early morning hours of July 4, missteps by authorities at the local level up to those in power in Washington may have worsened the tragedy.
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It is now clear that the sudden swelling of the Guadalupe River to raging levels surprised many of the people most at risk in low-lying areas along the river.
Kerr County was never able to build a modern flood warning system with water gauges and sirens that officials here long knew they needed.
Just last year, a Kerr County hazard assessment said a flood event was likely to occur "in the next year." Yet that same document lists a "local flood warning system" as a project deferred to another time.
Local leaders have not yet answered detailed questions about why the county wasn't better equipped to handle a flash flood, a well-known threat.
"I've been getting death threats, can you imagine?" said Kerr County Commissioner Rich Paces, during a recent meeting. "People cursing us for decisions that we never had a chance to make. And they're just playing a blame game."
The National Weather Service sent out flood warnings in the hours before and during the disaster, but they were not enough for those who did not own a weather radio or who were in parts of the rural area known to have weak cell service.
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First responder recordings from July 4 obtained by Scripps News and first reported by Texas Public Radio include a firefighter asking for alerts to go out on the county's emergency CodeRED notification system that would have lit up cell phones.
"We still have water coming up," the firefighter tells a dispatcher. "Is there any way we can send a CodeRED out to our Hunt residents, asking them to find higher ground or stay home?"
The dispatcher replies that an alert like that will need approval from a supervisor. There is no evidence to show Kerr County authorities sent out any notifications right away, even as the magnitude of the tragedy became clear.
"We have a lady, she's frantic," a first responder radios to dispatch. "She said her children are on top of one of the cabanas and they're trapped."
Scripps News has learned Kerr County leaders twice sought funding to build their own flood warning program.
After severe flooding in 2015, Kerr County applied for a FEMA grant to pay for an alert system. But the Texas Division of Emergency Management told Scripps News the agency blocked the application because of a paperwork issue. Kerr County failed to file a hazard mitigation plan required by federal law to be eligible for funding.
The county tried again in 2018, but that year, money was reserved for counties recovering from Hurricane Harvey's devastation.
Over the years, aside from paying for an engineering study that found Kerr County's existing warning system to be antiquated and unreliable, commissioners never approved spending any of the county's own funds to install sirens or flood warning equipment.
"This whole thing is a little extravagant for Kerr County," former Commissioner Buster Baldwin said in 2016.
Officials from the county studied a flood warning system installed in nearby Hays County after a 2015 flood that left 12 people dead.
Hays County used state money to install a system of 30 electronic gauges that constantly measure water levels in areas prone to flooding, beaming data back to headquarters.
Emergency operations officials now know with precision where water is creeping up and how fast, as well as when to close emergency gates and at what point outdoor warning sirens should sound to alert populated areas.
"It's very effective," said Mike Jones, director of Hays County Office of Emergency Services. "Since 2015, we've only had a loss of one life and that's because the individual decided to go ahead and take their chances and go across a low-water crossing."
Comal County, also close to Kerr County, uses sirens able to broadcast a message to seek higher ground during a flood.
But sirens proved controversial among Kerr County leaders.
"The thought of our beautiful Kerr County having these damn sirens going off in the middle of night … I'm going to have to start drinking again to put up with y'all," then-commissioner Baldwin said in 2016.
Sirens sounded in the town of Comfort when the river began flooding on July 4. The town invested in its own system to help families know when the river and creek are rising to dangerous heights.
"We did hear it go off," said Wendy Solberg, who runs a shop in town. "We were kind of a little more observant to see what was happening. You know it's something more when the alarm goes off."
An estimate put the price of a flood warning system in Kerr County at close to $1 million.
After the storm, scrutiny has also fallen on FEMA. Documents obtained by the Scripps News investigative team show that FEMA, in recent year,s took steps to downplay the chance of a flood in the area around Camp Mystic, where 27 campers and counselors died.
Records show FEMA repeatedly approved Camp Mystic's appeals to remove buildings designated on FEMA maps as being vulnerable to a 100-year flood.
Removing those designations meant less scrutiny and oversight as Camp Mystic grew. Google Earth images show a dramatic expansion in 2020.
Dick Eastland, the camp's director, died in the flood. Other camp leaders have not responded to our questions about why they challenged FEMA flood maps.
Scripps News also confirmed it took three days for FEMA to dispatch its own search and rescue teams to help other responders pull survivors to safety.
Frustration about that delay reportedly led FEMA's urban search and rescue chief to resign.
At a hearing in Congress, FEMA acting administrator David Richardson said the agency was waiting on the office of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to request the deployment of those teams.
The governor's office told Scripps News there were enough search-and-rescue crews on the ground working during the first few days after the flood.
