Three hours and 21 minutes. That’s how much time passed from when the National Weather Service sent out its first flash flood warning for part of Kerr County to when the first flooding reports came in from low-lying water crossings.

Local officials in Kerr County continue facing public scrutiny after days of seeming to deflect questions about their preparedness and response to the July 4 flash flood that left dozens dead.

Kerr County failed to secure a warning system, even as local officials remained aware of the risks and as billions of dollars were available for similar projects.

Flooding has been at the top of Texans’ minds this week, but this is not the first time that the need for flood-related measures has come up among local officials.

The search for missing bodies is ongoing along Texas’ Guadalupe River after catastrophic and deadly flooding killed more than 100 people following a torrential downpour early Friday morning.

At a news conference on Sunday, Governor Greg Abbott said people in Texas were used to flash flood warnings, but there was no sense of how deadly this would be. "There's no expectation of a water wall of almost 30ft high," he added.

The death toll in the July 4 Central Texas flooding rose to 103 on Friday as the search continued for those still missing.

Jennifer Berry Hawes ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up for Dispatches, a newsletter that spotlights wrongdoing around the country, to receive our stories in your inbox every week.