When deadly floods swept through Texas, the National Weather Service issued a series of warnings that should have automatically triggered alerts to be sent to cellphones as the Guadalupe River began to rise.

National Weather Service has issued a flood watch for the areas of Central Texas hit most by the deadly flooding over Fourth of July weekend.

Officials balked at the cost for installing a siren warning system and the potential for sirens to blare in the middle of the night and wake up

"Catastrophic" flash flooding along the Guadalupe River in Texas from Hunt downstream to Comfort has caused at least 13 deaths, authorities said.

Ninety-six of those killed were in the hardest-hit county in central Texas, Kerr County, where the toll includes at least 36 children. State officials vowed to continue searching for over 160 people still missing but have acknowledged the dwindling chances of finding survivors alive a week after the disaster.

After deadly floodwaters swept through Central Texas, there are questions about the timeline of weather alerts and possible gaps in the warning system.

A Kerrville-area river authority executed a contract for a flood warning system that would have been used to help with emergency response, local officials said.

As early as July 2, officials at the Texas Division of Emergency Management, or TDEM, were publishing news releases warning that “heavy rainfall with the potential to cause flash flooding is anticipated across West Texas and the Hill Country” and were preparing resources such as swift-water rescue boat squads.

Texas forecasters issued a series of early-morning warnings about “life-threatening flooding” along the Guadalupe River.