Kerr County officials reportedly failed to activate a powerful public alert system that could have saved lives before last week’s devastating flood.The Washington Post revealed that despite having the technology to turn every mobile phone in the river valley into a loud alarm,

A "Basic Plan" for emergency response for three Texas counties labeled flash flooding as having a "major" impact on public safety, according to a page on a city website.

Kerr County officials have for years talked about the need for a more robust flash-flood warning system, including sirens that would reach people in places with no cell service. But in the absence of that expensive infrastructure, they adopted IPAWS — which cost them nothing — as a way to alert more people by phone.

Some FEMA officials claim President Trump's cost-cutting policies are to blame for the delayed response to the disastrous Texas floods.

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.

Kerr County Emergency Management Coordinator W.B. “Dub” Thomas declined to comment when asked to explain the actions the county took in the early morning hours of Friday, CNN previously reported.