The death toll from the July Fourth flash flood that ravaged a swath of central Texas Hill Country rose on Tuesday to at least 109, many of them children, as search teams pressed on through mounds of mud-encrusted debris looking for scores of people still missing.

Local officials have faced angry questions about whether they could have warned people of dangerous flash floods in Texas Hill Country sooner. Rescue teams from neighboring states and Mexico have joined local efforts to search for survivors,

The storms that battered the Hill Country for the past four days began to lighten up, although isolated pockets of heavy rain were still possible.

Search teams persisted in sifting through debris in Texas Hill Country on Wednesday as hopes of finding more survivors dimmed five days after flash floods tore through the region, killing at least 110 people,

Heavy rain poured over the Texas Hill Country on Independence Day, with the flooding causing more than 100 deaths. Here's a timeline of the disaster: On July 2, the Texas Division of Emergency Management said it activated "state emergency response resources in anticipation of increased threats of flooding in parts of West and Central Texas heading into the holiday weekend.

More than 100 people are dead and 150 known to be missing in Texas Wednesday from flooding but questions remain about how the effects of the deadly disaster could have been mitigated.