The reporter said that several families were angry because they felt that alerts for the flood did not go out in time.

"The first lady and I are here in Texas to express the love and support and the anguish of our entire nation in the aftermath of this really horrific and deadly flood," Trump said as he spoke at a roundtable event with first responders and local officials.

In the last nine years, federal funding for a system has been denied to the county as it contends with a tax base hostile to government overspending.

Over the last decade, an array of local and state agencies have missed opportunities to fund a flood warning system intended to avert the type of disaster that swept away dozens in Kerr County, Texas.

Twice, the Texas Division of Emergency Management turned down Kerr County's requests for money to improve flood warnings.

Emergency responders kept hope alive as they combed through fallen trees and other debris that littered the hard-hit central Texas communities on the fifth day after devastating floods killed more than 100.

Federal forecasters issued their first flood warning at 1:14 a.m. on July 4. Local officials haven’t shed light on when they saw the warnings or whether they saw them in time to take action.

In other words, we keep playing a game of chance with forces indifferent to us—until we are finally reminded of the cost of losing.