Follow for live updates in the Texas flooding as the death toll rises to 120, as rescue operations start to shift to recovery phase

Heavy equipment is tearing through massive debris piles in Kerr County as the search for the missing continues.

Over the last decade, an array of Texas state and local agencies missed opportunities to fund a flood warning system, including failing to secure roughly $1 million US for a project to better protect Kerr County’s 50,

While search crews and volunteers pushed ahead with recovering those unaccounted for, communities in the devastated Hill Country region are just beginning to grieve those lost over the July Fourth holiday.

Authorities said the death toll in Kerr County, epicenter of the July Fourth Texas floods, now stands at 95, including 36 children. The big picture: Authorities are now concentrating on sorting through debris as they search for victims.

Four friends in their 20s – including a couple who have been dating since high school — planned a fun weekend in Hunt, Texas, before the catastrophic floods hit. Now, one remains missing, and the bodies of three of the young adults have been found after days of grueling search efforts.

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 officials say they are still focused mainly on the search for survivors with hundreds still missing and weren't yet examining how the emergency response unfolded.