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 of youth campers and others in Kerr County,

FEMA and the U.S. Small Business Administration, in coordination with the Texas Division of Emergency Management, are opening a Disaster Recovery Center in Kerrville on Thursday, July 10, to help homeowners, renters and business owners impacted by the flooding.

Of all the counties affected, Kerr County suffered the greatest losses as a deadly wall of water roared down the Guadalupe River in the early morning hours of July 4. Wednesday evening, the City of Kerrville came together in a vigil at Antler Stadium to pray for the victims and those still missing after the flood.

Before hundreds of first responders and volunteers from around the country came to help, it was the local residents of Texas Hill Country who faced down a deadly wall of water along the Gaudalope River and witnessed terrifying scenes.

The recent disaster has some thinking back to a similar tragedy almost 40 years ago that occurred in the same month and nearly the same place.

Hill Country residents and volunteers on Tuesday continued picking up the pieces that the deadly waterway left behind days earlier.

Without a modern flood warning system, emergency officials monitor four sensors along the Guadalupe River – including one that was knocked out in the flood.

The most powerful thing that I can do, is come up here and intercede with prayer for these families, that are hurting beyond what anyone can ever imagine."