By Trevor Hunnicutt and Maria Alejandra CardonaKERRVILLE, Texas (Reuters) -President Donald Trump defended the state and federal response to deadly flash flooding in Texas on Friday as he visited the stricken Hill Country region,

President Donald Trump met with victims' families and surveyed the damage of catastrophic floods that struck the state one week ago.

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.

In the days after the devastating flood that killed dozens in Central Texas, local officials have deflected direct questions about preparations and warnings in advance of the storm that struck July Fourth.

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.

The president has defended his administration's response to the fatal flooding amid criticism that federal assistance could have been provided more quickly.

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,