The first weather emergency alert sent by the National Weather Service with urgent language instructing people to "seek higher ground now" was sent at 4:03 a.m. local time.

Warnings predicted both Texas floods and Hurricane Helene. But in both disasters, people were left in harm’s way.

Officials in Kerr County, where the majority of the deaths from the July 4 flash floods occurred, have yet to detail what actions they took in the early hours of the disaster.

The alert, a Blue Alert issued by the FBI, named Benjamin Song, 32, as the suspect wanted in the July 4 shooting of a police officer at the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarad

NWS says Flash Flood Warnings were issued on July 3 and early July 4 in Central Texas, giving more than three hours of warning.

By Alan Gionet Click here for updates on this story COLORADO (KCNC) — It is hard to look at the heartbreak of the disaster in Texas. In Colorado past flash floods have brought similar heartache and similar threats.

A 2024 RAND report found Texas cellphone users opted out of wireless emergency alerts at the highest rate. Nearly 30% of Texans chose to turn off at least one kind of wireless alert, a choice researchers partly attributed to exhaustion from the large number of statewide alerts.

Flooding is the deadliest natural disaster facing Oklahomans, a threat far greater than tornadoes. In the United States, flooding kills an average of 103 people a year. Tornadoes, however, caused 48 deaths on average during the same period, according to the National Weather Service.

Joined by first lady Melania Trump and officials, Trump surveyed the devastation and met with victims' families and emergency responders.