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

At least 120 people have died and some 173 people remain unaccounted for statewide, nearly a week after flash floods ravaged the Texas Hill Country.

KERRVILLE, Texas (AP) — Over the last decade, an array of Texas state and local agencies missed opportunities to fund a flood warning system intended to avert a disaster like the one that killed dozens of young campers and scores of others in Kerr County on the Fourth of July.

Over 100 people have died after heavy rain pounded Kerr County, Texas, early Friday, leading to "catastrophic" flooding, the sheriff said.

At least 120 people have been found dead in nearly a week since heavy rainfall overwhelmed the river and flowed through homes and youth camps in the early morning hours of July 4. Ninety-six of those killed were in the hardest-hit county in central Texas, Kerr County, where the toll includes at least three dozen children.

TEGNA's local news properties across Texas are joining forces to raise money for the Kerr County and surrounding areas hit by flash floods

Since 2016, the topic of a "flood warning system" for Kerr County has come up at 20 different county commissioners' meetings, according to minutes. The idea for a system was first introduced by Kerr County Commissioner Thomas Moser and Emergency Management Coordinator Dub Thomas in March 2016.

"I thought my mom was going to die in front of me," said Taylor Bergmann, a 19-year-old who fought to save the people in his family after the Guadalupe River smashed through their home.

When the precipitation intensified in the early morning hours Friday, many people failed to receive or respond to flood warnings at riverside campsites known to be in the floodplain.

As 27 million Americans are under severe thunderstorm and flash flood watch on Wednesday, a line of strong storms packing intense rainfall is threatening the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast. Major I-95 cities -- Philadelphia,