Texas floods kill dozens, raise questions about weather warnings

This swath of Central Texas is the most flash-flood prone region in the country, and officials know the Hill Country's terrain can turn slow, shallow rivers into walls of water.

Under the Trump administration, the Weather Service, like other federal agencies, has been pushed to reduce its number of employees. By this spring, through layoffs and retirements, the Weather Service had lost nearly 600 people from a work force that until recently was as large as 4,000.

The Guadalupe River experienced major floods in 1936, 1952, 1972, 1973, 1978, 1987, 1991 and 1997.