Emergency officials are starting to focus on alert systems as they search for answers about how the flash flooding swept away so many.

A small Texas town recorded no deaths in last weekend’s flood disaster after it recently upgraded its emergency alert system — the kind of equipment that state and county officials repeatedly balked at installing just a few miles away in storm-ravaged Kerr County.

River gauges, sirens and clear alerts can together help emergency managers anticipate flash floods and communicate life-saving information.

Multiple people are dead following "catastrophic" flooding in Kerrville, which is about 65 miles northwest of San Antonio

Here's what to know about the deadly flooding, the colossal weather system that drove it and ongoing efforts to identify victims.