As communities across Central Texas reel from the deadly floods that devastated Kerrville and surrounding Hill Country towns, Fox 29 Chief Meteoro

At least 121 people have been killed and 173 others are missing as Texas officials deflect questions over the state’s response to the catastrophic flash floods.Kerr County remains at the center of the disaster after the Guadalupe River burst its banks on Friday.

For years, employees say, they've had to do more with less. But the ability to fill in the gaps became strained to the breaking point when the Trump administration began pushing new staffing cuts.

Officials in Texas are facing mounting questions about whether they did enough to get people out of harm’s way before a flash flood swept down the Guadalupe River and killed more than 100 people, including at least 27 children and counselors at an all-girls Christian camp.

The Austin, Texas, fire chief is being accused of denying requests to send rescuers to Kerrville days before the catastrophic flooding — because of an $800,000 dispute with the state government.

In Kerr County, the hardest-hit region, officials said the number of missing remained unchanged, at 161, since Tuesday. The floods have killed at least 121 people statewide.

Sen. Ted Cruz rejected weather modification claims, saying there's "zero evidence" and calling such theories "crazy" following the flooding in Texas.

At a news conference on Sunday, Governor Greg Abbott said people in Texas were used to flash flood warnings, but there was no sense of how deadly this would be. "There's no expectation of a water wall of almost 30ft high," he added.