More than 130 people are dead after devastating flooding in the Texas Hill Country that began early on the Fourth of July.

Eight-year-old girls at sleep-away camp, families crammed into recreational vehicles, local residents traveling to or from work. These are some of the victims.

More than a week after deadly floods struck Central Texas, search and rescue teams are continuing to probe debris for those still missing.

A study puts the spotlight on Texas as the leading U.S. state by far for flood-related deaths, with more than 1,000 of them from 1959 to 2019.

The death toll from devastating floods in central Texas has risen to 24, Kerr County Sheriff Larry L. Leitha told reporters during a news conference Friday evening. The sheriff did not provide an update on the number of people unaccounted for. Earlier, state officials said about 23 campers with a girls' summer camp remained unaccounted for.

By all accounts, forecasters provided adequate warning — the problem was communicating the danger to residents.

At least 120 people have been found dead 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 36 children.

The Economist/YouGov poll surveyed nearly 1,680 U.S. adults this week, and 52% blamed lack of government preparation for most of the deaths, mainly centered in Kerr County along the Guadalupe River.

This has played out on social platforms as well, prompting some liberal commentators to speak out against the dehumanization of Texas communities. Political trolling online is nothing new, but its spillover into blaming victims and survivors of disaster is a dangerous new low.

The deaths of children at Camp Mystic show a heartbreaking failure of local, state and federal government to invest in people, prepare for disasters.