After hours of waiting and praying in the attic, the water stopped rising and the family was rescued. A first responder helped Matteson, wearing a navy and pink floral dress and quilted white jacket, into the back of a car. Her family survived. Their home was not so lucky.

Kerr County had discussed buying such things as water gauges and sirens after previous flood disasters. But as with many rural Texas counties, cost was an issue.

At least 27 campers and counselors were killed at Camp Mystic during the devastating Texas floods. Some are still missing.

Catastrophic flooding struck central Texas on Friday as the Guadalupe River surged by more than 20 to 26 feet within 90 minutes, causing widespread devastation and forcing mass evacuations in Texas Hill Country. At least 80 people have been killed in the floods while others remain missing or displaced and more than 850 people required rescuing.

It’s discouraging that during this time when we have such a loss of life, and so many people’s lives have turned upside down, that people are playing politics with this,” Noem told NBC's Kristen Welker.

Search crews continued the grueling task of recovering the missing as more potential flash flooding threatened Texas Hill Country.

Multiple urban search and rescue teams from across the country that responded to the deadly floods in central Texas told CNN they were not deployed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency until at least Monday evening — days after any victim had been found alive.