In an interview, Rob Kelly, the Kerr County judge and its most senior elected official, said the county did not have a warning system because such systems are expensive, and local residents are resistant to new spending.
“Taxpayers won’t pay for it,” Mr. Kelly said. Asked if people might reconsider in light of the catastrophe, he said, “I don’t know.”
Also, I’m going to say it if nobody else does. Trump fired over 12% of the National Weather Service. They have had to drastically cut back on weather balloons.
The National Weather Service’s San Angelo office, which is responsible for some of the areas hit hardest by Friday’s flooding, was missing a senior hydrologist, staff forecaster and meteorologist in charge, according to Tom Fahy, the legislative director for the National Weather Service Employees Organization, the union that represents Weather Service workers.
The Weather Service’s nearby San Antonio office, which covers other areas hit by the floods, also had significant vacancies, including a warning coordination meteorologist and science officer, Mr. Fahy said. Staff members in those positions are meant to work with local emergency managers to plan for floods, including when and how to warn local residents and help them evacuate.
Apparently some of these staff members took the early buyout. The Administration did give the NWS permission to rehire about 120 people but they anticipate several more months to fill the positions.
Who could have anticipated a possible need for a warning coordination meteorologist? /sarcasm.
Yeah. I’m sure the magnitude of this storm surprised a lot of folk. But I’d be surprised if there wasn’t SOME warning of heavy rain coming - if not specifically HOW heavy.
It shouldn’t have been too tough for someone associated with the camp to check the weather reports and realize, maybe we ought not have those campers right there where that big old flood happened back in 87.
Yes, I’ve seen articles that showed forecasts of 4 to 8 inches of rain. Of course, there was a lot more rain (10 to 12 inches) in a very short time. I’d also be interested in when the cell phone alerts were generated, although I believe I’ve read that cell coverage is not great in that area.
CBS just reported that the death toll is 79, with 40 still missing.
Since DOGE was the one who recommended the cuts, Trump can easily make Musk the scapegoat. He’ll say it was Musk who made the bad decision to cut essential staff.
Asked on Sunday if he is still planning to phase out Fema, Trump told a reporter: “Well, Fema is something we can talk about later, but right now they’re busy working.”
Is it just me, or is Texas getting a lot more unquestioned support with this flash flooding than North Carolina got with Helene…? Which also involved a lot of flash flooding.
I searched this thread and saw no mention of Tropical Storm Barry- which was the source for much of the moisture in these storms. Was it linked in the articles? I dont think Ive heard anyone correlate the two events outside of their local news? The emphasis seems to be on “flash floods” with no TS Barry being mentioned.
I read about the remnants of Tropical Storm Barry in a couple of posts somewhere over the last couple days but it has not been highlighted in the media at all.
I am a motorcoach driver. The charter company for whom I work is often hired to deliver campers to the camps in this area. I’ve been there many times, most recently, about a month ago. I may even have been to Camp Mystic at some point.
Some things that occur to me: if the camps were to be evacuated, how would they do it? These camps don’t have buses. My company routinely sends many buses loaded with hundreds of kids and we are not the only company that goes down there.
In today’s press conference, Governor Abbott said that the people in the area would likely know the how best to respond to a flood. Why would he think that? The people who run these camps are experts in childcare and/or theology. They’re not experts in hydrology or flood control.
This is among the most three-dimensional topography in Texas. It is truly breathtaking, but it is hella dangerous. I usually rely on Google Maps on my cell phone to navigate my bus trips, but I have to be very careful when I go into this area. I have to be sure that I have pre-loaded whatever data I may need and/or handwritten the directions to the pickup or drop site. Cell coverage south of I-10 is almost non-existent. It’s great along the Interstate, but very spotty in the hills. The poster above who said he got lots of warnings on his phone as he travelled through the area may not understand that cell phones are useless. (As an aside, the last trip I made down there was the day after the Thunder won the NBA championship. I knew when we had arrived in cell coverage when my passengers started cheering (and booing) about the outcome of the series. They had no idea who had won!)
I saw mention of the NWS office in San Antonio. Actually, the office is in New Braunfels, a city on the Guadalupe River between San Antonio and Austin. The SA and Austin NWS offices were combined years ago (pre-Trump I) in a cost-saving move. It was mentioned that this put millions of people into a very large and complex territory, but no one seemed to care.
Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence tool Grok, designed to curb misinformation on X, blamed its own creator and the Trump administration for the devastating floods in Texas
Thank you for the detailed information. What a complex mess.
If cell phone alerts would not work what other kind of alarm system could this area use other than the sirens which they apparently did not approve several years ago.
Hypothetically, they could have had NOAA weather radios, which are special radios that will pick up and broadcast alert tones and information when a weather warning is issued on NWS/NOAA-specific frequencies. Such radios operate via radio signals, not cell phone signals, so assuming that terrestrial radio reception isn’t also terrible in that area, those could have been used.
Such radios aren’t terribly expensive (I bought mine from Amazon for about $30), and are a good precaution for anyone who lives in an area prone to severe weather.
Short of a phone call via a landline, I can think of nothing else. Unless satellite dishes?
Something I’ve been wondering as well: How far upstream from the camp did the flash flood begin? Would there have been anybody to take notice of the rapidly rising water and warn the downstream communities?