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‘No warning at all’: Texas flood survivors question safety planning and officials’ response
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 07 Jul 2025
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No warning at all, eh? Well, the NWS did their jobs but if you have to count on podunk county officials to alert you, then I suggest you invest in a NOAA weather radio. They're not expensive and could save your life.
Thursday, June 3. A Flood Watch for Central Texas was issued by the local National Weather Service Office in Austin/San Antonio. The watch was in effect through Friday morning and warned of the chance for rainfall totals upwards of 5 to 7 inches, which would lead to excessive runoff and flooding along rivers, creeks, and streams.
Later Thursday evening, the Weather Prediction Center highlighted the same region with an increasing threat for slow-moving thunderstorms that could dump rainfall rates of 3 inches an hour.
It was around midnight on Friday, June 4, when the first few thunderstorms began dumping heavy rainfall in central Texas. About an hour later, the first Flash Flood Warning was issued by the National Weather Service at around 1:14 a.m. This warning also included the "considerable" tag, which should have triggered wireless emergency alerts to go out to cell phones and NOAA Weather Radios.
Then at 3:35 a.m., the original warning was upgraded and included the verbiage, "Move to higher ground now. Act quickly to protect your life." Less than 30 minutes later, the warning was upgraded again to a Flash Flood Emergency and would have triggered the wireless emergency alerts once again.
Finally, at 5:34 a.m., a Flash Flood Warning for the Guadalupe River mentioned the "large and deadly flood wave" that was observed and moving down the river. Dozens of weather alerts were issued thereafter as the flood event unfolded across central Texas.
There was plenty of warning but the incompetent emergency managers in these communities dropped the ball. Every emergency vehicle in the flood area should have been running with lights and sirens ahead of he flood and giving warning over loudspeakers. They could have woke up everyone and given them a chance to flee to high ground. Instead, the managers mostly just counted on the cell phone alert system which works very poorly in the area because there are few cell towers.
Oh, and the kids at Camp Mystic were not allowed to have cell phones.