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Posted on 07/08/2025 9:33:22 AM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
Nearly a decade before catastrophic flash flooding in Kerr County…several local officials were hard at work convincing their peers to buy into a new early flood warning system. The once “state of the art” program installed along the Guadalupe River back in the 1980s was in desperate need of an upgrade, they argued…
“I’m not trying to put a dollar on a life or a flood, but the fact of the matter is floods do happen, and we need to be prepared for them,” then-Kerr County Commissioner Bob Reeves noted during a series of public meetings that began in 2016. And, his former colleague Tom Moser pointed out, “We also have more summer camps than anybody else along the Guadalupe River.”
The wide-ranging discussions back then — captured in transcripts archived online — proved to be a chilling precursor to the disaster that unfolded early on July 4…
But the new warning system never became reality. Though local officials agreed to spend $50,000 on an engineering study, which made specific recommendations for such a project in 2016, they never secured the $1 million they estimated would be needed to implement it – despite asking for help from state officials at least three separate times.
“We never were successful in getting that funding, or putting the matching funding with it to do anything,” said Moser, who retired in 2021, in a phone interview. He said he hopes the county can “go back to the drawing board on this, and hopefully it’ll be a model that could be used all over the United States.”
(Excerpt) Read more at houstonchronicle.com ...
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Sirens are obsolete and cellular coverage is unreliable. This is why $30 NOAA weather radios exist. But even with SAME there are so many alerts that people ignore them.
So let’s start with “What will it take for true emergency warnings not to be ignored”?
Yesterday on CNN's "Outfront with Erin Burnett", they waited until mid-broadcast before they dedicated a whole segment to blame this flood on ..... Climate Change from burning fossil fuels, followed by a conga line of finger waggers telling us our refusal to abandon our 1st world petroleum fueled lifestyle is what is responsible for this tragedy.
Cell phone signal can be sketchy outside Kerrville proper.
As long as you have cell or internet, you could subscribe to water alerts from this station.
https://waterdata.usgs.gov/monitoring-location/USGS-08165300/#dataTypeId=continuous-00065-0&period=P7D
“ Closing that barn door that was deliberately left open several years ago.”
Shoulda Woulda Coulda. Where are the camps disaster management plans? You have camps along a river that floods. What did the insurance companies require? This is a tragedy.
I can't say it enough. Although this was a bad one, it floods in the hill country, and people have died in the past. The only reason you are hearing about it now is because a lot of out-of-state people moved into the area that didn't know better.
The answer is easy, but it's one people don't want to hear. The best system is to not be on the rivers and streams when it's storming.
“The only reason you are hearing about it now is because a lot of out-of-state people moved into the area that didn’t know better.”
Camp Mystic was founded in 1926.
The youth camps have to be licensed and meet various standards in order to operate. There lots of rules and regulations in order to operate. I haven’t seen anything about building too close to river banks.
https://www.dshs.texas.gov/youth-camp-program/license-qualification-package-youth-camp-program
Well, I know of a guy who owns his own satellite network...
A scaled-down Starlink terminal configured with no-BS alarms could be implemented very inexpensively. I say that because NOAA Weather Radio sends out so many alerts that people ignore them as posted above.
So make a parallel system for high risk areas like this and wire the alarm output up to electrodes in the administrators bed if necessary! When that alarm is sounded, everyone is evacuated pronto - no questions asked.
Camp Mystic had 700 girls on site at over $4,000 each so don’t tell me they can’t afford it.
The problem is a system that doesn’t “cry wolf”.
The water raised over 20 feet in what, 20 minutes?
no warning system would save you from that (I wish there was one that could) other than the ones issued before the rain started.
“The system worked. AccuWeather and NWS were spot on and warned back to July 2. Some ignored the eventual grave flash flood warnings and didn’t ANTICIPATE the intensity of the flooding. I’m shocked that camps of that magnitude didn’t have protocols, procedures, communication and night shift personnel for SHTF contingencies like this.”
Exactly. People don’t watch the weather forecast anymore.
“An upgraded flood warning system would have been nice to have but probably would have made little difference”
I’ve heard a couple of weather gurus say the same thing. Rain was too much and too fast. There was no hope.
Maybe building and zoning codes will have to be revisited.
If you live in an unincorporated area like this seems to be, there may not be any restrictions. If restrictions are put in place, existing dwellings are likely to be grandfathered in.
I was wondering about cellular strength, too. Even in our rather civilized neck of the woods, there are large areas where we get “no signal”. This is with Verizon and five miles from I-40.
More towers would be helpful overall.
It looks like that to me as well, otherwise no one would have evacuated before the flood.
These people know that they are in a flood area. The vigilant ones were paying attention. The girls camp has been portrayed as upscale. They could afford more weather equipment since they were in the flood area. I’m not seeing why this should be a public expense.
BTW - I live in an area that has occasional tornadoes. There is no public warning system other than the standard weather alerts. It’s up to us to pay attention and that’s how it should be.
“700 girls on site at over $4,000 each “
Wow! When we went to Christian summer camp, I think Dad paid $25. (All hail to Odosagih where living waters flow.)
Bkmk
This was some years ago. I had to step out on the back deck to get a reliable phone call on a hillside in LA. Around the same time we had a family reunion on the shores of south eastern Lake Michigan. AT&T folks had no problem making call. Verizon folks had to walk to the top of the hill to place a call.
You can’t actually know when a flash flood happens. The warning only comes when you can see the actual rain hitting actual spots. It’s too tough. And its not the weather forcast that is needed. Its the water flow management that kills. You have to know what happens when rain hits in any particular place in very large amounts and what will happen. The same amount of water over a bigger time will cause no problems. A large amount of water in a different area will cause no problems. But a huge amount of water in a very particular place can set off a chain reaction that floods populated areas very fast.
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