Texas officials face scrutiny over their response to catastrophic and deadly floods

A few hours later, he was in a hurry to safety. He woke up in the darkness, and the electric socket pops out and the deep water at his ankles. Soon his family scrambled nine people into the attic. The phone was bustling with alerts, Hana recalled on Saturday, but he couldn’t remember when he started in Chaos.

“What they need is some kind of external system, like a tornado warning to tell people to go out now,” said Flowers, 44.

Destructive Fast Water It began on Friday before sunrise in Texas Hill Country He killed at least 43 people. In Kerr County, authorities said Saturday, with an unknown number of people remaining missing. Those who were not yet accounted for included 27 girls from Camp Mystic. Camp Mystic is a Christian summer camp along the river in Kerr County, where the majority of the deaths have been recovered.

But as authorities launch one of the biggest search and rescue operations in recent Texas history, they are undergoing intense scrutiny on preparations, and why residents and youth summer camps dotting along the river were not warned or told to evacuate earlier.

The National Weather Service sent a series of flash flood warnings early on Friday, followed by a flash flood emergency. This is an unusual warning that notifies you of an imminent danger.

Local officials defend their actions, claiming that no one sees the possibility of flooding.

“There’s a lot of finger points, a lot of second guesses, Monday morning quarterbacking,” said Chip Roy, a Republican Rep. in the district, including Kerr County. “There are a lot of people who say ‘why’ and ‘how’. I understand that. ”

When the warning begins

The first flood clock, which generally urges residents to remember the weather, was issued by the local National Weather Service Office at 1:18pm on Thursday.

Rain was predicted to be 5-7 inches (12.7-17.8 cm). According to Jason Lanien, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, weather messaging from the office, including automated alerts that were delivered to the phone early on Friday mornings, has become increasingly ominous and more ominous in the early hours of Friday.

At 4:03am, the office issued an urgent warning that poses a possible catastrophic damage and a serious threat to human life.

Jonathan Porter, a leading meteorologist at Accuweather, a private weather forecasting company that uses data from the National Weather Service, said evacuation and other aggressive measures appeared to have begun to reduce the risk of death.

“People, businesses and governments should take action based on flash flood warnings issued, regardless of the amount of rainfall that has occurred,” Porter said in a statement.

Officials say they didn’t expect this

Local officials say they didn’t expect such a heavy downpour, equivalent to months’ worth of rain for the area.

“We know it’s raining, we know the river will rise,” said Rob Kelly, a judge of Kerr County, who is the county’s highest elected official. “But no one saw this coming.”

Carville city manager Dalton Rice said he was jogging along the river early in the morning and didn’t notice the issue at 4am an hour later at 5:20am.

Rice also said the public could become insensitive to too many weather warnings.

There is no county flood warning system

Kelly said he looked at a riverside flood warning system that acted like a tornado warning siren about six to seven years ago before the county was elected, but that no ideas had come down from the ground due to costs.

“We’ve looked into it before… the public was caught up at the expense,” Kelly said.

He said he didn’t know what safety and evacuation plans the camp had.

“All I know is that the first thing that floods hit the camp and came in the middle of the night. I don’t know where the kids are,” he said. “I don’t know what kind of alarm system they had. It’ll be in time.”

Homeland Security Secretary Christie Noem said on Saturday it would be difficult for forecasters to predict how much rain will fall. She said the Trump administration will be a priority to upgrade the National Weather Service technology used to provide warnings.

“We know that everyone wants more warning times, which is why we’re working to upgrade technology that’s been neglected for too long to ensure that families have as many advance notices as possible,” he said at a news conference with state and federal leaders.

Weather service had additional staff

The New Braunfels National Weather Service office, which provides forecasts for Austin, San Antonio and surrounding areas, had staff on duty during the storm, Runyen said.

The office usually had two predictors on duty during clear weather, and staff had up to five predictors.

“There were extra people here that night. That’s typical of all weather services offices. You’re staffing events, working overtime, and embracing people,” Runyen says.