How did the Texas floods get so bad?

The deluge that killed at least 94 people along fast-surging Texas rivers early Friday struck a region that has grappled with deadly floods before. And yet, the magnitude of the disaster exposed gaps in its ability to warn people, including a delayed flood risk alert from Kerr County and stalled development of a flood monitoring system.

This swath of Central Texas is the most flash-flood prone region in the country, and officials know the Hill Country’s terrain can turn slow, shallow rivers into walls of water. But even as weather forecasts began to hint at the potential for heavy rain on Thursday, the response exposed a disconnect: Few, including local authorities, prepared for anything but their normal Fourth of July. When the precipitation intensified in the early morning hours Friday, many people failed to receive or respond to flood warnings at riverside campsites and cabins that were known to be in the floodplain.
A review of wireless emergency data from a public database that pulls in Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Integrated Public Alert & Warning System shows that the county did not send its first Amber Alert-style push until Sunday. Days after the state had launched a full-scale rescue effort, continued rains appeared to prompt an alert sent to much of Kerr County urging people to “move to higher ground” because of “high confidence of river flooding.” The county has sent such alerts in past emergencies.

Until then, most cellphone alerts were coming from the National Weather Service’s Austin/San Antonio station. But some alerts about life-threatening flooding didn’t come until the predawn hours, and to areas where cellular reception may have been spotty.


Caption from article by Brianna Sacks, Scott Dance and Arelis R. Hernández.