Victims of the flash floods wrecking havoc on Central Texas are infuriated as local officials blame the National Weather Service (NWS) for failing to warn communities of the dire threat before it was too late.
At least 67 people – including 21 children – have been killed by the devastating floods that have been sweeping the Lone Star State since the early hours of the Fourth of July – when rapid rainfall caused the Guadalupe River to surge more than 30 feet above its normal level.
Rescue teams are frantically searching for missing victims, including 11 girls and a counselor who were at Camp Mystic, a Christian summer camp along the river in Kerr County, when tragedy struck.
As search, rescue and recover efforts are underway – with Donald Trump signing a ‘major disaster declaration’ to support first responders – local officials have accused the NWS of rolling out delayed warnings, especially in the Hill Country – dubbed ‘Flash Flood Alley’ – in Kerr County, where the devastation has been the greatest.
The federal agency issued a flood watch on Thursday at 1:18pm, estimating up to seven inches of rain on Friday morning in South Central Texas.
A flash flood warning was issued at 1:14am on Friday, with a more extreme warning coming at 4:03am, urging people to immediately evacuate to high grounds as the situation became ‘extremely dangerous and life-threatening.’
For many victims, the issue wasn’t about politics or who failed, but that no one warned them as the water rose, leaving them in the dark until it was far too late.
‘This wasn’t a forecasting failure,’ meteorologist Matt Lanza told the Texas Tribune. ‘It was a breakdown in communication.’
Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly did not know what kind of alert system Camp Mystic had to try and get all 750 of its campers to safety (pictured: a girl reacting to the damage at the camp)
Rescue teams are frantically searching for missing victims, including 11 girls and a counselor who were at Camp Mystic (pictured), a Christian summer camp along the river in Kerr County, when tragedy struck
Local officials have shifted the blame to the NWS, claiming the agency cost people their lives (pictured: a volunteer searching through debris)
Most of the devastation has been concentrated in Kerr County (pictured: a state trooper walking through Camp Mystic with a cadaver dog)
‘The warnings were there. They just didn’t get to people in time.’
Further complicating matters, these warnings were issued during hours many Texans were asleep.
‘The Weather Service was on the ball,’ Chris Vagasky, a Wisconsin-based meteorologist told Wired.
‘I really just want people to understand that the forecast office in San Antonio did a fantastic job. They got the warning out, but this was an extreme event.’
But local officials have shifted the blame to the NWS, claiming the agency cost people their lives.
At a Friday press conference, Texas Emergency Management Chief W. Nim Kidd said the amount of rain that slammed the Hill Country and Concho Valley was drastically underestimated.
‘The amount of rain that fell at this specific location was never in any of those forecasts,’ he said.
Dalton Rice, the city manager for Kerrville, Texas, agreed that communities were under prepared for the sheer amount of rainfall.
The NWS is in the process of hiring 100 new employees, as nearly 600 employees have left over the last few months after the Trump administration fired probationary federal employees and offered buyouts and early retirements.
By April, nearly half of NWS forecast offices had 20 percent vacancy rates.
But NWS meteorologist Jason Runyen said the New Braunfels office, which delivers forecasts for Austin, San Antonio and surrounding areas, had extra staff on duty during the storms.
At least 67 people – including 21 children – have been killed by the devastating floods that have been sweeping the Lone Star State (pictured: a Kerrville neighborhood submerged in water)
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem (pictured) vowed to update the ‘ancient system’ in place
‘There were extra people in here that night, and that’s typical in every weather service office – you staff up for an event and bring people in on overtime and hold people over,’ he said.
While Texas officials point fingers at the federal government, victims are frustrated with the lack of an efficient emergency response system to circulate emergency warnings.
‘What they need is some kind of external system, like a tornado warning that tells people to get out now,’ Christopher Flowers, 44, said.
Flowers was staying at a friends house along the Guadalupe River as the chaos erupted. When he checked the forecast in the hours before the floods surged, he was unalarmed.
It was not until he woke up in the pitch black, surrounded by water, that he knew something was wrong.
Bud Bolton, a resident of Blue Oak RV Park in Kerrville, told the Houston Chronicle he and others did not receive any warning before the community was destroyed.
‘You have the river authorities and I know what they do,’ the enraged Texan told the outlet.
‘You cannot tell me it’s not their f***ing job to oversee this river and monitor this river, because that’s what they do. That’s their job.
A flash flood warning was issued at 1:14am on Friday, with a more extreme warning coming at 4:03am, urging people to immediately evacuate to high grounds (pictured: debris along the river)
In a Sunday morning Truth Social Post, where Trump (pictured) announced he signed the emergency declaration
‘Where was the notification for all these families that needed to get out of here, because it had to be rising up that way first.’
Lorena Guillen, a local restaurant owner, who also lives in the RV park, said when she called her sheriff’s office before 3am, she was not told to evacuate her home.
‘We started seeing the cabins floating from the other RV Parks floating down the river,’ she told the Houston Chronicle.
‘We started seeing cars with lights on and people honking inside their cars and they were just floating away.’
Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly revealed the county most devastated by the floods has no unified emergency response system to notify residents of an oncoming disaster.
‘We’ve looked into it before … The public reeled at the cost,’ he said.
He also did not know what kind of alert system Camp Mystic had to try and get all 750 of its campers to safety.
‘What I do know is the flood hit the camp first, and it came in the middle of the night. I don’t know where the kids were,’ he added.
‘I don’t know what kind of alarm systems they had. That will come out in time.’
Texans are frustrated with the lack of an efficient emergency response system to let victims know a severe storm was underway
Jonathan Porter, the chief meteorologist at AccuWeather, said measures could have been taken beforehand to reduce the harm done.
‘People, businesses, and governments should take action based on Flash Flood Warnings that are issued, regardless of the rainfall amounts that have occurred or are forecast,’ he said.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem joined Governor Greg Abbott at a Saturday press conference, vowing to update the ‘ancient system’ in place.
‘The weather is extremely difficult to predict,’ Noem said. ‘But also that the National Weather Service, over the years at times, has done well and at times, we have all wanted more time and more warning and more notification.’
She said the Trump Administration is working to ‘fix’ and ‘update the technology.’
‘We needed to renew this ancient system that has been left in place with the federal government for many, many years and that is the reforms that are ongoing there.’
Trump said first responders have helped save about 850 lives so far, although victims feel this response is no match for the destruction (pictured: a helicopter searching for victims)
At a Friday press conference, Texas Emergency Management Chief W. Nim Kidd (pictured) said the amount of rain was drastically underestimated, blaming the NWS for failing to warn them sooner
In a Sunday morning Truth Social Post, where Trump announced he signed the emergency declaration, he wrote: ‘These families are enduring an unimaginable tragedy, with many lives lost, and many still missing.’
‘Our incredible US Coast Guard, together with State First Responders, have saved more than 850 lives.’
But victims including Guillen, feel they have been left in the dust, with these efforts being no match for the extent of the destruction.
‘There was too much loss – human loss and property loss,’ she told the Houston Chronicle.
