海角大神

Amid flood tragedy, Texas officials promise improvements 鈥榳ill be made鈥�

As emergency responders continue combing through mountains of tangled debris a week after a catastrophic flash flood surged through this scenic Texas town, state officials are starting to think through how similar tragedies could be avoided in the future.

While local leaders say their focus remains on finding the 161 people still missing after the disaster, state leaders have announced that flood preparedness will be a focus of an upcoming special legislative session. Numerous tools exist, experts say, but cost is an obstacle for rural communities like this one. Now, out of tragedy, there may be the political will to support these areas.聽President Donald Trump toured the area on Friday.

The flood that swelled the Guadalupe River in the early hours of Independence Day has so far claimed more than 100 lives. Kerr County, near the river鈥檚 headwaters, was hit the hardest. Local authorities have reported 96 fatalities, including 36 children. Twenty-seven campers and counselors at an all-girls 海角大神 camp on an isolated southern bank of the river perished in the flood. Five children and one counselor remain missing.

Those numbers change almost every day. But questions around what local leaders knew, and how they responded as the floodwaters rose, endure as well. Flash flood warnings appear to have been missed, or downplayed, by local officials and camp leaders. Scrutiny is mounting over both the community鈥檚 flood warning technology, and its human overseers.

City and county officials 鈥渁re committed to a transparent and full review of鈥� the response to the storm, said Jonathan Lamb, with the Kerrville Police Department, at a Thursday press conference.

鈥淭he special [legislative] session is going to be the starting point for that work, but our entire focus since Day 1 has been on rescue and reunification.鈥�

Translating warnings into action

Cellphone alerts have been the primary warning system here, but inherent issues with that approach appear to have been a factor in this tragedy. Attention has turned to improved technology, such as sirens and sensors, that could more quickly detect and warn locals about flash floods.

Still, technology is only as effective as the people tasked with using it, experts say. The biggest challenge for communities like Kerr County is making sure that whatever warnings those systems broadcast reach people who are in harm鈥檚 way in time.

Researchers have come to refer to this as the. That should be a primary focus of Texas officials rethinking flood warning systems in the wake of the July 4 disaster, says Erik Nielsen, a professor of atmospheric sciences at Texas A&M University.

鈥淭he best warning system has multiple ways to receive the information,鈥� he says. When a natural disaster strikes, 鈥測ou鈥檙e convincing someone to do something they鈥檝e maybe never had to do before, and it鈥檚 challenging and it鈥檚 scary.鈥�

An additional communication challenge is that the instructions for people in a flood zone, including when and how to evacuate, are highly dependent on conditions on the ground. Most flood-related deaths happen when motorists try to drive through water-covered roadways; in 2003 the state launched a 鈥淭urn Around, Don鈥檛 Drown鈥� public relations campaign. Those warnings are now ubiquitous across the state during heavy rainfall events.

A similar campaign took place in Colorado, a legacy of the Big Thompson River flood in 1976, which caused at least 144 deaths. Researchers later found that many of those who died tried to drive through the floodwater, while survivors tended to seek higher ground. Fifty years later, there are signs all around the state鈥檚 mountainous areas telling people to go to higher ground during floods.

鈥淯nderstanding who died, where did they die, and why, but also understanding who survived鈥� is crucial, says Lori Peek, director of the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado Boulder.

鈥淎sking those kinds of questions moving forward is going to be critical.鈥�

鈥淲e need to hear that鈥�

In Kerr County, many locals aren鈥檛 ready to answer those questions yet.

Last week, in the early morning of July 4, Kristin Webb woke to the Guadalupe River lapping against her home. Her heart skipped a beat, and then she began to hear emergency responders outside telling neighbors to evacuate. She grabbed her two dogs and left.

Speaking at a local church where she was picking up free supplies a few days later, she counts herself as 鈥渋ncredibly fortunate.鈥�

鈥淲e have a home, and we didn鈥檛 lose our lives,鈥� she says, wiping tears from her eyes.

鈥淚鈥檓 not looking to place blame,鈥� she adds, 鈥淚鈥檓 just trying to get through.鈥�

Given the ferocity of the July 4 flood, 鈥渋t鈥檚 hard to blame鈥� local officials, says Kohnor Brown, a county resident. But 鈥渇lood sirens,鈥� he added, 鈥渨e need to hear that.鈥�

In addition to cellphone alerts, which only reach a segment of the population, many communities around the country do already have networks of sirens that blare messages telling people to evacuate certain areas.

Earlier this week it was revealed that, in 2017, Kerr County officials discussed installing a network of sirens, but ultimately chose not to because a state fund would only have covered.

A special legislative session was already scheduled to begin in Austin, primarily to address a potential ban on cannabis products. Gov. Greg Abbott this week announced that the session will now focus on flood preparedness infrastructure in the state.

鈥淲e鈥檙e going to address every aspect of this storm to make sure that we鈥檙e going to have in place the systems that are needed to prevent deadly flooding events like this in the future,鈥� he said during a Tuesday press conference in Kerr County.

Finding funding for sensor systems

Improved floodwater sensors along the river could also help. Other Texas counties have systems where sensors trigger sirens when water reaches a certain height, or can open and close floodgates to control the flow of water, or light up road beacons . Maintenance costs are the biggest expense for such systems, a challenge for poorer counties, who sometimes pool their funds to set up joint systems.

In flood-prone southeast Texas, a group of counties have banded together to install a flood warning sensor system across a 6,000 square-mile area. Nicholas Brake, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas, manages the system as its principal investigator and asset manager.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 the kind of model that could be used鈥� in the Hill Country, says Dr. Brake. The 250-mile Guadalupe River flows through eight counties, and all those counties would benefit from an advanced flood warning system.

Robert Levy knows all about these challenges.

鈥淚 came from a small community, so I understand their pain鈥� trying to raise funds for systems like this, he says.

A deputy sheriff in the northern California mountains for three decades, he developed expertise as a grant writer applying for government funds for his cash-strapped department. That knowledge has since informed his work as co-owner of AWARE Monitoring Systems, a company that installs state-of-the-art flood monitoring systems in communities around the country.

His company is installing such a system in Comal County, about 80 miles downriver from Kerrville. The solar-powered, military-grade sensors trigger cellphone notifications as well as sirens, which tell people 鈥� in English and Spanish 鈥� to move to higher ground. They鈥檙e looking into adding lights to the sirens for the hearing impaired.

No fatalities have been reported in Comal County. Being downriver 鈥� and thus having more reaction time 鈥� likely helped, but Mr. Levy says the part of their system that is active was able to warn residents to evacuate or reach higher ground.

Accountability measures

Ultimately, whatever warning systems were in place, the July 4 flood still probably would have been devastating in Kerr County.

Heavy rainfall in the days leading up to July 4 saw the Guadalupe rise by over 30 feet in just five hours in the early morning of Independence Day, according to data from.

Starting at 1 a.m., the National Weather Service issued a series of increasingly urgent flash flood warnings. Between 5:30 a.m. and 4 p.m., the agency issued flash flood warnings for Kerr County about every 30 minutes, according to a timeline compiled by.

Locals said they received flash flood warnings on their phones, but because it was late at night many ignored them. For those closer to the Guadalupe, cellphone signals can be spottier. At Camp Mystic, campers were not allowed to have phones or electronic devices with them. According to media reports, the camp by the Texas Department of State Health Services two days before the flood, which included a review of its emergency plans for a natural disaster. Those plans have not been made public.

Local officials were first notified of the flood around 5 a.m., according to authorities. During a Tuesday press conference, Kerr County Sheriff Larry L. Leitha said authorities are 鈥渋n the process of putting together a timeline鈥� of the response to the flood. But, he added, 鈥渕y priority right now is identifying victims [and] notifying families.鈥�

In a press conference the next day, Sheriff Leitha emphasized that local authorities are not trying to avoid accountability. There will be an investigation into the response to the flood, he said, but finding every missing person remained the priority.

鈥淲e鈥檙e not going to run. We鈥檙e not going to hide from anything,鈥� he added. 鈥淚f improvements need to be made they will be made.鈥�

Staff writer Story Hinckley contributed to this report from Richmond, Virginia.