67 Dead, A Failed Weather Service, and Questions

 

BY C STONE | STONE NEWS NETWORK ||| TEXAS

Sourced: Daily Mail

The horrors of flash flooding victim's remains due to a middle of the night storm, and the blame has centered on the National Weather Service. They allegedly failed to warn communities of the threat before it was too late.

With a staggering 67 people dead - some children, mostly in and around Camp Mystic, which is close to the epicenter of the flooding.

Via the Daily Mail:

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.' 

It's clear there needs to be a more standardized and formal alerting system - like the ones which hit cellular phones - to tell people, evacuate - by force if necessary - the regions affected by flooding.

Via Daily Mail

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.