Tragedy near Kerrville

Remember, just two weeks ago 13 people lost their lives in flash floods in San Antonio proper early morning rains. There have been numerous NWS flash flood watches and warnings over the last few days as well for the area.

I was talking to my sister yesterday. She lives in Floresville just South, I think, of SA. She said it was hard to watch the news regarding the flooding. 26-29 feet is quite a rise in any river. May their maker take care of them...
Just horrible. I hope all our Forum members are okay.

The road ahead for this region is going to be awful. The cameras will be long gone and the devastation will remain. It will take years to sort out recovery. And that's just the physical. I am a parent who has lost a son (Thomas, forever 24) and it is the most brutal thing I've ever experienced and my heart breaks today as I know more parents are joining this damned club that nobody wants to be a member of. I'm also thinking about all the first-responders and others who are tasked with search, rescue, and recovery work. Another awful job that Im thankful people go out and do.

444 Magnum said:

He's not right and this statement should be retracted.

.....

This is tragic. No blame is needed or warranted.

Perhaps changes will be made by local emergency management services such as warning sirens, phone alerts, weather radios, etc. My understanding is there currently is no warning system in Kerr County.

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Point 1: Damned straight

Point 2: You cannot say that!! How the heck are greedy lawyers supposed to sue a municipality into the ground if humans are not to blame. That doesn't fly.

Point 3: Yes, lots of "do-something-itis" will take place at great expense. Much of it will be futile as it ignores the simple fact that when mother nature gets grumpy, she can squash us like bugs.

If any agency is using Farcebook as their official emergency notification, whoever made that decision needs to be looking for another job.

Jane Ragsdale is my wife's 2nd cousin, had been there as a youngster. Her dad is from Big Spring right up th road. Sad beyond words. Joe

"the county used thier Facebook page fo alert" That really works...especially at 2 in the morning when everyone is in bed!!

Fortunately, my area in San Antonio got less than an inch over the past two days, and at my elevation, there has never been flooding. I still cannot imagine the anguish of the parents.

As of now, confirmed deaths are 43. 15 are children. Some of the dead are unidentified. No good estimates of those missing could be made. Spokesman just said “We don’t know what we don’t know.” Meaning that there were many visitors for the 4th of July from outside of the immediate local area, no way to account for them.

AudieMurphy said:

"the county used thier Facebook page fo alert" That really works...especially at 2 in the morning when everyone is in bed!!

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Or for those who don't use it. Reverse 9-1-1 has some bugs, but it works for everyone with phones in that area.

DWalt said:

As of now, confirmed deaths are 43. 15 are children. Some of the dead are unidentified. No good estimates of those missing could be made. Spokesman just said “We don’t know what we don’t know.” Meaning that there were many visitors for the 4th of July from outside of the immediate local area, no way to account for them.

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That statement will get the media's panties in a bigger wad than the number of dead.

A 20 foot plus rise in the river in a few short hours is unfathomable. My heart goes out to the loved ones of the lost and missing and the survivors who will be affected forever as well.

olfart said:

If any agency is using Farcebook as their official emergency notification, whoever made that decision needs to be looking for another job.

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According to a recent BBC article:

pharmer said:

Jane Ragsdale is my wife's 2nd cousin, had been there as a youngster. Her dad is from Big Spring right up th road. Sad beyond words. Joe

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FYI: Big Spring is 250 or so miles from Kerrville.

There was flooding today in Georgetown, a suburb of Austin, and other nearby towns. There were fatalities there as well.

51 presently confirmed as dead, at least 27 KNOWN missing, most being young girls. Total UNKNOWN missing number still unestimated (visitors and others from out of the area). Scenes of damage shown on local TV are horrific. Up to 13” of rain estimated in most affected area, rain gauges overwhelmed. TV news urging people having family or friends still missing and unaccounted for to call in and report them.

Oh great Lord. I hope that they are found and alive.

AudieMurphy said:

"the county used thier Facebook page fo alert" That really works...especially at 2 in the morning when everyone is in bed!!

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There are no warning systems that work well overnight.

I live just outside of the flood zone here, and we have warning sirens. They get used for flash flooding and tornados. I can tell you from personal experience that sirens don't work all that well overnight either. People sleep through them all the time.

The more that gets done, the more people that will be reached.

However, this situation is one where nothing could have been done fast enough to make a big difference. Flash flooding like that happens so fast. I saw that firsthand in Phoenix visiting family back when they lived there. They have an impressive water reclamation and safety system in place to minimize the flooding. I thought it was odd seeing all the canals the first time I was there. I was there and witnessed how fast they filled one Christmas. I was amazed and shocked to say the least.

It was tornado type speed and devastation.

Living on the north end of tornado alley I've seen the destruction caused by them many times over the years. There have been many similar, albeit smaller scale, tragedies like this one. My heart goes out to the families of those caught up in the flooding.

Most of us have multiple ways to receive warnings for tornadoes, hurricanes, flooding, etc. Most of these events are defined by specifics, such as the minimum requirements to define a severe thunderstorm (warning). it's defined by the NWS as "hail of 1 inch in diameter or larger, wind gusts of 58 mph or greater, or a tornado." One of the warning systems we have is on our phones and is a known as the Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA). It's a mandated federal warning system and includes several events to include weather.

The warning is transmitted to the areas of interest and the individuals receive the warning via text message. Your phone must be WEA - capable and activated to receive the warnings. Your carrier must also participate in the program. After a brief search regarding the WEA, I found the WEA system is "selective" on warning parameters. For instance, back to severe thunderstorms. IMO and most all meteorologists, a severe thunderstorm is just that. But the govt carries it further and has an additional category known as a "destructive" thunderstorm warning. The "destructive" tag on a severe thunderstorm warning indicates a higher level of threat, with expected wind speeds of 80 mph or greater and/or hail of 2.75 inches in diameter or greater.

I have had tornadoes with never a warning from the WEA system. That's with 2 phones. Friends and family have never received the WEA msgs. I do have weather radios which are reliable as well as a warning system from my county sheriff's office (NOAA - Based) and local tv weather apps. I use Pure Talk, which is a Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs) associated with AT&T. I contacted them and they assured me they are a participant.

My whole point being a couple of points actually. WEA using a messaging format. Fine and dandy. But if I've never had a message, I can't set the notification parameters such as silent / sound, type of sound, volume of sound. No reason for me to believe the flooding victims had anything different. Found the following on wiki: When the alert is received, a sound is played even if the ringer is off. On nearly all devices, the Emergency Alert System radio/TV attention signal sounds in a predetermined pattern.

Seems like one time I received a "National" test warning and it was blaring. I have never received any test warning since. I suspect many of the good people in Texas experienced similar lacks of warnings reaching their cell phones.

Seems odd to me that none over these campgrounds have/had a dedicated weather alert radio on and monitored at all times.