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DEEP IN THE HEART OF TEXAS
Eight years ago, after a previous flood in the Texas Hill Country, officials debated whether more needed to be done to create a warning system along the banks of the Guadalupe River.
There was a series of summer camps along the river. For years they were kept safe with a phone tree: When floodwaters started raging upriver, camp leaders warned those downriver of the flood surge coming their way. It had always worked; little else was done.
Kerr County county officials contemplated installing a flood warning system in 2017, but it was rejected as too expensive. So when catastrophic floodwaters surged along the Guadalupe last weekend, there were no sirens or early flood monitors. And no phone tree.
The National Weather Service Office that serves Kerr County was short six employees, including the meteorologist responsible for issuing warnings and coordinating with local emergency management. Investigations are “under way.”
There were late-night text alerts, that’s about all. However, some areas have limited cell service, especially along the River, and some residents may have been asleep when they were issued. Some were received, others not, and some apparently ignored. Also, despite the warnings, some officials did not issue evacuation orders, and there are questions about why.
At a budget meeting in May, county commissioners were looking at a flood warning system being developed by a regional agency. However, a County official said in a recent interview that local residents had been resistant to new spending.“Taxpayers wouldn’t pay for it,” he said.
Well perhaps those local residents might reconsider now. But in the meantime, the county officials deny responsibility for the disaster and lean towards a brazenly depraved excuse for doing so little to avert the weekend’s human tragedy.
They blame the victims.
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