Years of inaction, minutes of terror: Over 100 dead in Texas flood. Was this preventable?

Crews work to clear particles from the Cade Loop bridge alongside the Guadalupe River on Saturday, July 5, 2025, in Ingram, Texas. (Pic credit score: AP)

As central Texas mourns the deaths of greater than 100 individuals killed in devastating flash floods over the fourth of July weekend, Kerr County is underneath a harsh highlight for its failure to behave, not simply throughout the storm, however in the years main as much as it.A CNN investigation has revealed that regardless of repeated warnings and acknowledged flood threat, Kerr County lacked even probably the most fundamental emergency alert infrastructure, together with flood warning sirens. When the Guadalupe River surged 30 ft in simply hours on July 4, no county-wide evacuations had been ordered, and inner National Weather Service (NWS) communications present no interplay from Kerr County officers with federal meteorologists, at the same time as neighbouring counties coordinated frantically in real-time.The consequence: a tragedy many specialists say was avoidable.A lethal silenceThe National Weather Service issued its first public flash flood alert at 1.14 am, warning of “life-threatening flash flooding of creeks and streams.” Several more and more pressing warnings adopted, together with one at 4.03 am urging individuals to “move to higher ground now.”But in elements of rural Kerr County, cellphone protection was spotty, and with out sirens, many individuals didn’t obtain the alerts, particularly at Camp Mystic, the place a minimum of 27 campers and employees had been killed.Behind the scenes, NWS employees had been speaking with native emergency officers throughout the area by way of a real-time inner messaging platform. Emergency managers from different counties had been engaged and asking questions. Kerr County, nevertheless, was silent.Decades of inactionThe tragedy highlights what many specialists name a systemic failure of native preparedness.In 2016, then-County Commissioner Tom Moser publicly warned that Kerr County was “probably the highest risk area in the state for flooding.” He referred to as its warning system “marginal at best.”Yet:

According to Moser, proposals to put in sirens usually received slowed down in politics and public resistance. “Some people didn’t like the concept of sirens going off and disturbing everybody,” he advised CNN.At a 2016 assembly, fellow commissioner H A “Buster” Baldwin even joked, “The thought of our beautiful Kerr County having these damn sirens going off in the middle of the night, I’m going to have to start drinking again to put up with y’all.”Baldwin died in 2022. The sirens had been by no means put in.The value of delayIn neighbouring Comfort, Texas, downstream from the Guadalupe, two flood sirens helped immediate well timed evacuations. No deaths have been reported there to date. The topography and timing had been completely different, specialists say, however sirens probably helped save lives.“There should have been a better system,” mentioned Philip Bedient, a flood modelling skilled from Rice University. “What happened in Kerr County was inexcusable.”Mark Rose, former river authority supervisor, added: “We’ll spend more on recovery than the several million it would’ve cost to put in a system of gauges.”The Upper Guadalupe River Authority has simply 5 gauges monitoring river circumstances in Kerr County—not almost sufficient, specialists say.A deafening lack of responseWhen CNN reached out to Kerr County Emergency Management Coordinator W B “Dub” Thomas, he replied: “I don’t have time for an interview, so I’m going to cancel this call.”Officials have since defended the dearth of evacuation orders, citing fears of placing individuals in danger whereas attempting to evacuate throughout a flash flood. “Evacuation is a delicate balance,” mentioned Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice, who warned towards crying wolf.But survivors and critics argue the county did not strike any steadiness in any respect.“You know, cell phones are good,” Moser mentioned. “Text messages are good. But there are places in the Hill Country where you can’t get a signal. That’s where sirens save lives.”