From Fox Business: In the event of a disaster, a mobile phone may be the first to alert someone.
On July 3, ahead of the deadly flooding in Central Texas, the NWS offices in Austin and San Antonio conducted forecast briefings for emergency management in the morning and issued a Flood Watch in the early afternoon. Flash Flood Warnings were issued on the morning of July 4, giving preliminary lead times of more than three hours before warning criteria were met.
First, the National Water Center Flood Hazard Outlook issued on July 3 indicated an expansion of flash flood potential to include Kerrville, Texas, and surrounding areas. A Flood Watch was then issued by NWS Austin and San Antonio around 1:18 p.m. central time Thursday, in effect through Friday morning.
The Weather Prediction Center (WPC) also issued three Mesoscale Precipitation Discussions for the excessive rainfall event as early as 6:10 p.m. Thursday, indicating the potential for flash flooding.
The National Water Center Area Hydrologic Discussion (AHD) #144 messaged locally considerable flood wording for areas north and west of San Antonio, including the city of Kerrville, and the first Flash Flood Warning for the event was issued at 11:41 p.m. Thursday for Bandera County. The AHD is a tool to help the NWS quickly identify and communicate potential flash flood threats.
Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEAs) alert customers of telecommunications companies like Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T during critical situations like tornadoes, flash floods, or AMBER Alerts. FEMA messages provide the alert type, time, action instructions, and issuing agency. Natural disasters and extreme weather fall under Imminent Threat Alerts.
WEAs are free and location-based, without subscription or personal information required. Messages are received even in areas outside the phone’s registration.
“This was an exceptional service to come out first with the catastrophic flash flood warning and this shows the awareness of the meteorologists on shift at the NWS office,” said Brian LaMarre, who retired at the end of April as the meteorologist-in-charge of the NWS forecast office in Tampa, Florida. ″There is always the challenge of pinpointing extreme values, however, the fact the catastrophic warning was issued first showed the level of urgency.”
According to a report on CNN, Kerr County may not have issued timely alerts.The area has no emergency sirens , and officials there may not have issued evacuation orders in the morning hours of July 4.
“A review of typically off-the-record communications from a real-time messaging system operated by the National Weather Service showed that no emergency manager from Kerr County was sending messages or interacting with NWS staff on the platform, even as emergency officials from other counties were doing so,” the outlet claims.
CNN reports that Kerr County officials may have been monitoring communications from the NWS and acting on them, but there are lingering questions about officials in Kerr County debated whether more needed to be done to build a warning system along the banks of the Guadalupe River.
A series of summer camps along the river were often packed with children. For years, local officials kept them safe with a word-of-mouth system: When floodwaters started raging, upriver camp leaders warned those downriver of the water surge coming their way.
But was that enough? Officials considered supplementing the system with sirens and river gauges, along with other modern communications tools. “We can do all the water-level monitoring we want, but if we don’t get that information to the public in a timely way, then this whole thing is not worth it,” said Tom Moser, a Kerr County commissioner at the time.
In the end, little was done. When catastrophic floodwaters surged through Kerr County last week, there were no sirens or early flooding monitors. Instead, there were text alerts that came late for some residents and were dismissed or unseen by others.
their actions, “particularly in a crucial window between NWS’s first public warning alert at 1:14 a.m. and a more urgent flash flood warning sent several hours later.”
The report notes that while the county has tried to build a better flood warning system, budget concerns have stalled efforts.
The New York Times reports:
Eight years ago, in the aftermath of yet another river flood in the Texas Hill Country, officials in Kerr County debated whether more needed to be done to build a warning system along the banks of the Guadalupe River.
A series of summer camps along the river were often packed with children. For years, local officials kept them safe with a word-of-mouth system: When floodwaters started raging, upriver camp leaders warned those downriver of the water surge coming their way.
But was that enough? Officials considered supplementing the system with sirens and river gauges, along with other modern communications tools. “We can do all the water-level monitoring we want, but if we don’t get that information to the public in a timely way, then this whole thing is not worth it,” said Tom Moser, a Kerr County commissioner at the time.
As the river overwhelmed the victims of the floods last week, there was no early warning technology to help, and allegedly the text alerts that were issued either came too late, or they were dismissed or unseen by residents.
While some are pointing the finger at President Donald Trump and the federal monitoring and response systems, it appears that if there was a failure, it may have been on the local level.
Google AI
Leading up to July 4th, NWS issued a series of increasingly urgent warnings about heavy rainfall and potential flash flooding in Texas. Initially, a flood watch was issued, then, as situation intensified, flash flood warnings and eventually a Flash Flood Emergency.— Bob Lyons (@Bob_Lyons) July 6, 2025
You stop whining. Stop lying. NOAA did their job perfectly. They sent out a Flash Flood warning to everyone in Texas on their cell phones, and on tv. So people knew the FF were coming. If they had 50 X more employees they couldnt do any better.
— Martina Shantez (@colemarisa49) July 6, 2025
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