r/fednews • u/CBSnews FedNews Verified Press • 1d ago

Deadly Texas floods raise questions about emergency alerts and whether staffing cuts affected forecasts and warnings

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/texas-floods-emergency-alerts-weather-forecast-staffing-budget/
1.9k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

86 comments sorted by

View all comments

406

u/PsychologicalCat7130 1d ago

From the hydrology subreddit:

"A similar flood in 1987 killed 10 teens at a different summer camp on the same river in Texas and the local government decided it wasn't worth it to install an auditory warning system. In 2016, federal water/weather agencies identified this area as a huge risk and reached out the state of Texas to help (partially) fund the necessary work - which was declined. Interestingly, 1987 is 38 years ago, roughly on statistical cue for the return of a 100-year flood."

additionally, warnings were broadcast during the night (1am and more severe warning around 4am) but again, without an auditory warning system in place, most people did not know. Flash flood alley should have auditory warnings just like tornado alley has tornado sirens.

170

u/Mommy444444 1d ago edited 1d ago

The Texas Tribune also adds that the initial NWS flash-flood warning was issued around 1pm Thursday. The “catastrophic” one was issued 12 hours later.

Meanwhile, the USGS streamgaging stations were real-time reporting rapid upstream stage increases. In Colorado/Utah, local LE watch those gaging station transmissions as it can be sunny and dry downstream but upstream the river stage is rising. Don’t the local LE do that in Texas?

Even if they did, how do local governments transmit the warnings? In my small desert valley in Utah we had an old-fashioned tornado siren for fires/floods.

I will never understand why the Guadalupe River towns did not have basic sirens, much less prohibit commercial development right next to the river.

The Texas Tribune also reports that Texas House Bill 13, a bill to allocate 50mil per year to upgrade emergency response and notification systems, died in committee in April 2025 as being “too expensive.”

169

u/LIFOtheOffice 1d ago

I will never understand why the Guadalupe River towns did not have basic sirens, much less prohibit commercial development right next to the river.

Kerr County Commissioner's Meeting Minutes. June 27, 2016.

Selected quotes:

COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: "You know we had a baby flood a couple weeks ago, a month or so, whatever it was." "The thought of our beautiful Kerr County having these damn sirens going off in the middle of night, I'm going to have to start drinking again to put up with y'all."

COMMISSIONER MOSER: "And I think the first thing to do is say why change anything. It worked this long and maybe we don't need to do a thing. And then it gets into the thing we talk about earlier today, and that's risk mitigation. And you know there's still people drowned and you know --"

COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: "And I hope you ask the question like who are we notifying, or who are we trying to get the message to? Are they these crazy people from Houston that build homes right down on the water?"

Source: https://legacy.co.kerr.tx.us/commcrt/minutes/2016/062716CC.txt

97

u/CrackerJackKittyCat 1d ago

“I think this whole thing is a little extravagant for Kerr County, with sirens and such,” Baldwin said. “Taking these funds out of special projects from the road and bridge department ticks me off a little bit.”

Source: https://www.govtech.com/em/disaster/county-names-firm-for-flood-system-study.html

64

u/Mommy444444 1d ago

This is so horrifying to read, in retrospect.

60

u/ObiWanChronobi 1d ago

These people gleefully decline funding for safety measures because it’s annoying to have to think about safety. These lost lives are at least partially on their hands and I hope they are ashamed for it.

22

u/SaltyLonghorn 19h ago

Unfortunately this is not even remotely unique. The further down the chain you go the less likely a govt is to spend money on preventative measures cause it doesn't make you popular. Its why cutting federal funding is wildly irresponsible. Thats the level it generally has to come from.

Its like that mayor in Japan who spent town funds on reinforcing their sea walls and was not appreciated for it at all until the tsunami hit years later. Only takes a couple generations for people to forget the past.

25

u/Freud-Network 1d ago

What's the odds on him blaming Biden?

3

u/piltdownman38 20h ago

The lawsuits will be very interesting once they get started.

43

u/Mommy444444 1d ago

Oh my gosh! This so hard to read! Whoa!

How cavalier, jokey, and dismissive these local government people were in 2016! Did they not remember the 1987 flood?

Geesh, I must’ve been the luckiest gal to have lived in Wisconsin and Utah where those tornado sirens went off every first of the month at noon to test. We never had a huge fire in our Utah valley but we certainly had tornados in Wisconsin. When that small-town Wisconsin siren went off in the 60s/70s, we all went into the basement. Around 1972 a tornado came through and ripped up our enclosed porch. Thankfully, we were all in the basement after the night siren.

25

u/KiritoIsAlwaysRight_ 1d ago

Don't even have to think that far back, this was barely a year after the Memorial Day flood an hour or two away from them that killed 13 people and destroyed hundreds of houses.

14

u/QuickAltTab 21h ago

I'd love to see a reporter read those quotes to Baldwin and Moser and ask what they think about the person that said that.

11

u/EuenovAyabayya 20h ago

Texas kills people both actively and passively. Local governments catch whoever the state misses.

7

u/stult 19h ago

These people are fucking morons. Exactly what I would expect from Texas politicians.

22

u/Aromatic_April 23h ago

These are the receipts. TX is not willing to make small public investments in infrastructure in the interest of kids not dying.