DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Palus Politicus Texas floods and Trump spending cuts...

There's plenty of evidence out there that this is a mostly true statement.

Yep as I would have been growing up in Ohio if I build a house right up against the river when I know it floods.

Sure... as usual I blame the far right and far left for being to stupid and stubborn to come together on compromised on problems instead of acting like 3 year olds threatening to take their ball and go home if others don't do what they want. As for the Parents I would never send my kid to a champ in "Flash Flood Alley"

Flash Flood Alley: Why central Texas has a history of devastating floods
Elyse Smith Image
ByElyse Smith KTRK logo
Tuesday, July 8, 2025 6:31PM

Why central Texas region has earned the nickname 'Flash Flood Alley'

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Watch Eyewitness News and ABC13 originals around the clock

The recent flood of July 4, 2025, is not the first time central Texas has been devastated by a flash flood. This region has earned the nickname "Flash Flood Alley" and is where the phrase "turn around, don't drown" was coined. This is because of the speed and force at which flash flooding occurs there. The increase in life-threatening flash flooding is based on a few key factors: the topography, soil, and changes in how much rain can fall during thunderstorms.

When rain falls across the hills and valleys of central Texas, it then rushes to lower elevations. This is what leads to the speed at which flash flooding can occur and how fast the resulting floodwaters move. As for the ground the rain falls on, beneath the top layer of soil is hard limestone. Think of that like a natural cement, which leads to runoff because it can't absorb the rainwater. And in terms of heavy rain events, those are not only increasing in number but also in intensity.

SEE ALSO: ABC13 meteorologist looks into timeline of weather alerts issued in central Texas flooding

ABC13's partners at Climate Central found that the average amount of rainfall produced by showers and storms near San Antonio has increased by 6% since 1970. And with it also being an extremely flood-prone area, any change in this statistic will lead to an increased risk of flash flooding.

Even so, floods like these in central Texas date back decades. ABC13 Meteorologist Elyse Smith went back and analyzed three previous, deadly floods that impacted this region. Two floods were the result of tropical systems. But the July 1987 Guadalupe Flood has eerie similarities to what just happened last week, including slow-moving storms that dumped heavy rain across the Hill Country. It triggered a massive surge down the Guadalupe River. Also, 10 campers at the Pot O' Gold Christian Camp near Comfort, Texas, were killed in the rushing floodwaters of the 1987 flood.
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READ MORE: Deadly floods at Camp Mystic: How the tragedy compares to a similar event in 1987

Less than 10 years before that flood in 1987, there was flooding from Tropical Storm Amelia, which made landfall near Corpus Christi on July 31, 1978. ABC13 was there in central Texas to capture the aftermath of the storm and subsequent flooding. Once again, the Guadalupe River swelled after a record four feet of rain fell near Medina, Texas. Then, there's a flood that dates all the way back to the 1920s. Remnants of a hurricane in September of 1921 led to extensive flooding near both San Antonio and Austin, a flash flood that killed over 200 people. So as a rule of thumb, central Texas is susceptible to a major flood about once a decade.

Flooding is the second-deadliest weather event behind heat. Climate Central studied the cost of flooding across the country and how much is at stake to lose. Climate Central estimates the average cost of flood disasters across the nation comes to $32 billion a year. For Texas, flooding costs the state $1.5 billion a year, and that number could reach over $2 billion by the year 2050.

Once again, can you please explain to me how what happened in Kerr County Texas has anything to do with the left? They are a republican stronghold. They have Republican politicians running the county. They applied for a grant to install weather warning sirens to help prevent the loss of life to a Republican state government which wasn't approved. The very same thing could be said for the majority of Florida but they seem to have a very good warning service in place to cut down on deaths.

I get that this same situation of people living in places where severe weather events are common exists in both Republican and and Democrat run states but what's the alternative? Tell Americans they can't live close to the water or in severe weather prone states? I certainly don't believe that's what you're advocating here are you?

I think the best we can do is make sure our warning systems and weather service is best equipped to warn people to keep the casualty count as low as possible. That's not what happened here and the left had nothing to do with that.

Everything is always too expensive and not needed until it hits in their backyard-


Texas state leaders didn't prioritize flood management

Nicole Cobler


An aerial shot of the Guadalupe River.
Texas didn't complete a comprehensive statewide assessment of flood risks and solutions until last year. Photo: Brandon Bell/Getty Images

As Texas state leaders have prioritized spending on border security and property tax cuts, they have been far more reluctant to fund flood management efforts.

Why it matters: Texas leads the nation by a wide margin in flood deaths.

More than 1,000 people died in Texas floods from 1959 to 2019, according to an academic analysis, most having occurred in the Hill Country.
Local officials in areas like Kerr County have struggled to secure funding for basic warning systems and have instead relied on National Weather Service text alerts and word-of-mouth to alert residents of flooding, rather than costly outdoor siren systems.
Driving the news: Weekend floods in Texas claimed nearly 90 lives, with dozens of people still missing.

The big picture: Despite Texas' vulnerability, the state didn't complete a comprehensive statewide assessment of flood risk and solutions until last year.

"P​​lanning, in the long term, is going to save lives; it's going to protect people; it's going to reduce misery ... not just in monetary costs but also in human suffering," Reem Zoun, the director of flood planning for the Texas Water Development Board, told members of the board last August.
"What we do will not eliminate flooding. If we have large storms, we're still going to flood — but if we work properly and proactively, and have appropriate floodplain management practices, we will see less impact."
By the numbers: Though the Texas Water Development Board has identified more than $54 billion in needed flood-control projects, lawmakers have only allocated roughly $669 million so far, the New York Times reported Monday.

This year, the Legislature approved $2.5 billion for the Texas Water Fund — used to finance water projects in Texas, including conservation, desalination, and flood mitigation — with the possibility of $1 billion per year over 20 years using sales tax revenue, pending voter approval in November.
Lawmakers also passed Senate Bill 1967, expanding projects that can be awarded from the Texas Flood Infrastructure Fund.
One key proposal, House Bill 13, would have created a state council to establish a unified disaster response and alert system, but it stalled in the Senate after some Republican lawmakers questioned its cost.

The bill would have required the council to consider the use of outdoor warning sirens and implement an emergency alert system.

"I can tell you in hindsight, watching what it takes to deal with a disaster like this, my vote would probably be different now," state Rep. Wes Virdell, a Republican who represents Kerr County, told the Texas Tribune.
Zoom in: In the Hill Country, technological and infrastructure barriers have slowed adoption of modern flood alerts.

Kerrville officials explored installing a warning system in 2017 but rejected the idea over its price tag. The county later missed out on a $1 million grant and, as recently as 2023, was still weighing other funding options, according to KXAN.
Outdoor emergency sirens may have given people more time to escape, former Kerr County commissioner Tom Moser told the New York Times, but a single siren can cost as high as $50,000.
What's next: Gov. Greg Abbott suggested Sunday that he'll include the notification issue on the upcoming special session agenda, and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said on Fox News Monday that the state should pay for sirens on the Guadalupe River by next summer.

State Sen. Paul Bettencourt (R-Houston) said on X Monday he will file a measure "to bring back civil defense sirens" in flash-flood prone areas.

https://www.axios.com/local/austin/2025/07/07/texas-flood-kerr-county-warning-system

just following the playbook


Trump appointees have ties to companies that stand to benefit from privatizing weather forecasts
BRIAN SLODYSKO and MICHAEL BIESECKER
Wed, July 9, 2025 at 7:38 AM EDT
7 min read



President Donald Trump, left, listens as Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick speaks with reporters before boarding Air Force One at Morristown Municipal Airport in Morristown, N.J., Sunday, July 6, 2025, en route to Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
More
WASHINGTON (AP) — As commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick oversees the U.S. government’s vast efforts to monitor and predict the weather.

The billionaire also ran a financial firm, which he recently left in the control of his adult sons, that stands to benefit if President Donald Trump's administration follows through on a decade-long Republican effort to privatize government weather forecasting.

Deadly weekend flooding in central Texas has drawn a spotlight to budget cuts and staff reductions at the National Weather Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, two agencies housed within the Commerce Department that provide the public with free climate and weather data that can be crucial during natural disasters.


What’s drawn less attention is how the downsizing appears to be part of an effort to privatize the work of such agencies. In several instances, the companies poised to step into the void have deep ties to people tapped by Trump to run weather-related agencies.

Privatization would diminish a central role the federal government has played in weather forecasting since the 1800s, which experts say poses a particular harm for those facing financial strain who may not be able to afford commercial weather data.

The effort also reveals the difficulty that uber wealthy members of Trump's Cabinet have in freeing themselves from conflicts, even if they have met the letter of federal ethics law.

“It’s the most insidious aspect of this: Are we really talking about making weather products available only to those who can afford it?” said Rick Spinrad, who served as NOAA administrator under President Joe Biden, a Democrat. “Basically turning the weather service into a subscription streaming service? As a taxpayer, I don’t want to be in the position of saying, ‘I get a better weather forecast because I’m willing to pay for it.’”


The White House referred requests for comment to the Commerce Department, which said in a statement that Lutnick has "fully complied with the terms of his ethics agreement with respect to divesture and recusals and will continue to do so.”

Trump nominees have ties to weather-related industries

Privatizing weather agencies has long been an aim of Republicans. During Trump's first presidency, he signed a bill that utilized more private weather data. And Project 2025, a proposed blueprint for Trump's second presidency that was co-authored by his budget director, calls for the NOAA to be broken up and for the weather service to “fully commercialize its forecasting operations.”

Lutnick is not the only one Trump nominated for a key post with close relationships to companies involved in the gathering of vital weather data.



Trump’s pick to lead the NOAA, Neil Jacobs, was chief atmospheric scientist for Panasonic Weather Solutions and has been a vocal proponent of privatization. The president’s nominee for another top NOAA post, Taylor Jordan, is a lobbyist with a roster of weather-related clients.



“If confirmed, Dr. Jacobs and Mr. Jordan will follow the law and rely on the advice of the Department’s ethics counsel in addressing matters involving former clients,” the Commerce Department said in its statement.

Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, who spent more than $250 million to help elect Trump, owns a controlling interest in SpaceX and its satellite subsidiary Starlink. Both are regulated by the NOAA’s Office of Space Commerce, which lost about one-third of its staff in February layoffs facilitated by the Department of Government Efficiency, which Musk helped create.

SpaceX also stands to gain through a new generation of private and federally funded weather satellites that would be carried into orbit on its rockets.

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Though Musk has now departed Washington and had a very public falling out with Trump, the DOGE staffers he hired and the cuts he pushed for have largely remained in place.

Emails seeking comment sent to a lawyer who has represented Musk, as well as to media contacts at his companies X and SpaceX, received no response.

While Musk is focusing on his companies, others with potential conflicts remain immersed in government work.


His two 20-something sons were given the reins of his financial empire. Brandon Lutnick was named chairman of Cantor, while Kyle Lutnick was tapped to be executive vice chairman. But his most recent ethics filing from June 19 stated that he was still selling his holdings in the firm.

An ethics plan submitted in February states Lutnick would request a waiver allowing him to participate in matters that would have a “direct and predictable effect” on his family’s business while he was still divesting. Securities and Exchange Commission filings, meanwhile, show Lutnick has agreements to transfer his shares in the Cantor companies and a family trust to his son Brandon.

The Department of Commerce referred questions about Lutnick's ties to Satellogic, a satellite company that offers natural disaster imagery, to his former firm.

Cantor spokesperson Erica Chase said that since Lutnick’s resignation from the company, he has not made any decisions with respect to the company’s investments or customer positions, or other operational matters.


“Cantor and its subsidiaries operate in heavily regulated industries, and maintain robust compliance programs to ensure compliance with all applicable laws,” Chase said.

Federal officials are barred from making decisions that benefit the business holdings of themselves or their spouses, but that prohibition does not extend to assets held by their adult children, according to Richard Painter, who served as the chief White House ethics lawyer during Republican George W. Bush's administration.

Among its legion of disparate businesses, Cantor has interests in weather and climate. It owns a controlling interest in BGC Group, which operates a weather derivatives marketplace that essentially allows investors to bet on climate risk and where hurricanes will make landfall.

Lutnick also played a pivotal role in cultivating Satellogic. He helped raise the capital to take the company public and held a seat on its board until Trump nominated him. Cantor holds a roughly 13% stake in Satellogic, according to a March SEC filing.


The company now bills itself as an emerging federal contractor that can offer crisp images of natural disasters and weather events in real time, which in 2021 Lutnick said makes it “uniquely positioned to dominate the Earth Observation industry.”

While Lutnick was still in charge of Cantor, it paid a $6.75 million fine to the SEC after it was accused of making misleading statements to investors about Satellogic and another company. The White House’s 2026 spending plan, developed by Trump’s budget director and primary Project 2025 architect Russell Vought, proposes $8 billion in cuts for future NOAA satellites, which capture imagery of the planet provided to the public.

Satellogic stands to benefit if the government retreats from operating climate-monitoring satellites.

2 Trump nominees have ties to weather companies


Jacobs, Trump’s pick to lead the NOAA, led the same agency on an acting basis during Trump’s first term.

He is scheduled to appear Wednesday before a Senate committee weighing his nomination. Jacobs has long advocated for a greater role for the private sector in government weather forecasting. During a 2023 hearing focused on the future of the NOAA, he argued that the agency needed to be “relying more heavily on the commercial sector.”

He also has expressed concerns about what happens to commercial data purchased by the government. “They give it away to the rest of the planet for free,” he testified before Congress in 2023.

He was a consultant at the time for Spire Global and Lynker, both of which have millions of dollars in weather data contracts with the NOAA, according to records including his most recent financial disclosure.

Jordan, Trump’s pick for another top NOAA post, has similarly close relationships. His financial disclosure lists more than a dozen weather-related lobbying clients, including Spire and Lynker. He also represented AccuWeather, a commercial forecast provider, before Congress and in meetings with the Commerce Department on “issues related to private sector weather forecast improvement,” according to lobbying disclosures.

Though his nomination is pending before the Republican-controlled Senate, disclosure reports show he still represents weather and space companies and is still listed as a principal employee at a Washington lobbying firm.

Unreal- the TRUMP effort to downsize the US Gov. Weather Service is an effort to hand off the Weather
Service to Republican supporters who helped Trump get elected.

All of the drowning dealths were simply a Trump/Republican payback to rich donors who helped elect Trump..nothing but campaign give backs..

I hope the named greedy sleep well tonight...

They always do mac. They always do. Their minds tend to function just a little differently than the rest of us. Most of us count sheep when we have trouble sleeping while they simply count their money.

Just imagine, we even have one of our very own posters who states that he thinks spending just to keep children from starving is a waste of money but refuses to say a peep about giving oil companies more in taxpayer subsidies. Who could have imagined?

Ladies and Gentlemen.... WE have a celebrated Climatologist in our group.World renowned for his insight and wisdom. He knows all, sees all and is without a doubt the preeminent authority on Climate. He says, there is no climate change and everyone else in the world is wrong.

"Trump says NWS staffing levels didn't affect Texas storm preparedness"

Trump also said they are eating the cats and eating the dogs in Springfield Ohio...

He also tried to blame Biden... Then said he wouldn't blame Biden... All in the same sentence. He'll blame Biden if it meets a goal of his. If he thinks it will help him, you can bet Biden will be blamed.

So I wonder about those laws about building structures in flood plains?

It is as much of a building code issue as it is an Emergency Response Notification issue.

Washington
CNN
—
As monstrous floodwaters surged across central Texas late last week, officials at the Federal Emergency Management Agency leapt into action, preparing to deploy critical search and rescue teams and life-saving resources, like they have in countless past disasters.

But almost instantly, FEMA ran into bureaucratic obstacles, four officials inside the agency told CNN.

As CNN has previously reported, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem — whose department oversees FEMA — recently enacted a sweeping rule aimed at cutting spending: Every contract and grant over $100,000 now requires her personal sign-off before any funds can be released.

For FEMA, where disaster response costs routinely soar into the billions as the agency contracts with on-the-ground crews, officials say that threshold is essentially “pennies,” requiring sign-off for relatively small expenditures.

In essence, they say the order has stripped the agency of much of its autonomy at the very moment its help is needed most.

“We were operating under a clear set of guidance: lean forward, be prepared, anticipate what the state needs, and be ready to deliver it,” a longtime FEMA official told CNN. “That is not as clear of an intent for us at the moment.”

For example, as central Texas towns were submerged in rising waters, FEMA officials realized they couldn’t pre-position Urban Search and Rescue crews from a network of teams stationed regionally across the country.



In the past, FEMA would have swiftly staged these teams, which are specifically trained for situations including catastrophic floods, closer to a disaster zone in anticipation of urgent requests, multiple agency sources told CNN.

But even as Texas rescue crews raced to save lives, FEMA officials realized they needed Noem’s approval before sending those additional assets. Noem didn’t authorize FEMA’s deployment of Urban Search and Rescue teams until Monday, more than 72 hours after the flooding began, multiple sources told CNN.

Homeland Security officials have defended the federal response in Texas and President Donald Trump’s plan to dismantle FEMA and shift more responsibility for disaster response to states.

Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for DHS, told CNN: “FEMA is shifting from bloated, DC-centric dead weight to a lean, deployable disaster force that empowers state actors to provide relief for their citizens. The old processes are being replaced because they failed Americans in real emergencies for decades.”

One Texas state official told CNN that the Texas emergency management division has been interacting with FEMA “in the way we always do for disasters like this.” The official added that Texas has “quite a bit of capabilities” related to disaster management on its own.

Other aspects of the federal government have assisted, including the US Coast Guard and Customs and Border Protection.

But the additional red tape required at FEMA added another hurdle to getting critical federal resources deployed when hours counted.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks during a news conference where she announced that most airline passengers will no longer have to remove their shoes at security checkpoints on Tuesday, July 8, 2025, at Reagan National Airport in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks during a news conference where she announced that most airline passengers will no longer have to remove their shoes at security checkpoints on Tuesday, July 8, 2025, at Reagan National Airport in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein) Mark Schiefelbein/AP
Texas did request aerial imagery from FEMA to aid search and rescue operations, a source told CNN, but that was delayed as it awaited Noem’s approval for the necessary contract.

FEMA staff have also been answering phones at a disaster call center, where, according to one agency official, callers have faced longer wait times as the agency awaited Noem’s approval for a contract to bring in additional support staff.

The chaos has exposed a deeper uncertainty within FEMA about its ability to respond, its mission, and its authority under the Trump administration — just as hurricane and wildfire seasons have gotten underway. Officials within FEMA warn that if the disaster had spanned a larger area and multiple states, the confusion and delays could have been even more severe.

For months, FEMA officials have been warning that the agency is unprepared amid a mass exodus of experienced emergency managers and the looming threat of the agency being dismantled.



CNN has reached out to FEMA for comment.

Rest of article at link

https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/09/politics/fema-texas-flood-noem

Rain is the only thing that had anything to do with the flooding. The deaths, maybe something could have helped.

The NWS did what they could. Doge didn't hurt that.

Locals some years back could have voted for a siren type system but voted if down.

In insurance terms, not religious terms, It was an act of God. Like it or not, and these are just general comments and not so much directed at you, we can't protect everybody from everything. This flooding was historic in nature, ever for a flash flood prone area.

I don't know if sirens would work. Maybe. My thinking is the camps in that area need to hire off duty county sheriff deputies for nighttime security and to alert people of the warning as they come over the radio.

Sure right after you explain why nobody here has complained one time that it was both stupid and reckless to send your children to a camp that is known for flash floods and killing people. What's next Should we blame drivers if people send their kids out to play on the freeway and they get hit? Are you really going to say you would have sent your own kids or grandkids to THAT camp?


So which side is to blame for all the floods in "Flash Flood Ally"

I want to preface that I'm not so much trying to argue what you said, but moreso trying to make a point.


These two sentences can be quantitatively verified (especially the second part). That would require quite a bit of analysis into the timeline of the rains/flooding, NWS's responsibility and capabilities before and after the cuts, and a fact-based projection on how the funding cuts eroded NWS's capabilities that were relevant to their responsibilities in this situation.

The ironic part is that the analysis that I laid out above would be FAR more than the thought/planning that went into the NWS cuts via DOGE. The DOGE criticism here is reasonable/valid until proven otherwise.

I hope you made the same post about the fires in LA and the Dems controlling everything there.

You made the assertion that both the right and left were to blame for what happened here. Yet when asked to explain that you try to answer that question with another question. And in case you missed it, nobody is to blame for the flooding. But you ignored the part where I said someone is to blame for not having a warning system in place that could ave saved many lives.

All you seem to have in response is "Well if they hadn't sent their kids there in the first place."

Lots of people live in that same area. They have homes and families. And if you had bothered to check there are camps and RV parks dotted all along that same river.

So who was responsible for setting up a warning system to help save lives? Let me give you a clue here. It wasn't the left. You have made an accusation here that is false and you can't back up. But I will say you still have the ability to dance around that well.

There is no "maybe" here.


While I don't think all of the facts are yet known that appears to be the case at this point.


Have you been following this story at all? The "local" government didn't have the funds to pay for it. It was the counsel who made that decision, not the voters. They applied for a grant from the state to pay for it but were turned down.


What warnings on the radio? Even the mayor didn't get the text alert to tell him this was coming. "You can't protect everybody from everything" in this case is nothing more than a cheap excuse for doing very little to protect people. What happened to the accountability you used to claim was important to you?

Federal Ownership: 57%
The federal government, primarily through the U.S. Forest Service, controls roughly 19 million acres of California's 33 million acres of forestland.
State Ownership: 3%
The state government manages about 1 million acres, or 3% of the total forestland.
Private Ownership:
The remaining 40% is owned by private entities, including individuals, timber companies, and Native American tribes

Kerr County officials waited 90 minutes to send emergency alert after requested, dispatch audio shows
Kerr County's CodeRED emergency system was first introduced in 2014.

ByMaia Rosenfeld , Jared Kofsky, and Laura Romero
July 10, 2025, 5:26 AM





3:57
New questions about emergency response in Texas after floodingNewly released audio from the moments the deadly flash flooding in Texas Hill Country suggests critical real-time delays in warning the most vulnerable communities.
At 4:22 a.m. on Friday, as Texas' Hill Country began to flood, a firefighter in Ingram – just upstream from Kerrville – asked the Kerr County Sheriff's Office to alert nearby residents, according to audio obtained by ABC affiliate KSAT. But Kerr County officials took nearly six hours to heed this call.

"The Guadalupe Schumacher sign is underwater on State Highway 39," the firefighter said in the dispatch audio. "Is there any way we can send a CodeRED out to our Hunt residents, asking them to find higher ground or stay home?"

"Stand by, we have to get that approved with our supervisor," a Kerr County Sheriff's Office dispatcher replied.


A bus is seen on its side near a damaged building along the Guadalupe River after a flash flood swept through the area, July 5, 2025, in Hunt, Texas.
Julio Cortez/AP
The first alert didn't come through Kerr County's CodeRED system until 90 minutes later. Some messages didn't arrive until after 10 a.m. By then, hundreds of people had been swept away by the floodwaters.

MORE: Texas flooding live updates: 95 dead in Kerr County, at least 120 dead in the state
Kerr County Sheriff's Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

At a Wednesday morning press conference, Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha declined to answer a question about delayed emergency alerts, saying that an "after-action" would follow the search and rescue efforts.

"Those questions are gonna be answered," he added.

Records show Kerr County's CodeRED Emergency Notification System, which alerts subscribers to emergencies through pre-recorded phone messages, has been in place for at least a decade.


People view damage along the Guadalupe River in Kerrville, Texas, July 5, 2025.
Dustin Safranek/EPA via Shutterstock
When CodeRED was first introduced by Kerr County and the City of Kerrville in 2014, a government press release claimed it could "notify the entire City / County about emergency situations in a matter of minutes."

CodeRED relied on the local white pages for users' contact information, the announcement explained, so "no one should assume his or her number is included." Residents had to sign up to ensure they would receive alerts.


In 2021, Kerr County incorporated FEMA's Integrated Public Alert & Warning System (IPAWS) into CodeRED, so that messages could reach tourists and others not in the local database. The IPAWS system allows local officials to broadcast emergency messages and send text blasts to all phones in the area.

At the time, some county officials weren't sure about the change.


"What's the benefit?" Kerr County Commissioner Jonathan Letz asked at a May 2021 commissioners' meeting.

MORE: Texas flooding victims: From young campers to a dad saving his family, what we know about the lives lost
"It's just another avenue for us to notify people when we have an emergency," replied Emergency Management Coordinator William "Dub" Thomas.

Then-Commissioner Harley David Belew voted against adding IPAWS to the CodeRED system after noting that it would require switching out the county's equipment, which he said he'd done recently because of a federal policy change a few years earlier.


"I don't think it's going to change anything," Belew said.

Despite these doubts, Kerr County began using IPAWS alongside its CodeRED system in 2021.

When the area flooded on Friday, Ingram City Council Member Ray Howard told ABC News he got three flash flood alerts from the National Weather Service, but none from Kerr County authorities.

On Monday, Belew went on The Michael Berry Show to discuss the catastrophic flooding. On the show, he said Kerr County Commissioners had considered putting in an early warning system years earlier, but that there weren't enough cell towers to reach rural parts of the county, "so that idea was scrapped."

Records show that the topic of a flood warning system for Kerr County came up in at least 20 different county commissioners' meetings since it was first introduced in 2016 – months before Belew joined the Court.


Belew explained on the radio show that funding for a warning system was also a barrier to implementation, echoing issues he raised at the time, according to meeting minutes.

But even after last week's tragic flooding, Belew expressed concern over spending on such a system: "God only knows what's going to happen, what kind of government waste we might get going into an alert system," he said on Monday's segment.

"But if we can get any early alert system for the future, that'd give people some peace of mind here," Belew added. "It's always been needed."


https://abcnews.go.com/US/kerr-county-officials-waited-90-minutes-send-emergency/story?id=123631023

Yet you didn't answer my question.

Why would they delay help? We are talking about Christian Children for the most part. So why delay?

I don't have an answer and maybe they don't either...
I saw an interview yesterday with the guy that helped develop the CodeRed system about 10 years ago and he said that he did not get an alert when the event happened. He did not get an alert for 6 hours. And yes, he still lives in the county.

also heard on the way home from work yesterday that some of the local authorities are no longer showing up at pressers and others are not addressing questions about responsibility.

Perfect example as to why you can't push this back to the state and local authorities.. not that Noem waiting for 3 days to position assets helped much either

and who was to blame in 1987, or 1978 or 1921???

Look right now the far right is in control in Texas and is to blame IMO for no early warning. The parents also should have never sent their children to a Camp located in "Flash flood ally"

Camp Mystic opened in 1926. People have been sending their children there for 99 years now. Can you show me where at any time in the past the flooding rose to the level that Camp Mystic was flooded to the point it was catastrophic and it resulted in children dying? All I managed to find was that there was some flooding of some cabins in 1987 but nothing to indicate anyone was washed away or flood waters killed anyone.

So why is it you think parents would be so concerned sending their children to a camp where no child has died in 99 years? It seems to me you're trying to lay the blame on the wrong people here.

Every Texan in that meeting should be discussed with the moron in chief and his wife wearing hats in doors. So disrespectful on every level.

The lives lost are 100% on Trump and his pet gnome.

Psst The Dems were in charge in 1921, 1978, and 1987 so by your standards they are to blame for all the floods before this one.

Here is the first sentence from your own source right below the headline.............


And here is what happened there in 1987 according to your own source.......


Once again, your own source shows that no deaths or major injuries ever happened at Camp Mystic over its 98 year history due to flooding. Nobody died while "the dems were in charge". And it wasn't "then dems" who refused to approve funding for a warning system either. So just stop it. No matter how you try to spin it, this community couldn't afford a warning system. They requested help paying for a warning system that the Republican legislature of the state refused to fund. Now 120+ people are dead and 160+ are missing. NOTHING like this had happened in the 98 years this camp had been open. Those are the facts.

These are the facts yet you hold "the dems", who had nothing to with refusing to fund a system that in all likelihood would have saved many lives but also the parents when there's nearly a 100 record of no children being harmed at the camp due to any flooding.


Not broke records but "shattered them". I suppose parents should have known that a historical flood that shattered all previous records was going to happen. After all it was a Christian camp, am I right?

Not a single thing in your article disputes anything in my post. Not one.

FEMA didn't answer thousands of calls from flood survivors, documents show
11 hours, 26 minutes ago

Two days after catastrophic floods roared through Central Texas, the Federal Emergency Management Agency did not answer nearly two-thirds of calls to its disaster assistance line, according to documents reviewed by The New York Times.

The lack of responsiveness happened because the agency had fired hundreds of contractors at call centers, according to a person briefed on the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss internal matters.

The agency laid off the contractors on July 5 after their contracts expired and were not extended, according to the documents and the person briefed on the matter. Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, who has instituted a new requirement that she personally approve expenses over $100,000, did not renew the contracts until Thursday, five days after the contracts expired. FEMA is part of the Department of Homeland Security.

The details on the unanswered calls on July 6, which have not been previously reported, come as FEMA faces intense scrutiny over its response to the floods in Texas that have killed more than 120 people. The agency, which President Donald Trump has called for eliminating, has been slow to activate certain teams that coordinate response and search-and-rescue efforts.


Asked for comment, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security who declined to be identified wrote in an email, "When a natural disaster strikes, phone calls surge, and wait times can subsequently increase. Despite this expected influx, FEMA's disaster call center responded to every caller swiftly and efficiently, ensuring no one was left without assistance."

After floods, hurricanes and other disasters, survivors can call FEMA to apply for different types of financial assistance. People who have lost their homes, for instance, can apply for a one-time payment of $750 that can help cover their immediate needs, such as food or other supplies.

On July 5, as floodwaters were starting to recede, FEMA received 3,027 calls from disaster survivors and answered 3,018, or roughly 99.7%, the documents show. Contractors with four call center companies answered the vast majority of the calls.

That evening, however, Noem did not renew the contracts with the four companies and hundreds of contractors were fired, according to the documents and the person briefed on the matter.


The next day, July 6, FEMA received 2,363 calls and answered 846, or roughly 35.8%, according to the documents. And on Monday, July 7, the agency fielded 16,419 calls and answered 2,613, or around 15.9%, the documents show.

Some FEMA officials grew frustrated by the lapse in contracts and that it was taking days for Noem to act, according to the person briefed on the matter and the documents. "We still do not have a decision, waiver or signature from the DHS Secretary," a FEMA official wrote in a July 8 email to colleagues.

Representatives for two of the companies with call center contracts, General Dynamics Information Technology and Maximus, redirected requests for comment to FEMA. Representatives for the other two firms, ITCON and TTEC, did not respond to requests for comment.

"Responding to less than half of the inquiries is pretty horrific," said Jeffrey Schlegelmilch, who directs the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University.


"Put yourself in the shoes of a survivor: You've lost everything, you're trying to find out what's insured and what's not, and you're navigating multiple aid programs," Schlegelmilch said. "One of the most important services in disaster recovery is being able to call someone and walk through these processes and paperwork."

Most people apply for FEMA aid by calling the disaster assistance line or visiting the agency's website, said Jeremy Edwards, a former FEMA spokesperson under the Biden administration who is now at the Century Foundation, a liberal research organization. The Trump administration last month ended FEMA's long-standing practice of going door-to-door in disaster-battered areas to help survivors apply for aid.

It was not immediately clear how FEMA's responsiveness to calls after the Texas floods compared to its performance after past disasters. FEMA does not publicly release that data on a regular basis.

The agency did publish similar data on Oct. 29, 2024, days after Hurricane Helene barreled across the South and nearly three weeks after Hurricane Milton hit Florida. That information showed that the agency did not answer nearly half of the 507,766 incoming calls over the course of a week, E&E News reported.


Democratic lawmakers raised concern on Friday that Noem's insistence on approving expenses over $100,000 had also delayed FEMA's deployment of search-and-rescue teams to Texas. In a letter to David Richardson, FEMA's acting administrator, the Democrats on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform wrote that Noem did not authorize the deployment of those teams until July 7, three days after the flooding began.

Richardson, who has no background in emergency management, has not made any public appearances since his appointment on May 8, breaking with a long tradition of FEMA leaders meeting with local officials in the wake of disasters. Trump and first lady Melania Trump traveled on Friday to Kerrville, Texas, a community along the Guadalupe River that has become a hub for search and recovery efforts.

While the president has talked of eliminating FEMA since he took office, White House officials have recently expressed a desire to overhaul the agency. Trump and others in his administration have indicated they want to shift more responsibility -- and cost -- to states.

"We also want FEMA to be reformed," Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget told reporters Friday. "We want FEMA to work well. And, you know, the president is going to continue to be asking tough questions from all of his agencies."

https://www.texarkanagazette.com/news/2025/jul/11/fema-didnt-answer-thousands-of-calls-from-flood/