The first weather emergency alert sent by the National Weather Service with urgent language instructing people to « seek higher ground now » was sent at 4:03 a.m. local time.
As the death toll climbs in central Texas from catastrophic flooding over the holiday weekend, many are wondering if the tragic event could have been prevented and who is to blame.
President Trump has declared a major disaster for the state of Texas following flood waters that have claimed more than 80 lives so far. At least 27 campers and counselors from Camp Mystic, a summer camp for girls, were killed in the flooding.
The storm dumped up to 20 inches of rain on some areas, and Guadalupe River at Kerrville rose more than 20 feet in just an hour in the early morning of Friday, July 4. Many officials have begun to point fingers as to why the waters rose so quickly, with so little warning.
During a July 4 press conference, Nim Kidd, the chief of the Texas Division of Emergency Management, said the forecast his office received on Wednesday in advance of the storm predicted several inches of rain, but that « the amount of rain that fell at this specific location was never in any of those forecast. »
Kerrville city manager Dalton Rice reiterated that sentiment in the same press conference, saying the storms that hit the areas « dumped more rain than what was forecasted. »
But when the same officials were asked why emergency managers didn’t do more to alert the public and evacuate campers in the area, they didn’t have a clear response, stressing that they were focused on the missing victims.
According to Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly, a top local government official, the area does « not have a warning system », and authorities were shocked by the ferocity of the floods.
The area is prone to flooding, and transcripts of their meetings show Kerr County commissioners discussed whether to install an outdoor flood warning system several times in recent years, but hadn’t done so due to the cost. Timeline of forecasts and warnings
The afternoon before the disaster struck, the National Weather Service office in Austin/San Antonio issued a flood watch on July 3 at 1:18 p.m. CT that included Kerrville. The alert stated: « Rainfall amounts of 1 to 3 inches with isolated amounts of 5 to 7 inches are possible. »
But a convergence of thunderstorms and remnant moisture from Tropical Storm Barry sent the rainfall totals higher, and water levels in the Guadalupe River near Kerrville skyrocketed from 0.34 feet at 11:45 p.m. CT on July 3 — well below flood stage — to a raging 34.29 feet by 6:45 a.m. on July 4, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
A CBS News analysis of the emergency weather alerts in the state of Texas found there were 22 warnings from the National Weather Service for Kerr County and the Kerrville area, where the most catastrophic flooding occurred.
