Pure nasty EVIL from the Washington Post.
They should follow the President's sage advice (as paraphrased by MG) and screw themselves. How dare they reveal such information??
And damn those officious federal meteorologist know-alls. Fortunately, they'll soon all be out of a job! Trump knows how to deal with this kind of problem!
Kerr County did not use its most far-reaching alert system in deadly Texas floods
Local officials used the system more than two days after the recorded height of the floods.
July 11, 2025 at 5:20 p.m. EDTYesterday at 5:20 p.m. EDT
By Joyce Sohyun Lee, Brianna Sacks, Aaron C. Davis, Scott Dance, Andrew Ba Tran and Imogen Piper
The Texas county where nearly 100 people were killed and more than 160 remain missing had the technology to turn every cellphone in the river valley into a blaring alarm, but local officials did not do so before or during the early-morning hours of July 4 as river levels rose to record heights, inundating campsites and homes, a Washington Post examination found.
Kerr County officials, who have come under increasing scrutiny for their actions as the Guadalupe River began to flood, eventually sent text-message alerts that morning to residents who had registered to receive them, according to screenshots of the texts. But The Post’s review of emergency notifications that night found that even as a federal meteorologist warned of deteriorating conditions and catastrophic risk, county officials did not activate a more powerful notification tool they had previously used to warn of potential flooding. The National Weather Service sent its own alerts through this system, beginning at 1:14 a.m. on July 4.
That mass notification system, known as the Integrated Public Alert & Warning System, or IPAWS, is used by National Weather Service meteorologists to warn of imminent threats. Warnings of life-threatening weather events sent on that system — similar to Amber Alerts — force phones to vibrate and emit a unique, jarring tone as long as they’re on and have a signal. They also allow qualified local officials to send tailored messages to targeted areas.
The lack of alerts sent through IPAWS from Kerr County officials as the Guadalupe River flooded was a critical misstep in their response, said Abdul-Akeem Sadiq, a professor at the University of Central Florida who researches emergency management. Residents are more likely to trust — and listen to — their local government officials, he said, and the alert could have made a difference for some people despite the spotty cellphone service along the river and the fact that many people were probably asleep as floodwaters surged.
“If the alert had gone out, there might be one or two people who might have still been able to receive that message, who now, through word of mouth, alert people around them,” Sadiq said.
IPAWS is just one part of a successful emergency response, experts say. Ideally, officials would warn of impending weather events before they escalate — and on July 4, the flooding surged faster and higher than forecasters had predicted.
Kerr County officials have for years talked about the need for a more robust flash-flood warning system, including sirens that would reach people in places with no cell service. But in the absence of that expensive infrastructure, they adopted IPAWS — which cost them nothing — as a way to alert more people by phone.
Kerr County officials have activated IPAWS twice before, most recently in 2024 amid concern about possible flash floods, according to a database of alerts sent through IPAWS archived by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Last summer, on the evening of July 23, records show, an alert sent through IPAWS was issued from an email address used by William B. “Dub” Thomas, Kerr County’s emergency management coordinator. In that instance, the alert warned that the Guadalupe River could rise four feet and that people should avoid low-level river crossings and move their belongings away from the water. The flash flood passed with no major injuries.
On July 4, the river rose about 30 feet in Hunt, Texas, close to Camp Mystic, where more than two dozen campers would be killed in the flood.
Two days after the deadly storm, amid more thunderstorms and heavy rain, Kerr County officials used IPAWS to warn that there could be another round of river flooding, the database shows.
Thomas, Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha and other county officials did not respond to emails, texts and other requests from The Post for comment. A communications team representing state and local officials said in a statement that county leaders have been focused on rescue and reunification and are “committed to a transparent and full review of processes and protocols.”
Asked Tuesday during a news conference if anyone in the county’s emergency management division had been awake to push the button to send an emergency alert, Leitha shot back that it wasn’t that easy. “There’s a lot more to that,” he said. A reporter asked again, had any alert been sent? “I can’t tell you at this time,” Leitha said.
Faced with similar questions at a news conference a day later, the sheriff said he was not running from responsibility.
“Those questions need to be answered to the families of missed loved ones, to the public, to the people who put me in this office,” Leitha said, promising a full after-action review.
The National Weather Service issued 22 alerts through IPAWS on July 4, sending increasingly dire warnings to swaths of Kerr County.
The Weather Service’s typical notifications use wording such as “turn around, don’t drown” and “move to higher ground now” to warn of general risks to broad geographical areas. They come so frequently in an area of the country known as “Flash Flood Alley” that they are often ignored, residents say.
Experts say that county officials, by contrast, could have issued evacuation orders, described risks to specific neighborhoods or provided other, more location-specific guidance to stay safe. Such targeted information, especially from a known and trusted source, can help persuade people to take action, experts say.
My added bold.
