This is insane. Probably because Kerr County is deeply GOP. My county, Travis, is one of the few blue counties in the state. Travis has chosen to invest some of our taxes in a county level emergency alert system. You do have to sign up, but the county will send emails or texts (you choose) with emergency alerts. I received notice of possible flash flooding hours before the predictions got bad enough to trigger the NWS alerts to my cell.
The flooding along the Guadalupe, Colorado, Rio Grande, and San Gabriel rivers, as well as the flooding of all the creeks, is not a new thing. It seems to have become more common and more extreme. But it isn’t new. Everywhere along the river should have measures to warn of flooding. The cabins at Camp Mystic shouldn’t have been that close to the river at all.
This disaster was probably a failure on multiple levels, including county and city leaders failing to do their job and the entire set up at that camp. Those cabins simply should not have been so close to a river known for flooding.
That said, I’m not upset the idea the cuts to NOAA could have had an impact has gained traction. Because even if that isn’t the case here (and I’m not sure that didn’t play a role), those cuts will absolutely result in deaths in the years ahead.