在线国产一区二区_成人黄色片在线观看_国产成人免费_日韩精品免费在线视频_亚洲精品美女久久_欧美一级免费在线观看

Texas floods raise doubts over US weather warnings, response levels

Fears voiced that federal budget cuts are having negative impact, as search for survivors continues

By May Zhou in Texas | China Daily | Updated: 2025-07-08 07:22
Share
Share - WeChat
A woman lifts her dog over a large tree on Saturday that was uprooted by flash flooding in Louise Hays Park next to the Guadalupe River in Kerrville, Texas. GETTY IMAGES/AFP

Too late, inaccurate

The National Weather Service first issued a forecast on Thursday afternoon that heavy rain was coming and flooding was possible. It predicted 127 to 177 millimeters of rain.

The flood warning was issued at 1:14 am on Friday when most people were asleep. It triggered Wireless Emergency Alerts which sent notifications to all the mobile phones in the emergency area.

However, it's a feature that mobile phone users can disable and parts of the Hill Country lack good mobile phone reception.

The rain began to fall around midnight, but actual rainfall far exceeded the forecast. Some local weather stations recorded 305 mm of rainfall by sunrise on Independence Day, local meteorologists said.

The water level rose rapidly. The water gauge in a section of the Guadalupe River gauge where it forks recorded a 6.7-meter rise in only two hours, Bob Fogarty, a meteorologist at the NWS Austin/San Antonio office said.

In Kerrville, the water level rose from 0.3 meters to 10.3 meters between 2 am and 7 am on Friday.

Fogarty said the alert was updated nine times throughout Friday. The most serious warning came at 4:03 am when NWS issued a flood emergency, warning of an "extremely dangerous and life-threatening situation "and urging "immediate evacuations".

The riverbank overflow occurred about three hours after the first flood warning, with the strong torrent washing away cabins and vehicles.

People look on as law enforcement officers and volunteers search for missing people near Camp Mystic on Saturday. RONALDO SCHEMIDT/AFP

Some meteorologists said local authorities are partially responsible for the devastating consequences of the floods.

"The heartbreaking catastrophe that occurred in Central Texas is a tragedy of the worst sort because it appears evacuations and other proactive measures could have been undertaken to reduce the risk of fatalities had the organizers of impacted camps and local officials heeded the warnings of the government and private weather sources, including AccuWeather," AccuWeather chief meteorologist Jonathan Porter wrote in a statement on Saturday morning.

Local officials blamed the NWS for inadequate weather information. Nim Kidd, chief of the Texas Division of Emergency Management pointed to NWS forecasts that projected up to 152 mm of rain. "It did not predict the amount of rain that we saw," Kidd said.

Facing questions on why officials didn't organize evacuations, Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly said: "We didn't know this flooding was coming. Rest assured, no one knew this kind of flood was coming."

Kelly said they deal with floods frequently and locals know the area as "flash flood valley". However, Kerr County doesn't have a flood warning system in place. Kelly said the county considered implementing one a few years ago, but the plan was put aside due to the cost.

Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice told the media that the suddenness and intensity of the flood caught city officials flat-footed.

"This happened very quickly over a very short amount of time that could not be predicted," Rice said,"… things like this happen in a very strategic, very isolated area and when those two things converge you have what happened today."

|<< Previous 1 2 3 4 5 Next   >>|
Top
BACK TO THE TOP
English
Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

Registration Number: 130349
FOLLOW US
主站蜘蛛池模板: 天天天天综合 | 亚洲一区综合 | 一区二区三区国产亚洲网站 | 3bmm在线观看视频免费 | 日韩视频免费在线观看 | 免费黄色在线视频网址 | 久久国产精品一区二区 | 免费看的黄色大片 | 欧美日韩在线一区二区 | 精品视频一区二区三区 | 欧美日韩在线观看中文字幕 | 国产毛片在线 | 欧美成人精品 | 成人性生交大片免费看中文带字幕 | 中文字幕av一区二区三区 | 日韩欧美国产精品 | 久久不射电影网 | 国产成人精品久久 | 日韩在线资源 | 涩婷婷 | 国产欧美精品区一区二区三区 | 国产色网 | 国产激情久久久久久 | 日韩国产欧美一区二区 | 91精品国产综合久久久久久丝袜 | 日本免费黄色 | 日韩快播电影 | 精品一区二区三区视频 | 小罗莉极品一线天在线 | 亚洲国产一区二区三区 | 久久久久久久一区 | 国产福利精品一区二区三区 | 中文字幕一区二区三区四区 | 国产中文在线 | 在线视频成人 | 人成亚洲 | 国产精品白浆 | 在线一区二区视频 | 一级爱爱片 | 亚洲成人免费影院 | 波多野结衣 一区二区三区 国产在线中文字幕 |