Texas mayor calls for flash flood warning system to lessen future fatal disasters
Kerrville Mayor Joe Herring told a joint Senate-House committee that met in his town northwest of San Antonio that he wanted a flood warning system to be designed and installed by next summer.
'We need solutions in place that protect the public and save lives,' Herring said. 'We will need your help to achieve this goal.'
The flooding was on the agenda of a special legislative session Texas Governor Greg Abbott called. The flooding sent a wall of water down the Guadalupe River in the state's Hill Country early on July 4, washing away camps of children and Fourth of July weekend goers.
After an initial committee meeting on the issue last week in the state capital lawmakers traveled to the flood-hit area to hear from Herring, several other local leaders and local residents on Thursday.
Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha questioned whether a warning system would have done any good.
'The water came too fast,' Leitha told lawmakers.
Speaker of the House Dustin Burrows said lawmakers would come up with 'some solutions' during the special session, which lasts for 30 days, but that the effort would take time.
'Our commitment is to continue beyond this session and these hearings, into the next session and the session after that,' Burrows said.
The high casualty toll ranked as one of the deadliest U.S. flood events in decades, raising questions about the lack of flash-flood warning sirens in hardest-hit Kerr County. Many have expressed concern about vacancies at National Weather Service offices due to staffing cuts under President Donald Trump.
Several residents impacted by the flooding testified before the committee, with many saying they felt abandoned by city, county and state governments - REUTERS
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The Sun
3 days ago
- The Sun
Texas mayor calls for flash flood warning system to lessen future fatal disasters
THE mayor of a Texas city at the center of flash flooding that killed over 130 people earlier this month asked state lawmakers on Thursday to help get a warning system in place within a year. Kerrville Mayor Joe Herring told a joint Senate-House committee that met in his town northwest of San Antonio that he wanted a flood warning system to be designed and installed by next summer. 'We need solutions in place that protect the public and save lives,' Herring said. 'We will need your help to achieve this goal.' The flooding was on the agenda of a special legislative session Texas Governor Greg Abbott called. The flooding sent a wall of water down the Guadalupe River in the state's Hill Country early on July 4, washing away camps of children and Fourth of July weekend goers. After an initial committee meeting on the issue last week in the state capital lawmakers traveled to the flood-hit area to hear from Herring, several other local leaders and local residents on Thursday. Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha questioned whether a warning system would have done any good. 'The water came too fast,' Leitha told lawmakers. Speaker of the House Dustin Burrows said lawmakers would come up with 'some solutions' during the special session, which lasts for 30 days, but that the effort would take time. 'Our commitment is to continue beyond this session and these hearings, into the next session and the session after that,' Burrows said. The high casualty toll ranked as one of the deadliest U.S. flood events in decades, raising questions about the lack of flash-flood warning sirens in hardest-hit Kerr County. Many have expressed concern about vacancies at National Weather Service offices due to staffing cuts under President Donald Trump. Several residents impacted by the flooding testified before the committee, with many saying they felt abandoned by city, county and state governments - REUTERS
The Star
5 days ago
- The Star
Blame it on the rainmaker
TWO days before the Guadalupe River swelled into a deadly Fourth of July flood in Kerr County, Texas, engineers with a California-based company called Rainmaker took off in a small aircraft about 160km away and dispersed 70g of silver iodide into a cloud. Their goal? To make it rain – part of a weather modification practice known as cloud seeding, which uses chemical compounds to encourage water droplets in clouds to coalesce and fall as rain. But in the aftermath of the flood, which killed at least 135 people – including dozens of children – a storm of a different kind erupted online. 'I NEED SOMEONE TO LOOK INTO WHO WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS. WHEN WAS THE LAST CLOUD SEEDING?' wrote Pete Chambers, a former US special forces commander and far-right activist, on X. His post received 3.1 million views. Others followed suit. Former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn, in a repost, did not mince words when he slammed Chambers' claim. Scientists were quick to refute the allegations. 'It's very clear they have nothing to do with it,' said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California, in a briefing after the flood. Rainmaker also denied any connection. The storm, fuelled by tropical moisture, dropped as much as 10cm of rain per hour, with river levels in some areas rising nine metres in under 45 minutes. Rescue team (right) moves along the Guadalupe River in search of flood victims near a damaged building. — AFP But for conspiracy theorists who have long claimed that governments manipulate the weather, the narrative was already seeded. Soon after, Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene proposed a Bill to make all forms of weather modification – including cloud seeding – a felony. 'This is not normal,' she posted. 'No person, company, entity or government should ever be allowed to modify our weather by any means possible!' In response to growing speculation, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) launched two new websites aimed at addressing public concerns about weather modification, geoengineering and aircraft contrails. 'To anyone who's ever looked up to the streaks in the sky and asked, 'what the heck is going on?' – we've tried to answer all your questions,' EPA administrator Lee Zeldin said in a video launch. The agency distinguishes between geoengineering – which aims to influence global climate – and cloud seeding, which is localised and shortlived. Cloud seeding itself isn't new. It was pioneered in the US nearly 80 years ago by scientists, including Bernard Vonnegut, brother of novelist Kurt Vonnegut. Since then, it's been used to supplement rainfall in areas suffering drought, though its effectiveness has always been modest. Rainmaker's flight on July 2 took place near Runge, 200km southeast of the flood zone. The team flew to an altitude of 500m and dispersed 70g of silver iodide – 'less than a handful of Skittles', said company founder Augustus Doricko. The yellow compound helps turn water droplets in clouds into ice crystals, prompting precipitation. Soon after the flight, Rainmaker's meteorologists noticed an incoming moisture front and suspended operations. By 1am the next day, the National Weather Service had issued its first flash flood warning for Kerr County. Doricko said the scale of the flood dwarfed anything cloud seeding could cause. 'The best seeding operations produce maybe 100 million gallons of rain,' he said. 'That flood delivered over a trillion gallons.' Swain agreed. 'Cloud seeding doesn't create clouds,' he said. 'It enhances what's already there, and its effects last minutes – maybe an hour.' At best, Swain noted, seeding can boost rainfall by 10% to 15%, and often not even that. 'In some cases, it's difficult to prove cloud seeding does anything at all.' Andrew Dessler, a professor of atmospheric sciences at Texas A&M University, went further. 'There's no physical way that cloud seeding could've made that storm,' he said. The event was driven by extreme moisture from a tropical disturbance in the Gulf of Mexico. Dessler called the backlash against Rainmaker a distraction from the real problem – climate change driven by carbon emissions. 'There is a conspiracy to change the climate,' he said. 'It's fossil fuel interests and the system that supports them.' Despite such doubts, cloud seeding continues to attract interest. Rainmaker has worked with the Utah and Colorado departments of natural resources, the Oregon Department of Agriculture and several California municipalities. San Luis Obispo County began seeding in 2019 after years of drought and low water levels in its Lopez Lake reservoir. 'We added about 1,200 acre-feet per year,' said David Spiegel, the county's supervising engineer. (One acre-foot is around 1.23 million litres) The best year yielded roughly three million cubic metres of water – modest, but cost-effective at around US$300 per acre-foot, far below the US$1,500 cost of imported water. While results were mixed due to limited storms during the drought, Spiegel considers it a viable option – especially if future legislation bans it. 'It would be a setback,' he said. 'We're always looking for ways to increase our water supply.' California isn't investing in state-run programmes but tracks such activities. As of October, at least 16 cloud-seeding projects were active across various counties. With climate change straining water resources and negotiations over the shrinking Colorado River ongoing, some see weather modification as part of the future. A 2021 National Academies of Sciences report said geoengineering, while controversial, might serve as a last resort – a kind of planetary airbag. But it cautioned that such methods must not be seen as a substitute for cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Dessler likened the current political debate over cloud seeding and geoengineering to ideological posturing. 'It makes no sense,' he said. 'This isn't about facts. It's about worldview.' — Los Angeles Times
The Star
15-07-2025
- The Star
Texas flood death toll rises to 131 as new storms loom
Rescuers help a stranded person following a flood in McGregor, Texas, U.S., July 13, 2025, in this screen grab taken from a video. McGregor Volunteer Fire Department/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo (Reuters) -The official tally of storm-related deaths across Texas rose to 131 on Monday as authorities warned of yet another round of heavy rains 10 days after a Hill Country flash flood that transformed the Guadalupe River into a killer torrent. A National Weather Service flood watch forecasting heavy downpours of up to half a foot of rain was posted until Tuesday morning for a wide swath of central Texas extending from the Rio Grande east to San Antonio and Austin. The advisory included Kerr County and other parts of Texas Hill Country along the Guadalupe still recovering from the July 4 flood disaster, which ravaged the county seat of Kerrville and a riverside Christian summer camp for girls in the nearby town of Hunt. Riverfront residents as well as search teams still combing the banks of the waterway were advised to seek higher ground until the latest danger had passed. The search for additional victims along the Guadalupe was likewise suspended due to flood concerns on Sunday. Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Monday said storms had claimed at least 131 lives in Texas since July 4, the bulk of those deaths in and around Kerrville, up from 120 reported on Friday. He said 97 people were still listed as missing in the greater Kerrville area, down from the 160-plus who authorities said were unaccounted for last week. About a third of the Kerr County fatalities are children, most of whom perished at Camp Mystic when floodwaters raged through the girls-only summer retreat before dawn on July 4. Authorities have not rescued anyone alive since the day of the floods, when more than a foot of rain fell in less than an hour in the heart of a region known as "flash flood alley," sending a deadly wall of water down the Guadalupe River basin. Abbott said state lawmakers would investigate the circumstances of the flooding, disaster preparedness and emergency response to the flooding at a special legislative session set to convene later this month. The high casualty toll, ranking as one of the deadliest U.S. flood events in decades, has raised questions about the lack of flash-flood warning sirens in Kerr County and vacancies left at National Weather Service offices amid staffing cuts under the Trump administration. (Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Stephen Coates)
