Rainmaker CEO breaks silence on weather modification's role in Texas flooding
Flash floods swept across Central Texas on July 4, killing at least 27 little girls at a summer camp and another 93 people throughout the region.
Just two days before the disaster, Rainmaker carried out a cloud-seeding operation approximately 130 miles southeast of Kerr County, the area hit hardest by the raging floodwaters.
Now the company's CEO, Augustus Doricko, is facing mounting speculation and public outrage, but said Rainmaker 'unequivocally had nothing to do with the flooding.'
'Our meteorologist proactively suspended operations a day before the National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning,' Doricko told FOX News.
He said even the most aggressive cloud-seeding projects typically generate tens of millions of gallons of precipitation spread across hundreds of square miles.
That would be a minuscule amount compared to the trillions of gallons unleashed by the tropical storm that triggered flooding, Doricko added.
A spokesperson for the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR), which oversees cloud-seeding in the state, confirmed to DailyMail.com that 'the clouds targeted were small and isolated and completely dissipated by 4pm CT on July 2.'
Cloud seeding, used in around 50 countries worldwide, is a technique that involves releasing substances like silver iodide or salt into clouds to stimulate rainfall or snowfall.
But experts say the process has limited power and cannot produce the kind of devastating storms seen in Texas.
'Scientific studies have shown that, at best, cloud seeding causes an average of a 10-percent increase in precipitation,' the TDLR spokesperson told DailyMail.com.
'Under ideal conditions, cloud-seeding projects can provide minimal to moderate enhancement to existing moisture-bearing clouds, not violent storms or floods.'
Doricko echoed that stance, telling Fox News host Will Cain that the company's July 2 operation yielded less than a centimeter of rain
When asked whether the silver iodide Rainmaker injected into clouds could have supercharged the deadly storm, Doricko was blunt: 'Absolutely not. Remaining in the atmosphere? No, not that either.'
He explained that the aerosols used in cloud seeding dissipate within hours after rainfall is triggered.
'Dispersing it into open air it would persist longer, Doricko added.
'But one, we were seeding clouds rather than dispersing it into the open atmosphere and two, any amount that would have remained in the ensuing days and hours operation, would have been so radically defused.'
'It would have been lower in concentration. Just a background dust.'
Doricko said he was not surprised by the surge of attention in recent days, as he was flooded with questions, accusations and even threats.
'I always anticipated that a moment like this would happen,' he said.
'Basically every time there's been severe weather somewhere in the world, people have blamed weather modification.'
Nonetheless, social media users questioned whether Rainmaker's operations could be connected to the disaster in Texas.
'Well … this is weird … A company called Rainmaker, conducted a cloud seeding mission on July 2 over Texas Hill Country,' reads one X post.
'2 days later, the worst flood in their history occurred … in the exact same area that the Rainmaker flights were.
'The entire goal of Rainmaker is to increase the precipitation of existing clouds. Why do we let these corporations f*** with the weather?'
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz shot down the idea that the practice is to blame for the deluge leading to the flash floods.
'To the best of my knowledge, there is zero evidence of anything related to anything like weather modification,' Cruz said at a press conference addressing the floods on Monday.
'Look, the internet can be a strange place,' the senator added. 'People can come up with all sorts of crazy theories.'
Ken Leppert, an associate professor of atmospheric science at the University of Louisiana Monroe, said it 'had absolutely nothing' to do with the flash floods in Texas.
'Cloud seeding works by adding aerosols to existing clouds,' he said. 'It doesn't work by helping to create a cloud/storm that doesn't already exist.
'The storms that produced the rainfall and flooding in Texas were not in existence two days before the event.'
The Texas Hill Country, in the central part of the state, is naturally prone to flash flooding due to the dry, dirt-packed areas where the soil lets rain skid along the surface of the landscape instead of soaking it up.
After a flood watch notice was issued midday on July 3, the National Weather Service issued an urgent warning overnight for at least 30,000 people.
The July 4 flash floods started with a particularly bad storm that dropped most of its 12 inches of rain in the dark early morning hours.
There was so much rain that the Guadalupe River rose higher than it has in 93 years by almost a foot, according to local reports.
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BBC News
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30 killed in Beijing after heavy rains and floods batter parts of China
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