Latest news with #CentralTexas
CBS News
8 hours ago
- Climate
- CBS News
Mark Cuban sends hydration kits to Kerr County flood relief workers
A well-known Texan is teaming up with other local organizations and businesses to support the Central Texas flood relief efforts. "We knew people, like so many did," Mark Cuban said. "My son went to the sister camp six, seven years ago. We had friends. We had relatives. I mean, it impacted us like so many other people in all of Texas." Cuban said after the Central Texas floods, it didn't take long for the Mark Cuban Heroes Basketball Center to mobilize. They're partnering with other local organizations and businesses to identify the needs in Kerr County. Now, help is arriving not just for flood victims, but for those helping them. "People who are really that committed to helping and supporting people, they often put themselves last and one of the things they don't think about is hydration," Cuban said. That's why they're putting together hydration kits stocked with cooling towels, neck fans, bottled water, insulated coolers and more. "It's just heartbreaking to see families having to go through that experience, just life changing and for us it's always how do we step in and help," said Trina Terrell-Andrews, CEO of the Mark Cuban Heroes Basketball Center. She said they are preparing 500 kits, with the goal of starting deliveries to Central Texas next week. To all the first responders working around the clock, Cuban had a message: "Thank you!" he said. "You know there's no amount of words, there's no amount of thanks that can really convey just how important you are to the families that have been impacted." They're planning to continue being supportive as long as they're needed.
CBS News
9 hours ago
- Politics
- CBS News
Organizational failures highlighted in hearing over deadly Central Texas flooding: "We're better than that."
On day three of the 2025 special session, Texas lawmakers are addressing issues discovered during the deadly Fourth of July flooding in Central Texas. Top state officials are testifying that communication needs to improve between the state and local officials, between first responders, and with the large number of volunteers on the ground. As the Guadalupe River began rising on the Fourth of July, state officials say the authority to order evacuations lay with city and county leaders. "When was the order for evacuation ordered?" asked Republican Senator Charles Schwertner. "I do not believe there was ever one ordered, sir," said Texas Division of Emergency Management Chief Nim Kidd. "There was never one ordered?" Schwertner replied. "I'm not aware of one, no," said Kidd. Kidd testified before a joint committee on disaster preparedness and response at the Texas Capitol on Wednesday about lapses in communication with local officials. His department, he says, doesn't even have reliable contact information for local emergency managers. "To this day, I still have forms that get sent to us that have an office number as the Emergency Management contact number," said Kidd. "We still get e-mail addresses that we know are generic e-mail addresses that are not being monitored. You've given us the resources to put people in the field to make sure we're working directly with. We have an employee in Kerr County. We have had for two or three years now. That doesn't mean we have any way of guaranteeing a responsible adult, local officials, and those that are appointed are awake and seeing the same information that our people who are paid to be awake at two in the morning are seeing." Kidd also drew attention to the absence of any required certification or training for local emergency management coordinators. "There's no minimum requirements to be an emergency management coordinator. We're better than that," said Kidd. "Those words are going to ring in my head throughout this. 'We are better than this,'" said Rep. Joe Moody, repeating the phrase. In the hall outside the hearing room, Joe Shopp, whose neighborhood in Sandy Creek sustained damage, said he came hoping to speak with state leaders. "Greg Abbott said, we're not going to assign blame," said Shopp. "That's what losers do. Right. But JJ, a friend of mine in our community in Sandy Creek who lost his entire family; he watched his wife and his two children drown. He lost his entire business, his livelihood, every vehicle he owns. And he wants to know who's going to be held accountable. It's not the blame game. It's accountability." Shopp said in his neighborhood, it's volunteers doing all the clean-up. "Every resource we see in our community is volunteer people that have spent thousands and thousands of their own dollars," said Shopp. Kidd, meanwhile, said those volunteers have been a challenge to manage. "It's very difficult to wrangle 27,000 spontaneous volunteers," said Kidd. "The fact of the matter is people come in so quick that we can't control them sometimes, and we don't know who they are." He asked lawmakers to require volunteers showing up after a disaster to register with authorities. "I'd like to know if we have registered sex offenders coming to work in shelters," said Kidd. "Do we have anybody with warrants who shouldn't be going through my personal belongings that are scattered all over the place?" On Wednesday, it was also learned that first responders from different areas weren't able to communicate with each other because their radios weren't compatible. That's been a problem talked about since 9/11. Also highlighted was the lack of any training or minimum qualification for local officials serving as Emergency Management Coordinators. All are issues lawmakers seem interested in taking on. The joint committee will meet again next week in Kerrville to hear from local officials there.
Washington Post
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
Pets are still being rescued from Texas floods. One girl is helping.
Kamryn Balfour was at summer camp less than 20 miles from Camp Mystic when devastating floods tore through Central Texas earlier this month. 'I didn't hear about it until I got picked up the next day when it was all sunny, and I just thought it was some pretty hard rain,' said Kamryn, 11, a camper at Kickapoo Kamp in Kerrville, Texas. 'I felt very, very sad that those innocent girls got flooded out.' She realized how lucky she was to have been spared. 'I was there at camp like them, too. That could have been me,' said Kamryn, who did not know anyone at Camp Mystic. At least 135 people were killed in the flooding, including 27 campers and counselors at Camp Mystic. Kamryn — who lives in League City, Texas, about halfway between Houston and Galveston — said she felt helpless and heartbroken. An idea came to her during the car ride home from camp. Kamryn decided she would bake and sell cookies, donating all proceeds to flood relief efforts. She set a goal of raising $500, and started baking as soon as she got home from her two-week camp on July 5. She has since baked about 40 batches of chocolate chip cookies, and far surpassed her goal, raising more than $4,300. 'Everybody can make a difference, even if they're a little kid like me,' she said. In May, Kamryn started a baking business called Kamryn's Kravings as part of a kids' entrepreneur fair she participated in. While she didn't keep up with the business after the fair, 'that's when my love for baking started,' she said, noting that her signature chocolate chip cookies use a 'top-secret' family recipe. After the floods, Kamryn decided to restart her baking business, but this time, with a mission. She was concerned that pets might be overlooked in the relief efforts, so she designated charities that were helping pets after the floods, including Kerrville Pets Alive and the Texas A&M Veterinary Emergency Team. Kamryn wanted to support both the pets impacted by the floods and the rescue dogs that aided in recovery. 'I thought maybe I could help,' Kamryn said. The search for displaced pets is ongoing. Kerrville Pets Alive got a call a few days ago about a cat found inside an oven that had been destroyed by flooding. The cat was dehydrated but alive. The group is still trying to reunite rescued pets with their owners. Volunteers continue to recover pets in the area, and though many of them have died, volunteers are identifying them by their microchips so they can alert owners who are still looking for them. Kamryn posted about her fundraising effort on social media, and her family and friends did the same. As word spread, orders started pouring in. 'I didn't have any idea it would take off like this, and all of a sudden, we couldn't even keep up,' said Kamryn's mother, Kelly Balfour, who helps her daughter bake. 'Whatever we make, we sell.' Kamryn is currently enrolled in gymnastics camp, though she still bakes most days, and shops for groceries with her mother. She puts five cookies in a small white bag with a pink bow and sells each for $5 — though many customers donate far more. 'Most people will give a $50 bill and only want two or three bags of cookies,' Balfour said. Orders started mounting even more after Kamryn's baking project was covered by local station KHOU 11. Balfour's friend, Gina Gutierrez — the owner of Cakes by Gina, a bakeshop in Houston — offered up her industrial kitchen. Kamryn is only able to bake one batch at a time, which is about 40 cookies, in their oven at home. 'I said, 'Girl, come on over here, let me help you. Let's multiply the recipe by four or five,'' said Gutierrez. 'The young kids are our future and Kamryn's an example of that … I put my energy into helping her achieve her goals.' Gutierrez encouraged Kamryn to host a pop-up bake sale at her shop on July 12, which was a success, and she has two more pop-ups planned in the coming days. In addition to the pop-ups, Kamryn and her mother hand-deliver the bags of cookies to local customers who place orders over Instagram. 'Kamryn is so cute; she hasn't let me see the full recipe,' Gutierrez said, adding that Kamryn is meticulous about her baking process. Once Kamryn reaches $5,000, she plans to evenly distribute the funds between the two organizations she has chosen. 'It's so heartwarming to see the compassion, especially in these young children who could easily be distracted by other things,' said Karen Guerriero, the board president of Kerrville Pets Alive. 'We thank her from the bottom of our hearts.' Guerriero said Kamryn's contributions are coming at a critical time. 'This will really help us with the extra expenses we have related to the flood animals,' she said, explaining that they're still finding displaced pets in the wreckage of the floods. Kamryn said she plans to keep her fundraising efforts going. 'This is the first time I've raised money to help someone, but it definitely won't be the last,' she said.
Washington Post
a day ago
- Politics
- Washington Post
Texas lawmakers tackle state's catastrophic flooding in special session
For the first time since devastating Fourth of July floods killed at least 135 people in Central Texas, the state's Republican-controlled legislature is confronting the tragedy and what should be done to strengthen disaster preparedness amid growing criticism. Flood-related measures are among Republican Gov. Greg Abbott's priorities for the 30-day special session that began this week. Abbott's targets include improving early warning systems and bolstering emergency communications in vulnerable areas of the state, as well as relief funding for the counties hardest hit earlier this month. Lawmakers have filed more than a dozen similar bills that address more issues, such as tougher building standards for youth camps near floodplains and the creation of a real-time emergency communications system for all of Texas.
CNET
2 days ago
- Business
- CNET
T-Mobile Is Bringing Starlink to Your Phone Tomorrow. See If You'll Get It For Free
Going off-grid might soon be a thing of the past, as T-Mobile's partnership with SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet service gets ready to launch on July 23. The direct-to-cell messaging service, called T-Satellite, will also be available to AT&T and Verizon cellphone customers. T-Mobile says its goal is to "eliminate mobile dead zones for good" by way of 657 Starlink satellites that'll be used exclusively for cellphone service. T-Satellite has been in beta testing since December 2024, with nearly 1.8 million users signing up so far. The direct-to-cell messaging service represents a major step forward in mobile technology: It works with most phones made during the last four years, according to T-Mobile, instead of requiring dedicated hardware. It'll be available to T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon customers for $10 a month -- or free for anyone on T-Mobile's Experience Beyond or Go5G Next plans. "At the end of the day, it's nice to be able to send a selfie when you're in a place where there is no coverage, but it's vital to be able to connect to emergency services," Mike Katz, T-Mobile president of marketing, strategy and products, told CNET's Jeff Carlson. "We just think that with a technology like this, no customer should ever be in a situation where they are unconnected in an emergency." Sadly, T-Mobile has already had a reason to test out this emergency service, when it enabled T-Satellite earlier this week in communities affected by massive flooding in Central Texas. T-Mobile customers in the area are able to use text-to-911 and basic text messaging, and they can receive emergency alerts on compatible devices. In the future, T-Satellite will be free for emergency uses across the country. The company said 911 texting will be available later this year to "any mobile customer with a compatible device, regardless of carrier or whether or not they are subscribed to the service." What is T-Satellite? T-Satellite is a partnership between T-Mobile and Starlink that will allow direct-to-cell SMS messaging accessibility in areas where there is no cellular coverage. Starlink has more than 7,000 low-Earth orbit satellites in the sky, and now, 657 of them will be devoted entirely to T-Satellite. The goal is to expand coverage into the 500,000 square miles of the US that traditional cell towers can't reach, says T-Mobile. 'When you leave the terrestrial network and you go to a place where there's no network, your phone will automatically search for and connect to the satellite network, which is quite different than any other of the satellite systems that are out there that force you to manually connect, and you have to point your phone up to the sky," says Katz. Satellite connectivity in cellphones isn't exactly new -- iPhones have had it since 2022 -- but it's typically been reserved for SOS messaging to connect you with an emergency dispatcher. On July 23, T-Satellite users will be able to send SMS texts on iPhone and Android. Android users will also get MMS immediately, with iPhone support 'to follow.' This means users will be able to send images and audio clips in addition to standard text messages. In October, the service will expand to include data support in third-party apps like AccuWeather, AllTrails, WhatsApp and X. The access takes advantage of hooks built into iOS and Android software, so developers can make their apps capable of sending data through the narrow amounts of bandwidth available via satellite. This is far beyond what the other phone carriers have launched so far in the satellite realm -- largely due to T-Mobile's partnership with Starlink. AT&T and Verizon have both partnered with AST SpaceMobile for satellite messaging, and Verizon told CNET's Eli Blumenthal last year that it's still planning on working with Amazon's Project Kuiper, which launched its first 27 satellites on April 28, 2025. 'Despite things that our competitors have said, they are way, way behind on this technology,' says Katz. How much will T-Satellite cost? On July 23, T-Satellite will be available to AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon customers for a standalone $10 per month. But there's one exception: Customers on T-Mobile's Experience Beyond plan ($100 per month for one line) or the Go5G Next plan will get the service for included in the cost of the plan going forward, and those on the Experience More plan ($85 per month) will get it through the end of the year. Even if you don't pay the $10 a month, T-Mobile says 911 texting will be available later this year 'to any mobile customer with a compatible device, regardless of carrier.' If you're a Verizon or AT&T customer, you'll have to activate T-Satellite as a second eSIM on your phone to take advantage of the service. You can find instructions on setting up the eSIM here. Which phones are supported? Most phones released in the past couple of years will work with T-Satellite. Here are the devices that are currently compatible with the beta version: Apple iPhone 13, iPhone 14, iPhone 15 and iPhone 16 (all models) Google Google Pixel 9 Google Pixel 9A Google Pixel 9 Pro Google Pixel 9 Pro XL Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold Motorola Moto G Stylus 2025 Moto Razr 2024 Moto Razr Plus 2024 Moto Razr 2025 Moto Razr Plus 2025 Moto Razr Ultra 2025 Moto Razr Ultra Plus 2025 Samsung Samsung Galaxy A25 5G SE* Samsung Galaxy A35 5G Samsung Galaxy A36 Samsung Galaxy A36 SE Samsung Galaxy A53 5G Samsung Galaxy A54 5G* Samsung Galaxy S21 Samsung Galaxy S21 Plus Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra Samsung Galaxy S21 FE Samsung Galaxy S22 Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra Samsung Galaxy S22 FE Samsung Galaxy S23 Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra Samsung Galaxy S23 FE Samsung Galaxy S24 Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra Samsung Galaxy S24 FE Samsung Galaxy S25 Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge Samsung Galaxy XCover 7 Pro Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 *Some non-T-Mobile device variants are not satellite-capable. When T-Satellite launches on July 23, the following devices will also be compatible: Motorola Motorola Edge 2024 Moto G 2024 Moto G Stylus 2024 Moto G 5G 2024 Moto G Stylus 5G 2024 Samsung Samsung Galaxy A14 Samsung Galaxy A15* Samsung Galaxy A16 Samsung Galaxy A35 Samsung Galaxy A53* Samsung Galaxy XCover6 Pro *Some non-T-Mobile device variants are not satellite-capable. T-Mobile T-Mobile Revvl 7 T-Mobile Revvl 7 Pro How to try T-Mobile's Starlink service today If you're anxious to try T-Mobile's Starlink satellite messaging service and don't want to wait until July 23, you can still attempt to sign up for the beta. I wouldn't hold out too much hope, though -- when I entered my information, I got a message back saying, 'Due to high demand, we're admitting beta testers on a rolling basis. Keep an eye out for an update in the coming weeks.'
