Latest news with #TomMoser
Yahoo
09-07-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Texas county where campers died was denied money to boost warning systems
Nearly a decade before catastrophic flooding in south Texas killed at least 95 people, including 27 girls and counselors from a beloved summer camp, the state's Division of Emergency Management denied requests from the county where the camp is held for a $1 million grant to improve its flood warning system. Summer camps were top of mind during county leaders' discussions of the project, meeting minutes show. Then-County Commissioner Tom Moser envisioned designating point people at each camp who would monitor a website and alert camp counselors and attendees if evacuation was needed. The Division of Emergency Management did not answer USA TODAY's specific questions about why the county's applications were rejected. "As we are in the middle of ongoing response operations, our priority is life-safety of the public right now," chief communications officer Wes Rapaport said in an email. Spokespeople for Kerr County did not respond to requests for comment. Phone and email messages attempting to reach Moser and Dub Thomas, Kerr County's deputy sheriff and emergency management coordinator, went unreturned. In June 2016, President Barack Obama declared a major disaster in Texas after torrential rains killed 20 people and destroyed hundreds of homes and businesses in the state's southeast corner. It unlocked more than $100 million in money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to both clean up the damage and help communities across the state prepare for the next disaster. Kerr County, part of a region whose rivers' and creeks' high flooding potential earned it the nickname 'Flash Flood Alley,' was among the communities that sought preventative funding. It asked for $1 million to build a flood warning system that would have upgraded 20 water gauge systems, added new water level sensors and posts, and created software and a website to distribute that information to the public in real-time. More: Hard-hit areas in Texas face new flooding risks; death toll climbs to 104: Live updates More: A flood killed his entire family in 2015. Now, he's joined search efforts in Texas. Although some nearby jurisdictions, such as Comal County, built siren systems to alert residents to floods, Moser noted that many people in Kerr County opposed sirens. A website, he hoped, would fill that void. 'We can do all the water level monitoring we want, but if we don't get that information to the public in a timely way, then this whole thing is not worth it,' he said at a January 2017 meeting, days before the application deadline. Under FEMA's Hazard Mitigation Assistance program, the federal government can distribute money for preventive measures to states that request it. Cities, counties and nonprofits then apply to their states for a piece of it. In Texas, the Division of Emergency Management decides which applications to approve. The Texas Division of Emergency Management denied Kerr County's 2017 application, meeting minutes show. Kerr County applied again in 2018, when more federal funding became available after Hurricane Harvey. But meeting minutes indicate that Texas' emergency authority again did not approve it. Kerr County has long used software called CodeRed to notify residents about floods, fires and other emergencies via cell phone. In 2020, county leaders voted to expand CodeRed by integrating it with a FEMA system, which would enable it to alert people passing through the area, even if they don't have the local CodeRed app. The expansion, however, was just an expansion of the old system – not the new system with upgraded gauges, new sensors and a public website that the county desperately wanted. 'We've been trying to get a new Flood Warning System here,' Thomas, the county's emergency management coordinator, said at the November 2020 meeting. 'We just haven't been able to do it.' This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Texas turned down Kerr County plea for money for better flood warnings
Yahoo
08-07-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Texas officials long feared for riverbank summer camps. A warning system was rejected as too expensive
Officials in Kerr County, Texas, had long been concerned about kids' summer camps along the banks of the Guadalupe River, an area known as 'flash flood alley.' The camps in the idyllic Texas Hill Country, where children from the surrounding big cities of San Antonio, Austin and Fredericksburg came to fish, horseback ride, and snorkel, relied on a word-of-mouth system from camps further up river when it came to flooding, according to The New York Times. But in 2015, a flood in Wimberley, 75 miles east of Kerrville, killed 13 people and hundreds of homes were destroyed and damaged when the Blanco River crested to nearly 30 feet in a matter of hours. It brought the dangers of flash flooding front of mind for officials in Kerr County who debated at local meetings whether to bolster their flood emergency system with weather sirens now used by other cities. Tom Moser, a former Kerr County commissioner, proposed that Kerrville establish a similar system to one that had been put in place in Wimberley. But it was deemed to expensive by fellow commissioners. 'It sort of evaporated,' Moser, who retired in 2021, told The Times. 'It just didn't happen.' Last week, downpours and catastrophic flooding in Hill Country devastated Camp Mystic, the Christian girls' summer camp on the Guadalupe River. The river rapidly rose 20 feet in 95 minutes in the early hours of the morning. Camp Mystic confirmed Monday that 27 girls, some as young as eight, and staffers had been killed. Ten girls remain missing and one counselor, according to local officials. Moser wasn't the only one who had pushed for a better emergency warning system, according to The Wall Street Journal. Former Kerr County Sheriff Rusty Hierholzer, who had responded to the 1987 floods that killed teens at a camp in Kendall County, was hoping to install outdoor warning sirens in Kerrville. The sirens in Kendall County, which is about 81 miles away from Kerr County, went off on Friday. Rob Kelly, the Kerr County judge and its most senior elected official, also said budget concerns waylaid any action. 'Taxpayers won't pay for it,' Kelly recently told The Times. He said he didn't know if people might reconsider in the wake of this tragedy. In 2018, Kerr County applied for a $1 million grant for a flood warning system. The application was not selected, according to KXAN. In 2020, a commissioner said the county had been 'trying to get a new flood warning system here.' As recently as a May budget meeting, commissioners were discussing a system being developed by a regional agency. Attempts to improve response on a state level were also met with resistance in the last few months. A bill that would have established a statewide plan to improve the state's disaster response did not pass at the statehouse. But, had it passed, it still would not have gone into effect until after the Hill Country flooding, The Texas Tribune noted. And it's not just smaller communities that lacked warning systems. The city of Austin, which also saw fatalities in the floods and is one of the state's largest cities and home to nearly 1 million residents, doesn't have an emergency warning system. But, a spokesperson for the city of Austin told KXAN the fastest way to get information out is with 'the technology we have today' and there was a concern that sirens could 'cause confusion.' Since the disaster, 446 people have signed a petition for an early warning siren system in Kerr County. Moser said Kerr County had previously taken some measures to mitigate potential danger, including installing flood gauges and barriers, according to The Washington Post. This weekend, Texas Governor Greg Abbott says a special session at the Capitol will focus on better warnings for floods. It's hard to know how much of a difference a flood warning system would have made last Friday, Moser said. But, he believes it could have had some benefit. As of Monday afternoon, the death toll stood at 91 people with dozens more still missing. 'I think it could have helped a lot of people,' said Moser.
USA Today
08-07-2025
- Climate
- USA Today
Texas county where campers died was denied money to boost warning systems
Nearly a decade before catastrophic flooding in south Texas killed at least 95 people, including 27 girls and counselors from a beloved summer camp, the state's Division of Emergency Management denied requests from the county where the camp is held for a $1 million grant to improve its flood warning system. Summer camps were top of mind during county leaders' discussions of the project, meeting minutes show. Then-County Commissioner Tom Moser envisioned designating point people at each camp who would monitor a website and alert camp counselors and attendees if evacuation was needed. The Division of Emergency Management did not answer USA TODAY's specific questions about why the county's applications were rejected. "As we are in the middle of ongoing response operations, our priority is life-safety of the public right now," chief communications officer Wes Rapaport said in an email. Spokespeople for Kerr County did not respond to requests for comment. Phone and email messages attempting to reach Moser and Dub Thomas, Kerr County's deputy sheriff and emergency management coordinator, went unreturned. In June 2016, President Barack Obama declared a major disaster in Texas after torrential rains killed 20 people and destroyed hundreds of homes and businesses in the state's southeast corner. It unlocked more than $100 million in money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to both clean up the damage and help communities across the state prepare for the next disaster. Kerr County, part of a region whose rivers' and creeks' high flooding potential earned it the nickname 'Flash Flood Alley,' was among the communities that sought preventative funding. It asked for $1 million to build a flood warning system that would have upgraded 20 water gauge systems, added new water level sensors and posts, and created software and a website to distribute that information to the public in real-time. More: Hard-hit areas in Texas face new flooding risks; death toll climbs to 104: Live updates More: A flood killed his entire family in 2015. Now, he's joined search efforts in Texas. Although some nearby jurisdictions, such as Cornal County, built siren systems to alert residents to floods, Moser noted that many people in Kerr County opposed sirens. A website, he hoped, would fill that void. 'We can do all the water level monitoring we want, but if we don't get that information to the public in a timely way, then this whole thing is not worth it,' he said at a January 2017 meeting, days before the application deadline. Under FEMA's Hazard Mitigation Assistance program, the federal government can distribute money for preventive measures to states that request it. Cities, counties and nonprofits then apply to their states for a piece of it. In Texas, the Division of Emergency Management decides which applications to approve. The Texas Division of Emergency Management denied Kerr County's 2017 application, meeting minutes show. Kerr County applied again in 2018, when more federal funding became available after Hurricane Harvey. But meeting minutes indicate that Texas' emergency authority again did not approve it. Kerr County has long used software called CodeRed to notify residents about floods, fires and other emergencies via cell phone. In 2020, county leaders voted to expand CodeRed by integrating it with a FEMA system, which would enable it to alert people passing through the area, even if they don't have the local CodeRed app. The expansion, however, was just an expansion of the old system – not the new system with upgraded gauges, new sensors and a public website that the county desperately wanted. 'We've been trying to get a new Flood Warning System here,' Thomas, the county's emergency management coordinator, said at the November 2020 meeting. 'We just haven't been able to do it.'
The Independent
07-07-2025
- Climate
- The Independent
Texas officials long feared for riverbank summer camps. A warning system was rejected as too expensive
Officials in Kerr County, Texas, had long been concerned about kids' summer camps along the banks of the Guadalupe River, an area known as 'flash flood alley.' The camps in the idyllic Texas Hill Country, where children from the surrounding big cities of San Antonio, Austin and Fredericksburg came to fish, horseback ride, and snorkel, relied on a word-of-mouth system from camps further up river when it came to flooding, according to The New York Times. But in 2015, a flood in Wimberley, 75 miles east of Kerrville, killed 13 people and hundreds of homes were destroyed and damaged when the Blanco River crested to nearly 30 feet in a matter of hours. It brought the dangers of flash flooding front of mind for officials in Kerr County who debated at local meetings whether to bolster their flood emergency system with weather sirens now used by other cities. Tom Moser, a former Kerr County commissioner, proposed that Kerrville establish a similar system to one that had been put in place in Wimberley. But it was deemed to expensive by fellow commissioners. 'It sort of evaporated,' Moser, who retired in 2021, told The Times. 'It just didn't happen.' On the Fourth of July, downpours and catastrophic flooding in hill country devastated Camp Mystic, the Christian girls' summer camp on the Guadalupe River. The river rapidly rose 20 feet in 95 minutes in the early hours of the morning. Camp Mystic confirmed Monday that 27 girls, some as young as eight, and staffers had been killed. Ten girls remain missing and one counselor, according to local officials. Moser wasn't the only one who had pushed for a better emergency warning system, according to The Wall Street Journal. Former Kerr County Sheriff Rusty Hierholzer, who had responded to the 1987 floods that killed teens at a camp in Kendall County, was hoping to install outdoor warning sirens in Kerrville. The sirens in Kendall County, which is about 81 miles away from Kerr County, went off on Friday. Rob Kelly, the Kerr County judge and its most senior elected official, also said budget concerns waylaid any action. 'Taxpayers won't pay for it,' Kelly recently told The Times. He said he didn't know if people might reconsider in the wake of this tragedy. In 2018, Kerr County applied for a $1 million grant for a flood warning system. The application was not selected, according to KXAN. In 2020, a commissioner said the county had been 'trying to get a new flood warning system here.' As recently as a May budget meeting, commissioners were discussing a system being developed by a regional agency. Attempts to improve response on a state level were also met with resistance in the last few months. A bill that would have established a statewide plan to improve the state's disaster response did not pass at the statehouse. But, had it passed, it still would not have gone into effect until after the Hill Country flooding, The Texas Tribune noted. And it's not just smaller communities that lacked warning systems. The city of Austin, which also saw fatalities in the floods and is one of the state's largest cities and home to nearly a 1 million residents, doesn't have an emergency warning system. But, a spokesperso n for the city of Austin told KXAN the fastest way to get information out is with 'the technology we have today' and there was a concern that sirens could 'cause confusion.' Since the disaster, 446 people have signed a petition for an early warning siren system in Kerr County. Moser said Kerr County had previously taken some measures to mitigate potential danger, including installing flood gauges and barriers, according to The Washington Post. This weekend, Texas Governor Greg Abbott says a special session at the Capitol will focus on better warnings for floods. It's hard to know how much of a difference a flood warning system would have made last Friday, Moser said. But, he believes it could have had some benefit. As of Monday afternoon, the death toll stood at 91 people with dozens more still missing. 'I think it could have helped a lot of people,' said Moser.
Time of India
07-07-2025
- Climate
- Time of India
Big revelation in Texas tragedy: Was ‘flash flood' warning system scrapped before 27 died at Camp Mystic?
Live Events Texas officials scrapped 'Flash Flood Alley' NWS defends flood warnings amid cuts (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel A July Fourth weekend deluge in Texas caused catastrophic flash flooding that has killed more than 80 people. Camp Mystic in Kerr County says Monday morning that it is 'grieving the loss' of 27 campers. The risk of life-threatening flooding was still high in central Texas with more rain on the in Kerr County, Texas had discussed installing a flood warning system along the banks of the Guadalupe River, known as 'Flash Flood Alley". But the idea was rejected as it was too expensive, reports The New York floods, which occur when the ground is unable to absorb torrential rainfall, are not unusual in this region of south and central Texas, known colloquially as " Flash Flood Alley ." Human-driven climate change has made extreme weather events such as floods, droughts and heat waves more frequent and more intense in recent years.A flood warning system was first suggested in 2015 in the wake of deadly floods in Wimberley, Texas, some 75 miles east of Kerrville, the Kerr County to the outlet, Kerr County had looked into installing sirens, river gauges and other modern communication tools along the waterway in 2017. But it never happened. 'We can do all the water-level monitoring we want, but if we don't get that information to the public in a timely way, then this whole thing is not worth it,' Kerr County Commissioner Tom Moser said at the the county, which has an annual budget of around $67 million, lost out on a bid to secure a $1 million grant to fund the project in 2017, county commission meeting minutes show. It is unclear how much installing a flood warning system would have cost report says Rob Kelly, the Kerr County judge and its most senior elected official in a recent interview, said residents were hesitant about the high cost of a warning system. 'Taxpayers won't pay for it,' he said, according to the the devastating floods, Wimberley upgraded to a more advanced monitoring system, installing cell towers to send emergency alerts directly to local by Wimberley's improvements, former commissioner Moser visited the town to study the new flood warning setup and returned to Kerr County advocating for a similar approach. His plan included enhanced water detection technology and improved public alert mechanisms, but it ultimately stalled due to budget constraints.'It sort of evaporated. It just didn't happen,' he told the admitted that he 'didn't know' if people might reconsider their position in light of the recent admitted it isn't certain that a flood warning system like the one he proposed a decade ago would have prevented the recent tragedy in the county, which has seen at least 80 killed, including some 28 children — but he does believe it would have made a difference.'I think it could have helped a lot of people,' he fatal and deadly floods in Texas have also sparked a fresh round of scrutiny of Trump administration cuts to the National Weather Service (NWS). Some Texas officials were critical of the NWS, saying forecasts underestimated the Donald Trump rejected the idea of investigating whether NWS cuts had left key vacancies, and the White House said claims that NWS cuts had anything to do with the tragedy were 'disgusting", reports NBC News.'The forecasting was good. The warnings were good. It's always about getting people to receive the message,' said Chris Vagasky, a meteorologist based in Wisconsin. 'It appears that is one of the biggest contributors — that last mile.'(With inputs from agencies)
