Latest news with #emergencyalert
Washington Post
a day ago
- Climate
- Washington Post
Vietnam races to prepare for Typhoon Wipha as Philippines suffers storm deaths
HANOI, Vietnam — Vietnam braced for Typhoon Wipha on Monday as coastal provinces were placed on emergency alert and airlines canceled flights ahead of the storm's expected landfall early Tuesday. The typhoon is forecast to bring powerful winds and heavy rainfall, raising the risk of flash floods and landslides in northern Vietnam's mountainous areas and flooding in urban centers, including Hanoi.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
‘Replace the people that failed us.' Former Kerr Co. IT official calls for change after flood alert delay
KERR COUNTY, Texas (KXAN) – The man who said he helped Kerr County implement an emergency alert system in his former role there as information technology director is now calling on top leaders to step down following a flash flood that killed more than 100 people. John David Trolinger said he held that post for 15 years and retired in 2019. In a phone interview this week with KXAN Investigators, he called delays in issuing notifications to cellphones in the area 'incompetence' and 'a leadership failure.' 'I don't see anything that the county needs to do differently other than get a new sheriff and a new emergency manager,' Trolinger said. 'I don't think there's any solution other than to replace the people that failed us.' Evidence collected by KXAN – including dispatch audio and FEMA data – shows county officials did not send alerts for hours after a National Weather Service warning, and more targeted alerts did not go out for days. 'I know that's going to be asked over and over,' Sheriff Larry Leitha said when questioned about the timeline of the alerts in a press conference following the July 4 flood. 'Please understand that… We're not going to hide from everything, that's going to be checked into at a later time.' On Thursday, a joint information center established by area agencies to coordinate responses to media inquiries related to the flood told KXAN a 'complete review of the incident' was 'well underway,' adding – at this stage – it 'would not be appropriate to comment on statements made by a former Kerr County employee.' 'I'm telling you, on this public information, you're going to be stonewalled,' Trolinger said. 'You will be made to feel guilty just for asking for the information.' Trolinger said he retired over disagreements with County Judge Rob Kelly. Questions for Kelly and other county officials have not been answered directly. Local officials have said they are suspending the legal timeline for responding to such requests 'due to the catastrophic flooding of the Guadalupe River.' Before directing KXAN to the information center himself, Emergency Management Coordinator W.B. 'Dub' Thomas replied, saying: 'We will not be responding to your email below or future messages.' Thomas, who has served in that role since 2015, is also at the center of Trolinger's frustration. 'It's [Thomas'] responsibility – the emergency manager – to get the messages from the state and from the weather service and prepare everyone – like the county judge and the dispatchers – to let them know that there's some event coming to watch out for.' Trolinger said Thomas should have made that decision the day before the flood – on July 3, following an NWS flood watch for Kerr County. 'And that's why I'm so mad,' he added. 'Send a CodeRED' The next morning – at 1:14 a.m. – the NWS issued a flash flood warning for a portion of the county. Hours later at 4:22 a.m. – still well before the river hits its height and any verified alerts issued by local officials went out – Kerr County dispatch audio obtained by KXAN from a credible source detailed an area volunteer firefighter requesting a CodeRED. 'Is there any way we can send a CodeRED out to our Hunt residents, asking them to find higher ground or stay home?' he asked. The dispatcher replied: 'We have to get that approved with our supervisor.' LISTEN: Ingram volunteer firefighter calls Kerr County dispatch during deadly July 4 flood, requesting CodeRED alert. CodeRED is a subscriber-based emergency alert system Trolinger helped establish in Kerr County during his tenure. Today, that system is connected to IPAWS – FEMA's Integrated Public Alert & Warning System – which allows the county to alert all phones in a geographical area, regardless of enrollment. But, Trolinger said, someone must still activate the notification manually. 'There's no automation at all,' he explained. 'We've got an emergency manager, and he is responsible for this to be on the lookout, to be ready and be able to warn people and prepare them for this exact scenario.' 'What the river can do' In a 2020 county commissioners meeting, Thomas spoke about connecting the already-established CodeRED process with IPAWS, detailing his knowledge of how it would work. 'If I use CodeRED, then I'll be able to – once I've taken the webinar for it – it'll show me how to access that – the IPAWS system via CodeRED,' Thomas said in archived video footage of the meeting. Trolinger said Thomas and other county officials understood the system and its purpose, having used it effectively in the years between that meeting and the deadly flood. 'It's my feeling that the institutional memory of what the river can do is what was actually lost, not the system,' he said, pointing to longtime residents' knowledge of historic flooding danger in the area – something Thomas even referenced in the 2020 video. 'We've been trying to get a new flood warning system here. We haven't been able to do it.' Thomas told Kelly and commissioners before they approved upgrading the county's alert system. 'This is just another method of being able to communicate emergencies or disastrous type information to the public when they're here.' Trolinger, Kelly and Leitha have not answered KXAN's specific questions. We have requested records of their communication during those crucial hours and will update our coverage once that becomes available. Beyond an explanation of what happened, Trolinger reiterated his hope for a change in county leadership. 'You need to have somebody… that understands what can happen and to educate the public so that they're well out of the riverbed before… the water's rushing down the river,' he said. KXAN Investigative Producer Dalton Huey and Investigative Photojournalist Chris Nelson contributed to this report. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Fox News
5 days ago
- Climate
- Fox News
New questions raised about whether Camp Mystic director saw flood warning alert
As authorities try to piece together what happened during the deadly flooding at Camp Mystic in Hunt, Texas, new questions are emerging about how the camp owner tracked the storm and whether he saw the emergency alert. Richard "Dick" Eastland reportedly began taking action after more than two inches of rain fell along the Guadalupe River, according to the Associated Press, which cited Jeff Carr, a spokesperson for the family and the camp. Carr said Eastland had a "home weather station" and was monitoring the rainfall on July 4, the Associated Press reported. Despite portraying to the media that Eastland got the weather alerts about the flash flood, Carr told the Associated Press that no one in the family or camp staff could say whether the camp owner got the alert at 1:14 a.m., making the timeline of the tragedy murky. At 1:14 a.m. on July 4, the National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning for Kerr County, sending alerts to broadcast outlets, weather radios and cell phones. The warning was escalated to a flash flood emergency just under three hours later at 4:03 a.m. This apparent shift in narrative by Carr comes after some criticized Eastland for waiting to evacuate campers. The Washington Post reported on Monday, citing Carr, that the camp owner waited until 2:30 a.m. to begin evacuating campers, more than an hour after the initial alert went out. This prompted criticism over the camp's evacuation procedures. However, Carr pushed back on those raising concerns. Carr blamed communication failures, saying that cell phone service at Camp Mystic is spotty even in clear weather. "Communication was a huge deficiency," Carr told the Associated Press. "This community was hamstrung, nobody could communicate. The first responder, the first rescue personnel that showed up was a game warden." Carr told the Associated Press that Eastland and others began evacuating girls from the cabins closest to the overflowing river and moved them to the camp's recreation hall. The flooding at Camp Mystic killed 27 campers and counselors. At least 132 people died in the central Texas flooding and dozens remain missing in the Kerrville area.
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The Independent
5 days ago
- Climate
- The Independent
Camp leader may not have seen urgent alert before deadly Texas flood, family says
Uncertainty surrounds whether the leader of Camp Mystic received a critical National Weather Service warning before deadly floods struck Texas, a spokesman for the camp's operators has revealed. The alert had triggered an emergency warning to phones in the area. Richard "Dick" Eastland, the owner of the camp, had been monitoring weather conditions, taking action after more than two inches of rain fell along the Guadalupe River on July 4, according to Jeff Carr, a spokesman for the family and the camp. Eastland reportedly possessed a "home weather station" and was actively tracking the downpour. However, Carr has now clarified that the timeline regarding Eastland's awareness of a 1a.m. emergency alert is less clear than initially suggested. While he had previously indicated Eastland received flash flood alerts, Carr told The Associated Press that no one in the family or camp staff can now definitively say whether the camp owner saw the urgent warning, despite initial assumptions. 'It was assumed that just because he had a cellphone on and shortly after that alert, he was calling his family on the walkie-talkies saying, 'Hey, we got two inches in the last hour. We need to get the canoes up. We got things to do,' ' Carr said. The new account by the family comes as Camp Mystic staff has come under scrutiny of their actions, what preventive measures were taken and the camp's emergency plan leading up to a during the catastrophic flood that has killed at least 132 people. The flash-flood warning that the National Weather Service issued at 1:14 a.m. on July 4 for Kerr County triggered an emergency alerts to broadcast outlets, weather radios and mobile phones. It warned of 'a dangerous and life-threatening situation.' The weather service extended the warning at 3:35 a.m. and escalated it to flash-flood emergency at 4:03 a.m. Eastland died while trying to rescue girls and was found in his Tahoe that was swept away by the floodwaters, Carr said. Even without a storm, the cellphone coverage at Camp Mystic is spotty at best, so campers and staff turn on their Wi-Fi, Carr said. He called ridiculous criticism that Eastland waited too long before beginning to evacuate the campers, which he said appears to have begun sometime between 2 a.m. and 2:30 a.m. 'Communication was a huge deficiency,' Carr said. "This community was hamstrung, nobody could communicate. The first responder, the first rescue personnel that showed up was a game warden.' According to Carr, Eastland and others started evacuating girls from cabins nearest the overflowing river and moved them to the camp's two-story recreation hall. Of the 10 cabins closest to the river, the recreation hall is the furthest at 865 feet (264 meters) with the closest cabin about 315 feet (96 meters), according to an Associated Press analysis of aerial imagery. To reach Senior Hill, which was on higher ground , they would have had to cross an overflowing creek, Carr said. At times the young campers were climbing hills in bare feet, he said. Some of the camp's buildings — which flooded — were in what the Federal Emergency Management Agency considered a 100-year flood plain. But in response to an appeal, FEMA in 2013 amended the county's flood map to remove 15 of the camp's buildings from the hazard area. Carr said there were 'legitimate' reasons for filing appeals and suggested that the maps may not always be accurate. Just before daybreak on the Fourth of July, destructive, fast-moving waters rose 26 feet (8 meters) on the Guadalupe River, washing away homes and vehicles. Crews in helicopters, boats and drones have been searching for victims. Officials say 97 people in the Kerrville area may still be missing.
CBS News
14-07-2025
- CBS News
"Active incident" prompts shelter-in-place order in Moorhead, alert says
Authorities are asking residents on the outskirts of the western Minnesota city of Moorhead to shelter in place Monday morning. According to an alert from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, there is an "active incident" near 40th Avenue South and 23rd Street South. Authorities advise those in the area to stay inside and lock their doors and windows. Everyone else should avoid the area. The alert gave no details about what prompted the order to take shelter.
