Kerr County Law Enforcement and fire and EMS operate on the Greater Austin/ Travis radio system. A radio network encompassing cities and counties in a 12 County area in texas. It seems impossible to me that on a system that size with mutual Aid and fully staffed dispatch centers that critical warnings and information be disseminated quickly to decision makers as well as troops on the ground. How Could An EMA manager not sleep with a weather radio?
In 2026 NWS’s NOAA Weather Radio Network will activate Partial County Alerting, allowing county EM’s and NWS to partition a county into as many as nine sectors, each with its own unique SAME code. This can vastly reduce overwarning and its fatigue. But I must add this: I would rather be over-warned than under-warned. Over-warned is an inconvenience. Under-warned is a funeral.
Thank you Alan for a really well-written summation of the situation. I've spent a fair amount of time in the Kerrville area. I was just there over Easter weekend for a cycling event and my wife drove through on the Interstate around mid-day on JULY 3rd (!). It is a beautiful area and with genuinely nice people. BUT, they do not seem willing to understand that much more could have, and should have, been done BEFORE this terrible event. Once the Flash Flood Watch was issued the afternoon of the 3rd, everyone residential and commercial should have been on alert. For no one to have been awake and monitoring the situation on a holiday weekend with many out-of-town visitors around was beyond understanding. Hopefully, there will be actions taken this time because you are correct that it can (and likely will) happen again.
(A) Thank you for this. I've only recently found you, though I have been a student of sensible meteorology via Matt Lanza and Eric Berber for many years. I'm also an academic, and your insights into the bureaucratic workings have been so incredibly helpful to me, so thank you.
(C) My complaint with weather radios is that the gridding isn't fine enough. Harris County, TX (where I live) is 1,777m^2. Even when the radio is restricted to my county, it will scream at me (usually around 2–4 am) over some bit of weather that is nowhere near me and is never going to be. I only plug it in continuously for hurricane season and intermittently if Space City Weather flags something I need to keep an eye on, mostly to protect my sleep. I supplement with Wunderground severe weather alerts, which are less disruptive if the alert proves to be irrelevant to me. It's not a perfect system, but it has kept me reasonably well covered for the type of weather I get in my area. I would probably change my tune if I lived somewhere inside tornado alley or along a river floodplain.
Thanks for the comment and kind words. NWS has been talking about giving weather radio the capability of subdivided counties to improve the resolution for literally decades now. I am not sure where it stands though.
Great article with excellent insight. While NOAA Weather radios are often poo-pooed by some, they can be an essential line of communication - especially in areas with spotty cell service.
I also disagree that 4 flash flood warnings in 7 months is not enough to induce "warning fatigue." We meteorologists focus on ourselves and how other meteorologists view things when we should be focusing on how the public perceives our work.
And, we just did it to ourselves again in Hawaii last night when NWS's forecast of a tsunami "at least ten feet above sea level" didn't come close to verifying. People sat in traffic for hours with tsunami sirens periodically wailing for... practically nothing in the populated areas. There were also major errors by emergency management.
Texas July 4 and last night metaphorically cry out by a National Disaster Review Board.
Your last sentence is one place we wholeheartedly agree. We absolutely need an impartial board of multiple SMEs where this mess sorts of events can be fully dissected and evaluated rather than us just discussing and debating on the web.
Kerr County Law Enforcement and fire and EMS operate on the Greater Austin/ Travis radio system. A radio network encompassing cities and counties in a 12 County area in texas. It seems impossible to me that on a system that size with mutual Aid and fully staffed dispatch centers that critical warnings and information be disseminated quickly to decision makers as well as troops on the ground. How Could An EMA manager not sleep with a weather radio?
It’s clear to me those saying “nothing could have been done” don’t understand mitigation and preparedness. It’s really sad. I thought better of Texas.
In 2026 NWS’s NOAA Weather Radio Network will activate Partial County Alerting, allowing county EM’s and NWS to partition a county into as many as nine sectors, each with its own unique SAME code. This can vastly reduce overwarning and its fatigue. But I must add this: I would rather be over-warned than under-warned. Over-warned is an inconvenience. Under-warned is a funeral.
Thank you Alan for a really well-written summation of the situation. I've spent a fair amount of time in the Kerrville area. I was just there over Easter weekend for a cycling event and my wife drove through on the Interstate around mid-day on JULY 3rd (!). It is a beautiful area and with genuinely nice people. BUT, they do not seem willing to understand that much more could have, and should have, been done BEFORE this terrible event. Once the Flash Flood Watch was issued the afternoon of the 3rd, everyone residential and commercial should have been on alert. For no one to have been awake and monitoring the situation on a holiday weekend with many out-of-town visitors around was beyond understanding. Hopefully, there will be actions taken this time because you are correct that it can (and likely will) happen again.
(A) Thank you for this. I've only recently found you, though I have been a student of sensible meteorology via Matt Lanza and Eric Berber for many years. I'm also an academic, and your insights into the bureaucratic workings have been so incredibly helpful to me, so thank you.
(B) The Houston Chronicle published the FOIAed emails and text messages of Kerrville officials yesterday (https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/investigations/article/kerrville-texts-kerr-county-tension-flooding-20788493.php).
(C) My complaint with weather radios is that the gridding isn't fine enough. Harris County, TX (where I live) is 1,777m^2. Even when the radio is restricted to my county, it will scream at me (usually around 2–4 am) over some bit of weather that is nowhere near me and is never going to be. I only plug it in continuously for hurricane season and intermittently if Space City Weather flags something I need to keep an eye on, mostly to protect my sleep. I supplement with Wunderground severe weather alerts, which are less disruptive if the alert proves to be irrelevant to me. It's not a perfect system, but it has kept me reasonably well covered for the type of weather I get in my area. I would probably change my tune if I lived somewhere inside tornado alley or along a river floodplain.
Thanks for the comment and kind words. NWS has been talking about giving weather radio the capability of subdivided counties to improve the resolution for literally decades now. I am not sure where it stands though.
Great article with excellent insight. While NOAA Weather radios are often poo-pooed by some, they can be an essential line of communication - especially in areas with spotty cell service.
I have a difference of opinion as to the quality of the flood warnings issued by the NWS in the pre-dawn hours of July 4.
Please take a close look at this: https://www.mikesmithenterprisesblog.com/2025/07/life-threatening-confusion-with.html
I also disagree that 4 flash flood warnings in 7 months is not enough to induce "warning fatigue." We meteorologists focus on ourselves and how other meteorologists view things when we should be focusing on how the public perceives our work.
And, we just did it to ourselves again in Hawaii last night when NWS's forecast of a tsunami "at least ten feet above sea level" didn't come close to verifying. People sat in traffic for hours with tsunami sirens periodically wailing for... practically nothing in the populated areas. There were also major errors by emergency management.
Texas July 4 and last night metaphorically cry out by a National Disaster Review Board.
Your last sentence is one place we wholeheartedly agree. We absolutely need an impartial board of multiple SMEs where this mess sorts of events can be fully dissected and evaluated rather than us just discussing and debating on the web.