Nothing in this article about how Kerr County officials failed to use available alert systems to warn citizens about deadly flooding surprises me, because the same thing happened to us in 2017, Lahaina in 2023, and elsewhere elsewhen.
The Washington Post reports that Texas emergency managers did not use their IPAWS system, which would have transmitted alerts to cell phones and could sent tailored messages to targeted areas. Kerr County officials haven't yet explained why they didn't push the button.
In the case of our firestorm, as I wrote in my graphic novel "A Fire Story," they didn't want to cause a panic that might have gridlocked streets and led to a catastrophic death toll. Our county's warning system, called Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA), could have narrowly targeted particular neighborhoods, but local officials later said they didn't know it could do that. So virtually no alerts went out. Most of us were awakened by hot howling winds or the sound of neighbors or firefighters pounding on our doors.
In our fire's aftermath, one county official acknowledged to me that not pushing the button was their biggest mistake. They should have clanged every bell, blared every siren, and buzzed every phone they could, he told me.
We won't make that mistake again. I am mad and sad to see so many others learning the same lesson the hard way.
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