City manager of Kerrville: "We were reluctant to "cry wolf....."

[Diamond_Dog]

(snip)

At a series of briefings since the flooding on July 4, Kerr County officials have deflected a series of pointed questions about preparations and warnings as forecasters warned of life-threatening conditions.

The county in the scenic Texas Hill Country is home to several summer camps, including Camp Mystic, an all-girls Christian summer camp that announced Monday it lost at least 27 campers and counselors.

“Today’s not the day and now’s not the time to discuss the warnings, who got them, who didn’t got them. Right now I’m only worried about public safety,” Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha said Monday during an emergency session of the county commissioners court.

Dalton Rice, the city manager of Kerrville, said Monday that authorities were reluctant to “cry wolf” and order evacuations, adding that rainfall “significantly” exceeded the projected amounts. He said officials had little time to react in the middle of the night, adding that qualified first responders were being “swept away” driving through the initial rainfall.

https://apnews.com/article/texas-floods-kerr-county-warnings-31c4e493e9f1b6d0406df310e74d3f98#

[Girard442]

1. "I'm sure those children expected at any moment that an adult was going to rescue them,"

No words.

[milestogo]

2. These brothers got out just in time

https://www.msnbc.com/chris-jansing-reports/watch/brothers-who-escaped-flooded-texas-camp-speak-out-242801221542

[Torchlight]

3. His variation on "3.6 roentgen. Not great, not terrible"

This is the perfect time to discuss "the warnings, who got them, who didn’t got them." As a matter of fact, there is no better time for this public discussion, as the consequences are immediate, visceral, and undeniable.

I can understand why he doesn't want to address those particular aspects that would cast credible doubts across the GOP's defunding of critical infrastructure, meaning they won't meaningfully address any of it except to say "out thoughts and prayers are with..."

[dlilafae]

4. "Todays not the day, now is not the time."

It's their standard pat answer when they fail people.

[LeftInTX]

5. They probably were asleep!!!

This guy was watching the weather! He had his campers move to higher ground at 1 am.

It was about 1 a.m. on the Fourth of July when the facilities manager at a central Texas summer camp saw water from the Guadalupe River steadily rising amid a deluge of rain.

Aroldo Barrera notified his boss, who had been monitoring reports of the storms approaching Presbyterian Mo-Ranch Assembly, a recreation destination where an intercultural youth conference had been called off early just hours earlier.

Despite an absence of warning by local authorities, camp officials acted quickly on their own, relocating about 70 children and adults staying overnight in a building near the river. With the kids safe, camp leaders including President and CEO Tim Huchton were able to avoid the catastrophe that hit at least one other camp near Hunt, where the 500-acre Mo-Ranch is located.

“They helped them pack up,” Lisa Winters, communications director for Mo-Ranch, told The Associated Press on Sunday. “They got them up, they got them out, put them up on higher ground.”

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/06/quick-action-by-1-texas-summer-camp-led-to-timely-evacuations-ahead-of-deadly-flood-00441065

[TheBlackAdder]

6. Sleeping off a keg?

[LeftInTX]

8. Or this?

&ab_channel=High-DefDigest

[MineralMan]

7. If there is a whole pack of wolves, you moron, go ahead!

[Ping Tung]

9. Anotther platitude for the reluctant manageer......Better Safe Than Sorry.

[lostnfound]

10. "Fear of crying wolf" is a combo of personal ego and societal shaming?

Personal ego: I don’t want to be embarrassed by giving a false alarm and being perceived as over-reacting
Societal shaming: The guy who got us out of bed for a little rain is a scaredy-cat or doesn’t know what he is doing
Fear of making a mistake runs pretty deep.

I don’t understand why there wasn’t an old fashioned siren system that could have been a fallback option when the $975,000 grant was denied.
Resilient, redundant, decentralized solutions are part of the answer to climate change survival.

As a Girl Scout 150 years ago (haha) I was taught emergency procedures and briefed upon arrival at camp with things like “if you hear the siren, everyone is to immediately meet at…”. I can’t speak for the boys, but the girls would have followed instructions.

Instead of a loud siren, you had 9 or 10 year old boys crossing flood waters to go from one cabin to another to warn another cabin or to find their brother. That’s what I heard in an interview. I wondered, why was there no siren? Regardless of the $975,000 grant denial (for which I blame the Trump 1 administration) and the absence of an Weather Coordinator (for which I blame the Trump 2 administration), a more primitive but loud siren system could have been pursued as a Plan B.

Ask a class of Texas A&M engineering undergrads to design inexpensive systems, downselect and prototype, and choose the best system among them.

[Diamond_Dog]

11. Absolutely, lostnfound.

I was a Girl,Scout, too.
Your post makes way too much sense for Republicans to understand.

[mercuryblues]

12. Hara-kiri

would help him sleep a̴t̴ ̴n̴i̴g̴h̴t̴ for participating in the deaths of hundreds of his citizens, that he was supposed to protect.