big_al_the_riddler
Apparently Biden tried to give Kerr County, Texas 10 million dollars for flood warning alert systems but their local leaders wanted to spite him so they spent it on a new radio for the sheriffs department instead? I wonder how they feel now.Again, for the people living in towns. Note the “farthest reaching” in that headline I sent you. The most rural areas, such as that summer camp that got hit, often don’t get access to these alerts like other areas, which is why it’s important to make sure they’re adequately funded to be able to do so. It wasn’t in Kerr County, and the more isolated residents unfortunately paid the price. I’m glad your friends got the alerts, but that very clearly wasn’t the same experience for the most rural.
They accepted the money, then used it to fund the sheriffs department. In those officials comments, they talk about how they don’t want to support the “devil in the White House” and take money from Biden, specifically. They didn’t use the money for its intended purpose, and now we’re seeing the consequences of that.
It is important, but I would argue much less so than having immediate alert systems that are accessible to citizens themselves so they can properly evacuate. Currently, we’re seeing the impact that comes with not having that set in place. The toll of the dead and missing speaks for itself.
There was an alert system in place. I received flood warnings (I live in central Texas) two days before the flood even happened and had so many notifications sent to me phone. The problem was there was so many notifications that people didn’t believe them (boy who cries wolf)
Because idk if you realize this, but emergency response and alert systems differ from county to county. While some may have well funded emergency alert systems and make that a priority, others won’t because it’s not made a priority by their leadership/commissioners. I’m lucky to live in a county with good emergency alert systems because we’re susceptible to wildfires. it’s unfortunate that Kerr didn’t have the same because the resources were mismanaged.
Do you have proof of that or is this just an assumption you’re running with, because again, if they even live 30 minutes away and technically in a separate county, they may not have access to those same resources. Where I live, you get emergency alerts if you’re a resident of the county, based on where you live.
For context, I live in a rural county in the PNW, where wildfires are our most natural disaster to deal with. While our county has a pretty good alert system following several disasters in the past where we didn’t, other counties roughly an hour away don’t have those same resources and tend to get hit even harder because those services don’t transfer county to county. Your access to these things is not always universal
I only called one family and it was the guy who I went to high school with and I said something along the lines of I’ve been receiving alerts about flooding sending my prayers from austin (staying at college for the summer) and they said they’ve received the warnings too but weren’t sure if they wanted to leave
Our town actually was hit by a very heavy flood recently following an unusually heavy rainfall that destroyed several homes and ruined people’s lives. While those living in cities, with better access to emergency response systems, got out relatively unscathed, those living out of town and who are more isolated lost everything. It seems the same is happening in Texas rn.