A top weather expert claims the young girls swept away in Texas‘ July 4 flooding tragedy might still be alive if local officials had heeded their early warning.
AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Jonathan Porter revealed to the Daily Mail the true extent of the scandal surrounding Camp Mystic, saying their forecasters sent out an alert of life-threatening floods 30 minutes before the National Weather Service.
The 12:44am CT warning specifically targeted Hunt, Texas, home to the Christian girls’ summer camp, and urgently stated ‘flooding is imminent’ and ‘water may rapidly flood streets, streams and low-lying areas.’
‘Stay away from areas prone to flooding and do not enter floodwaters as sinkholes, washouts, or swift currents might be present. Be prepared to quickly move to higher ground,’ the alert concluded.
AccuWeather officials also confirmed that their warnings regularly arrive faster than other forecasting services and were available to all government agencies before the storm.
Although Porter admitted that the late-night timing of the storm likely played a role in the inaction on the ground, there was still three hours before rising flood waters from the overflowing Guadalupe River peaked in Hunt, around 4:30am.
‘You can’t go to sleep and be responsible for the safety of large numbers of people,’ Porter declared. ‘That’s going to be the question in terms of, ‘Was somebody constantly monitoring that?’ They’ve got to have somebody monitoring for severe weather warnings 24/7.’
Questions are now being raised regarding the preparedness of the staff at Camp Mystic, which had submitted an emergency disaster plan to Texas officials two days before 27 young girls and counselors died in the devastating flash floods.
This heartbreaking photo shows an entire cabin of Camp Mystic girls and counselors who were washed away in the horrific Texas floods. The 13 girls and two counselors were staying in Camp Mystic’s Bubble Inn cabin, which, alongside Twins cabin, housed the youngest campers
AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Jonathan Porter told the Daily Mail that AccuWeather forecasters sent out an urgent alert of life-threatening floods in Kerr Country 30 minutes before the National Weather Service (NWS) on July 4
30 minutes after the AccuWeather alert was sent out, NWS Austin/San Antonio issued their own warning for Bandera and Kerr Counties at 1:14am CT, saying the area would see ‘life-threatening flash flooding of creeks and streams, urban areas, highways, streets and underpasses’
NWS Austin/San Antonio issued its own warning for Bandera and Kerr Counties at 1:14am, mentioning areas including Hunt would see ‘life-threatening flash flooding of creeks and streams, urban areas, highways, streets and underpasses.’
The operators of Camp Mystic have not returned the Daily Mail’s request for comment.
DSHS spokesperson Lara Anton noted that Camp Mystic was inspected by state officials on July 2. They verified that the camp had an emergency plan in place, which covered disasters such as floods.
‘The inspector also confirms that the plans are posted in all buildings as required and that the procedures were reviewed with camp staff,’ Anton explained.
Anton noted that Texas DSHS does not keep a copy of that specific evacuation plan, nor do they ‘approve’ of any organization’s plans. The inspectors simply confirm that groups like Camp Mystic present an emergency plan to the state each year.
Texas DSHS provided records showing that Camp Mystic had been in compliance with the state’s laws and safety rules since 2020, adding that ‘the camp director is responsible’ for providing and implementing this plan during a crisis.
State documents named Britt Eastland as the primary director of the family-owned camp. However, Camp Mystic lists Tweety and Richard ‘Dick’ Eastland as the co-owners and executive directors on its website.
Dick, 70, died while trying to rescue campers from the rushing waters on July 4.
The NWS said, ‘Weather Forecast Offices (WFOs) in Austin/San Antonio and San Angelo, TX had extra personnel on duty during the catastrophic flooding event in Texas’ Hill Country during the July 4 holiday weekend.’ Pictured is a view inside of a cabin at Camp Mystic after the flooding
Porter said Texas officials began receiving dire warnings to evacuate young campers sleeping in America’s most dangerous flood zone earlier than previously reported
Richard ‘Dick’ Eastland (center) and his wife, Tweety, have owned and operated Camp Mystic since 1974. Britt Eastland (third from left) was named as the director responsible for emergency planning on documents filed with the Texas Department of State Health Services
It remains unclear if camp officials were following the emergency plan presented to Texas DSHS or what actions were taken in the three hours after AccuWeather and NWS sent their urgent alerts.
Porter contended that the disaster was no random and unpredictable storm, calling this region ‘the flash flood capital of the United States.’
He added that local officials needed to be monitoring for potentially deadly weather in the area 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
‘It’s clear to see that this kind of event in the Texas Hill Country is not a unicorn event,’ Porter explained. ‘It happens from time to time.’
The meteorologist added that emergency officials in Central Texas were warned of the risks a day before peak flooding reached Hunt, where 10 young girls at Camp Mystic are still missing.
‘There appears to have been inaction on the part of some officials, in terms of being able to take those warnings and turn them into decisive action to evacuate people from the greatest risk areas,’ Porter continued.
As of Wednesday, at least 120 people have been confirmed dead along the Guadalupe River and its surrounding counties. More than 170 have been declared missing, with the majority of those being in Kerr County.
Porter compared the measures needed in flood-prone areas to the steps state officials normally take with physical security for major events, especially when children are involved.
Authorities overseeing the search for flood victims said they will wait to address questions about weather warnings and why some summer camps did not evacuate ahead of the flooding that killed at least 120
Ten girls and one counselor are missing from Camp Mystic in Hunt, Texas. Overall, at least 120 have died in the flash floods which swept through the Hill Country over Fourth of July weekend
As for what caused the devastating rainstorm, Porter explained that several factors conspire together to cause deadly floods on a regular basis in Texas, including deadly events in 1987 and 2015.
Those include the steep terrain of the aptly named Hill Country. This causes rainfall to easily pour down from the higher elevations into the creeks, streams and rivers below, leading to rapid flooding.
The soil in the Hill Country is also incredibly arid, meaning it doesn’t absorb water very well, causing excess runoff.
Additionally, Porter revealed that the Hill Country is located near two large sources of atmospheric moisture, the Gulf and the Eastern Pacific.
On top of that, the steering winds in this part of Texas are high above the ground – between 20,000 and 40,000 feet. That means people at ground-level in the Hill Country typically feel very light or no wind at all.
Porter explained that when these large pockets of moisture move into the area, there’s nothing to move out powerful thunderstorms quickly, leading them to sit over the Hill Country for long periods and cause massive flash floods.
‘In this case, they were moving very slowly, so you had persistent downpours over the same areas, producing rainfall rates of 2 to 4 inches per hour,’ the chief meteorologist said.
Porter added that all of these factors converged on July 4 and essentially produced a ‘wall of water’ that hasn’t been seen in a decade.
Porter warned that another fatal flood in this region is likely to happen again, adding that it’s urgent for people and businesses to be prepared for the next major storm.
However, the meteorologist noted that ‘any community’ in the US, from large urban centers like New York to smaller rural areas near creeks and streams, is at risk of a flash flood due to a variety of different weather factors including, but not limited to, tropical storms and hurricanes.
Porter explained that one of the most dangerous threats in nature is fast-moving water due to its unstoppable momentum and ability to quickly destroy property.
Collectively, the flooding across multiple rivers in Texas created a flood footprint spanning over 150 miles of riverine corridors.
The flood zone this time stretched far inland, covering an estimated 2,000 square miles across south-central Texas, with Kerr County bearing the brunt.
The Guadalupe River’s floodwaters spread up to 5 and 7 miles inland from its banks in some areas, particularly around Kerrville, where entire neighborhoods, fields and infrastructure were submerged.
This article was originally published by a www.dailymail.co.uk . Read the Original article here. .