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Being a democratic government does not mean you can’t be proactive and have emergency services. Does he think Switzerland has a public consultation every time there’s an avalanche?
In the US the latter used to be FEMA’s job, and with respect to the former the feds allocated flood (and more generally disaster) mitigation funds, for the day decade or so Texas has systematically ignored those funds or tried to route them elsewhere, and in 2021 under ARPA the county was awarded millions which could have been used for flood alert and prevention but decided to not do any of that for political reasons, and send most of it to the PD instead.
The results are plain to see, and in my opinion at least, put much more expensive US responses to shame. So much for a democratic government being unable to plan.
Texas has been run by Republicans for all of living memory, and when it was given money for spending on this exact situation (flash flood warning system), it was given it by Democrats, and therefore politicized the money by spending it on police (the framing being that democrats don't want police to be funded, which is of course absurd). American bureaucracy is rendered nearly nonfunctional by overpoliticization such as this. I can't remember the last time a funding bill was being voted on that didn't result in a government shutdown or nearly so. Imagine a country's legislative body being so politicized it can't even fund the country's bureaucratic organs. Clownish behavior.
Meanwhile the PRC, for all its flaws, suffers none of this oppositional politicizing. The downside is that corruption can run much deeper and essentially unchallenged so long as it serves the greater needs of the one party, among other things. The upside is that the majority of the government's power (which includes money) is spent with remarkably little waste and redirection, despite that corruption.
However in the specific case of the floods it's almost certain that the CPC's propaganda arms worked overtime to make it seem like there was less death and damage from the flooding than there really was. There's a large class of "undocumented" poverty class people in the PRC that lose swaths of their populations in disasters like this and it's very easy to hide their deaths.
If liberal democracies want to survive they need to be better at governing than something like the PRC or they're all going to be wiped out on the global marketplace as the PRC overcomes its historical issues and further solidifies and enriches its population and infrastructure.
Anyways, I unfortunately believe most of the deceased likely perished within minutes of being swept away. I don’t know how any response time could beat that especially given the terrain and conditions at the time. I think what is going to come of this will be an alert system similar to tornado sirens we have up in Dallas. If people could have been woken up and moved to higher ground even with just 10 minutes notice, the death stats would be significantly lower. If I had property anywhere near this (there are other similar rivers in the region), I’d be installing something on my property right now.
Now is better then never. However this was already evaluated and dismissed before. Tragedy described in the blog could be prevented. Here is example from Kerr county commissioners' court:
> COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You know we had a baby flood a couple weeks ago, a month or so, whatever it was. And I keep hearing these reports of the old, old system, and I know we're not going to deal with that though. Expect that to be gone where the Jones call the Smiths, and the Smiths call Camp Rio Vista, and Rio Vista blah, blah, blah, along down the line. But it's still there and it still works. The thought of our beautiful Kerr County having these damn sirens going off in the middle of night, I'm going to have to start drinking again to put up with y'all.
-- (2016) https://legacy.co.kerr.tx.us/commcrt/minutes/2016/062716CC.t...
> I think what is going to come of this will be an alert system similar to tornado sirens we have up in Dallas.
I don't share your optimism. Where will the budget for this come from? We both know our state, and how it votes.
https://apnews.com/article/texas-floods-camp-warning-system-...
We'll get the 1 million now of course, for this region, for this type of disaster, for now. In 8 years if another million is needed to upkeep the system, I don't think we'll get the funding again, unless some more kids died.
Actually... maybe we won't even get the 1 million now. How many kids died at Uvalde, for example? My mom's a Texan teacher. The post Uvalde response: her principal asked her how she'd feel about carrying a handgun in school. My experience is if an issue is politicized, then Texas will make the wrong choice, every time.
I have no hope for my state anymore. If you can maintain optimism, I admire you and hope you stick around, we'll need more people like you.
Republicans have an iron grip on Texas and the result is any funding for disaster preparedness will never be used. They were warned of the cold weather issues a decade ago and decided to pocket the money. They've been warned of flooding and other issues, and again pocket the money. The only way things are going to change in Texas is if people get actually angry about these disasters and the ineptitude of the state government but I don't see that happening in my lifetime.
I actually think the private option is ideal given how rural a lot of this area is. Public infrastructure makes more sense at camp sites and where RV parks and such. It will be difficult / maybe overkill to get a full coverage alert system and likely will hold ip any investment in such thing. As the plan for full coverage is likely 5x the cost of 90% coverage.
I’ve been in Texas all my 45 years and don’t even know what hope in politics looks like so in a weird way I’m used to it and it’s my status quo to not expect anything from them.
They couldn't come up with the money on their own because apparently a lot of the residents are really into wanting to reduce property taxes and government spending:
> An examination of transcripts since 2016 from Kerr County’s governing body, the commissioners court, offers a peek into a small Texas county paralyzed by two competing interests: to make one of the country’s most dangerous region for flash flooding safer and to heed to near constant calls from constituents to reduce property taxes and government waste.
They did apply for a FEMA grant for this, but apparently there was an issue with the application:
> By the next year, officials had sent off its application for a $731,413 grant to FEMA to help bring $976,000 worth of flood warning upgrades, including 10 high water detection systems without flashers, 20 gauges, possible outdoor sirens, and more.
> “The purpose of this project is to provide Kerr County with a flood warning system,” the county wrote in its application. “The System will be utilized for mass notification to citizens about high water levels and flooding conditions throughout Kerr County.”
> But the Texas Division of Emergency Management, which oversees billions of FEMA dollars designed to prevent disasters, denied the application because they didn’t have a current hazard mitigation plan. They resubmitted it, news outlets reported, but by then, priority was given to counties that had suffered damage from Hurricane Harvey.
A great opportunity came in 2021 to deal with this but it was not taken:
> In 2021, Kerr County was awarded a $10.2 million windfall from the American Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA, which Congress passed that same year to support local governments impacted by the pandemic. Cities and counties were given flexibility to use the money on a variety of expenses, including those related to storm-related infrastructure. Corpus Christi, for example, allocated $15 million of its ARPA funding to “rehabilitate and/or replace aging storm water infrastructure.” Waco’s McLennan County spent $868,000 on low water crossings.
> Kerr County did not opt for ARPA to fund flood warning systems despite commissioners discussing such projects nearly two dozen times since 2016. In fact, a survey sent to residents about ARPA spending showed that 42% of the 180 responses wanted to reject the $10 million bonus altogether, largely on political grounds.
> “I’m here to ask this court today to send this money back to the Biden administration, which I consider to be the most criminal treasonous communist government ever to hold the White House,” one resident told commissioners in April 2022, fearing strings were attached to the money.
> “We don't want to be bought by the federal government, thank you very much,” another resident told commissioners. “We'd like the federal government to stay out of Kerr County and their money.”
[1] https://www.texastribune.org/2025/07/10/texas-kerr-county-co...
I somewhat get the individual spirit. Some of this was clearly fueled by the uber Conservative mindset of the area. If Trump offered them the same funds for the same purpose they'd kiss his feet. Most people in the area are also not living on the river and don't really suffer consequences from flooding other than minor inconveniences (maybe more this time than usual obviously), so it's easy for them to let their political biases take reign as they personally are not at risk for the problems these funds are going towards. This is the down side to overly individual spirits, they can't see (or don't care) how this is anyone's interests if it's not in theirs.
The sample size of 180 survey responses is laughable and means nothing, hopefully that didn't sway anyone. Of course the most vocal polarized views are going to be the ones that responded.