Texas floods: How geography, climate and policy failures collided

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The call comes as the US National Weather Service, like other agencies, has experienced deep staffing cuts under President Donald Trump's administration.

Experts stress, however, that NWS forecasters performed admirably under the circumstances.

The real failure, wrote climate scientist Daniel Swain on Bluesky, "was not a bad weather prediction, it was one of 'last mile' forecast/warning dissemination."

For years, commissioners in Kerr County, where the camps lie, considered flood sirens and digital alerts to replace the informal practice of summer camp staff getting on the radio and warning fellow camps.

Minutes from a 2016 meeting show officials labelling even a feasibility study "a little extravagant," suggesting sirens would mainly help tourists, and vouching for the word-of-mouth system.

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