Time has come for me to say a few things on this nightmare we've all been living through. I have purposely waited to say anything to let the search, rescue, recovery, grieving process have time and space.
This lengthy post will also be very therapeutic for me. Just get things off my chest... I have cried on multiple occasions. Early this week in a conversation with my wife in the kitchen, I just suddenly broke down. I can tell you Amber is my rock and was everything I needed to calm down.
At times, I've been overwhelmed with forecaster regret I could have done more the night before in my weather report. I now fully understand it. I attended an AMS chapter meeting where Springfield, MO National Weather Service (NWS) meteorologists gave a presentation on their experience with the Joplin Tornado of 2011 that killed 158 people. I listened to them describe feeling scarred by the disaster. They asked themselves if their warnings were early enough, strong enough. The room was very silent through that presentation. It left a mark on me but you can't fully understand that feeling until you experience it for yourself.
Our local NWS office was absolutely fantastic before and during this event. I couldn't be more proud of this office for their watches and warnings. They did their part. But I'm more than sure they too are feeling the weight of this disaster like the meteorologists in Springfield, MO. God bless each one of you.
As for me, being on-air the night before in my 5pm, 6pm, 10pm weather saying "risk of an epic rainfall, flash flooding" apparently wasn't enough to cause alarm and have word spread through communities impacted. You only need a couple people to hear what you're saying then it spreads like crazy on social media, etc.. Maybe in my forecast, a portion of it dedicated to 4th of July firework show rain chances muddied the flooding messaging? These are things bouncing around in my head.
And today, I'm doing a little better but some of that I believe is a numbing effect of being beat down daily with updated casualty numbers. It's like my heart bottomed out and can't sink any lower. I'm just grinding along...
We live in Flash Flood Alley, a nickname given to our part of Texas. It stretches from basically the Rio Grande, up the I-35 corridor from San Antonio to DFW. A devastating combination of elevation change from the gulf to Hill Country, more rocky limestone than mud, terrain with narrow valleys and tropical systems, mere remnants of tropical systems or just non-tropical related thunderstorms sitting over one spot or training over one spot for a lengthy period of time with high rainfall rates.
Tucked in Flash Flood Alley is arguably the most dangerous valley in the country for flash flooding, the Guadalupe River watershed. Prime flash flooding setup with outdoor enthusiasts and population along its beautiful riverbanks.
There's the old saying, "you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink the water". Well, Mother Nature has led us to water (full of deadly consequences) time & time again and we have yet to fully arm ourselves with layers of protection to warn those along the river. We put a system up for vote to taxpayers which was rejected.
IT IS DAMN WELL PAST TIME we have a loud siren system especially in rural portions of the river valley. Had a system been in place to be activated with a push of a button and a deafening ear piercing alarm had gone off deep in the night when many are asleep. Even more so when phone signals are weak to nonexistent and some won't have a NOAA weather radio which should be mandatory when other forms of communication are lacking for vital severe weather information.
This was a perfect storm for all the wrong reasons. Going into a holiday weekend with campers, RVers and families gathered along the river with an occurrence deep in the night when most have shut it down for a night's rest. An obnoxiously loud siren system could have been a game changer!
Some will say, it was a 100yr flood or even greater. We won't have to endure it for a long time. But damn it, history has shown us this river and our surrounding rivers in our region will come calling at some point. German immigrants in New Braunfels faced the wrath of the river in the 1840s. Eventually, we built a flood control lake known as Canyon Lake to protect downstream towns. Lets fully protect upriver to the headwaters now.
San Antonio River took many lives in the early 1900s. Dams were built and the River Walk was developed to control raging floods.
This is not new. You can go back centuries or further into the paleoclimatological records to see these rivers can rage. And there was no "cloud seeding" all those epic floods either for that crowd pushing a false narrative.
Lets not let the tragic loss of so many precious lives be wasted on in-action. GET IT DONE!! We should never speak of a nightmare like this ever again especially in 2025.
May God be with all the families devastated by this flood including our community wrapping our collective arms around these families and region impacted

Time has come for me to say a few things on this nightmare we've all been living through. I have purposely waited to say anything to let the search, rescue, recovery, grieving process have time and...
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