Many people did not see the mobile alerts sent by the National Weather Service because they were sent very early in the morning.
The cost of a warning system that would have alerted citizens in now-devastated Kerr County deterred local officials from buying one because they said it would cost taxpayers too much money.
Having a flood siren to alert locals that water was rising too high too fast in the Guadalupe River in Texas could have saved dozens of lives lost this weekend in a massive flood. That included 27 girls and staff at Christian summer camp Camp Mystic.
The river went from a depth of one foot to over 34 feet deep in just a matter of hours, killing at least 80 people.
Many people did not see the mobile alerts sent by the National Weather Service because they were sent very early in the morning, the Latin Times reports.
Some residents also did not have mobile devices in the first place, meaning a siren would have likely been the only way to alert everybody locally.
House Bill 13, which aimed to strengthen emergency alert infrastructure, failed in the Texas Senate. Its $500 million cost was cited at the time as too high for many lawmakers to vote for it.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott declined to revisit the issue in a special session slated to begin July 21.
