President Trump is planning to visit Texas on Friday to survey the damage of the fatal Fourth of July flash flooding that has killed at least 120 people. At least 173 people are still missing, and rescue efforts have become recovery efforts.
This comes as early assessments raise questions about the alert systems — as well as the disaster response.
The two big questions:
1) Were people along the Guadalupe River alerted as the waters rose more than 26 feet in an hour during the night?
The catastrophic flooding has exposed weaknesses in the emergency alert system. There was no siren or alarm to warn locals of the danger. CBS News's Jason Allen reports that Kerr County does have a web-based emergency alert system called CodeRED, but it was delayed while waiting for supervisor authorization.
John David Trolinger, a former Kerr County official who helped install the system but has since retired, told CBS: "I thought, 'Man, someone could die because I'm there arguing with a dispatcher that doesn't know who I am or remember my name,'" he said. "And there was no way I was going to interrupt their process because it's, you know, it's five o'clock, someone's got to be in dispatch besides just the night, the overnight people."
Why didn't Kerr County have a siren?: Many Texas counties have a siren system to warn of flash floods, but Kerr County rejected the proposal due to the cost.
The Texas Tribune's Emily Foxhall reports that officials had a 3-hour and 21-minute heads-up. "Local officials haven't shed light on when they saw the warnings or whether they saw them in time to take action."
2) How has the disaster response been?
CNN's Gabe Cohen and Michael Williams report that the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) response was slowed by bureaucratic hurdles put in place by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. As a cost-cutting measure, Noem required her personal sign-off on any funds over $100,000 before they are released. That means FEMA wasn't able to pre-position Urban Search and Rescue crews in anticipation of the event.
Keep in mind that officials warned last month that Noem's policy could delay distribution of aid during natural disasters.
Noem has defended Trump administration plans to revamp how the government handles natural disasters.
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