Texas, floods
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KERRVILLE, Texas — Shock has turned into grief across Texas where at least 120 people died from flash floods and more were missing as the search for victims moved methodically along endless miles of rivers and rubble Thursday.
More than 111 people have died across six counties after flash flooding from heavy rain began affecting the state last week.
After catastrophic floods hit Texas' Hill Country, many are asking about preparations for the next big flood. Jason Allen spoke to Jay Banner, climatologist at University of Texas at Austin, on the banks of the Guadalupe River.
A retired nurse, her son and a family friend say they were lucky to survive last week's flash floods in Texas that killed more than 100 people, including many summer campers.
Flash floods surged through in the middle of the night, but many local officials appeared unaware of the unfolding catastrophe, initially leaving people near the river on their own.
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Viral posts promoted false claims that cloud seeding, a form of weather modification, played a role in the devastation. Meteorologists explain it doesn't work that way.
Officials at the Comfort Volunteer Fire Department triggered a flood warning siren last week when the Guadalupe River began to swell.
Q: Is it true that if President Donald Trump hadn’t defunded the National Weather Service, the death toll in the Texas flooding would have been far lower or nonexistent? A: The Trump administration did not defund the NWS but did reduce the staff by 600 people.
Sources have said FEMA wasn’t authorized to launch search and rescue teams until 72 hours after flooding began.
Renee Smajstrla, a 8-year-old straight-A student from Ingram, Texas, who had played a role in her school’s production of “The Wizard of Oz,” was one of the victims who died in the flash floods at Camp Mystic, her family said.