Catastrophic flooding is occurring in Central Texas this morning.

[Sky727]

104 dead with many still missing

[DontTreadOnMe]

Moderator REMINDER

Enough!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Let's stick to the disaster, and leave the bickering out of this.





And, as always...
Do not reply to this post.

[ReturnofBroccoli]

Sadly, it doesn't matter if they know how to swim. You can't swim in a flash flood. All you can do is try to keep your feet up and pointed down stream. If you survive, it is luck and not ability to swim. 

Anything you hit in the water is likely to trap you under water from the flow. Anything you can grab onto, like a power pole, tree or even a house, is likely to get something heavy in the water smashed into it. You don't want to be between an unmoving object and a moving one when they meet.

You're right, I was thinking maybe it was like a riptide pulling you, which you could escape if you knew how to swim, but apparently its not.

[Maxmars]

[Political celebrities are both hated and loved...
What does that add to the thread-makers dialogue...

You political persuasion?  No one cares.

Try to use your words to make a point.... then look at the thread title before hitting "post reply."
At least you'll become aware...

Hint: Replace the name of your target with their official title in your intended post....
think on why that wouldn't work for you... get it...? 

Please post about the topic, the thread-maker has made clear the object of this discussion...
is your political antagonism in any way relevant?

"Let's not bicker and argue (about who killed who...)"]

[sahgwa]

There were people missing from positions at that weather office but the warnings got out hours before the flood. They did their job.

There are over two dozen emergency services listed in Kerr county Texas that should have been monitoring the weather from the previous days predictions. Those along with the local governments within that county, were they all asleep? 

And now everyone is playing the 'it was someone else's fault' game. They had hours of warning but did not listen.

And stop bringing up sirens. They are expensive to maintain, short ranged, and easily ignored. Any enhanced 911 system is capable of activating cell phone warnings as needed. At lease half the population of any area carries one. And the equipment is not additional to what is needed for regular cell operation. There would probably be ten times the number of sirens as cell sites needed in an area for coverae. The 911 services failed in this case. 

The response from all these emergency services and government agencies has been great but they failed to prevent this from happening. The biggest problem is most of those that did not prevent this will not learn from it. They just blame someone else.
  
People are much better at responding than preventing, even with warnings.

If I sleep with my cell phone off are these warning systems able to ping it and sound an alarm through it anyway?

[PorkChop96]

If I sleep with my cell phone off are these warning systems able to ping it and sound an alarm through it anyway?

No, your phone has to be powered on to receive any kind of emergency alerts. 

I do believe it can't be on DND as well. But don't quote me on that one

If you do sleep with your phone off, I would recommend getting one of these to keep in your home for occasions as this, if you do not want your phone on when you sleep at all. 

Emergency Weather Radio

[sahgwa]

No, your phone has to be powered on to receive any kind of emergency alerts. 

I do believe it can't be on DND as well. But don't quote me on that one

If you do sleep with your phone off, I would recommend getting one of these to keep in your home for occasions as this, if you do not want your phone on when you sleep at all. 

Emergency Weather Radio

Thanks for the link!
I do know the mic and camera can be passively used with the battery inserted even powered off, but that needs a lot of power beamed at the device.

[BeyondKnowledge]

If I sleep with my cell phone off are these warning systems able to ping it and sound an alarm through it anyway?

Some say they can turn on cell phones but they won't admit it. Why turn off your cell phone? Just mute the calls and texts. The alerts will still get through. 

I do know all cell phones are capable of calling 911 without a subscription to a service andd. That is a law.

There are some reports that cell service is spotty in some of the hills of that area. That is on the local governments. They should have not allowed those companies to put the service there if it did not cover the whole county. That should have been part of the contract for full coverage for cell alert service.

And like I have already stated, each campground should have had a night fire guard on watch patrolling with a cell phone. The National Weather Service alerts would have been noticed that way.

[Maxmars]

If I sleep with my cell phone off are these warning systems able to ping it and sound an alarm through it anyway?

If I may interject...

Certain signals, like civil emergency alarms have been said to "wake up" a sleeping, powered-off cell phone.

I have only heard of this... never experienced it...

However, if it was your objective to isolate your phone from outside signals... just use the packaging from a bag of potato chips, or other snack - as long as it is made of Mylar (as many are) it should work to avoid pings and signals. 

That material is very effective at blocking signals... try it some day... with this warning...

Theoretically, you will miss updates and messages.. which could make it slow to resume normal operation... and your location in the cell system should need re-acquiring for service...

I suspect if everyone did this, they would make Mylar packaging illegal.

[putnam6]

Brutal...



Nick Sortor

@nicksortor
·
1h

 BREAKING: At least 109 dead, 161 still missing following the catastrophic flooding here in TX “We WILL NOT STOP until every single one of them is found,” Gov.
@GregAbbott_TX
says Keep praying for these families