Texas military veteran on a mission to get emergency sirens installed after deadly flood
Death toll from Friday's flash flooding tops 100, many of them children
Growing up in Kentucky, Nicole Wilson remembers being awakened in the middle of the night by the unmistakable high-pitched shriek of a tornado siren.
"We lived and we died by those sirens," the military veteran told As It Happens host Nil Köksal. "From when you're a child, all the way through being an adult, it was drilled into you, the safety measures to take."
Now, as Wilson raises her own children in a flood-prone region of Texas, she's fighting to have a similar emergency alert system installed close to home.
It's a battle that has been fought and lost before in Kerr County. But this time — as the death toll climbs from Friday's flash flooding, and includes more than two dozen children — Wilson says residents won't take no for an answer.
'Flash flood alley'
The Kerr County floods came on hard and fast on Friday when a torrential, predawn downpour caused the Guadalupe River to overflow.
As of Tuesday afternoon, first responders had found the bodies of 87 people, including 30 children, and said the death toll has topped 100.
The bulk of the deaths concentrated in and around the riverfront town of Kerrville and the grounds of Camp Mystic, a Christian all girls' summer camp situated in a swath of Texas known as "flash flood alley."
At the time, Wilson's two daughters were at another overnight faith camp in nearby Comal County, and she immediately rushed to pick them up.
"When we really told them about what was happening in Kerr County ... they kind of started thinking like, 'If this was my cabin, what would have happened?'"
It's a question Wilson hasn't stopped thinking about.
That's why she is circulating a petition calling on Kerville and Kerr County officials to "implement a modern outdoor early warning siren system for floods, tornadoes, and other life-threatening emergencies."
Several other flood-prone counties in the Texas have already installed such systems, but not Kerr.
"Early warning sirens have saved thousands of lives in other communities by giving clear, unmistakable alerts day or night, even when cellphone service or electricity fails," the Change.org petition reads.
The National Weather Service issued a flash-flood warning Friday to mobile phones and weather radios at 1:14 a.m., then updated it at 4:03 a.m. to a flash-flood emergency — roughly a half hour before the first reports of flooding at low-water crossings in Kerr County.
But texts, alone, Wilson says, are easily ignored or slept through. What's more, she said, some people have spotty cell coverage, and at many kids' camps actually prohibit cellphone use.
"Having been in the military as long as I was, risk management is huge," she said. "And you never, ever only have one mitigation for risk."
As of Tuesday, Wilson's petition had more than 1,000 signatures on GoFundMe. She she intends to present it to Gov. Greg Abbott when lawmakers convene in a special session July 23.
Previous efforts have failed
But if history is any indicator, she may have an uphill battle.
In January 2017, the Kerr County Commissioners Court unanimously approved an application for a $975,000 US grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to develop a flood warning system, according to transcripts of the meeting.
Less than a year later, commissioners learned the grant was not approved, and the county abandoned the project because of the price tag.
Just a few months ago, the Texas Senate voted down a bill that would have established a statewide plan to improve disaster response, including "the use of outdoor warning sirens."
But there may now be an appetite for change. Already, some Republican lawmakers expressed regret about voting down the emergency response bill.
On Monday, Lt.-Gov. Dan Patrick vowed that the state would "step up" to pay for installing a flash-flood warning system in Kerrville by next summer if local governments "can't afford it."
"There should have been sirens," Patrick told Fox News. "Had we had sirens here along this area … it's possible that we would have saved some lives."
Asked for comment on the petition, Abbott's office directed questions to county officials, who did not respond to CBC's email before the deadline.
The city of Kerrville, meanwhile, says it will "will examine all aspects of the response, including the alert systems in place, to identify where improvements can be made."
"Our goal will be clear: to learn from this tragedy, to strengthen communication and warning systems, and to do everything in our power to prevent such devastating loss in the future," Stuart Cunyus, Kerrville's public information officer, said in an email.
'There can't be another no'
Wilson, however, remains skeptical.
"While I would love to believe that, they've said no every time. And there can't be another no," she said. "It's not even, in my opinion, negotiable. It's a yes all the way. And if there's a no, then I'll go higher than Governor Abbott."
U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to face questions about emergency preparedness when he visits flood-ravaged Texas on Friday.
Trump has said he wants to "phase out" FEMA, though he is currently using it to fund the construction of a controversial immigrant detention facility in Florida.
The U.S. National Weather Service also suffered mass layoffs when the Trump administration was gutting the federal public service.
As public uproar over the flood response grows, Wilson keeps thinking about her daughters, who she promised would be safe at camp, and all the kids at Camp Mystic were not safe at all.
"All I keep imagining is what was in their heads and in their hearts," she said, stifling a sob. "They're believing what they've been told — that an adult is going to come save them."
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
With files from Reuters, The Associated Press. Interview with Nicole Wilson produced by Sarah Jackso
