Texas, flash flood
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Texas, floods
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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.
More than 111 people have died across six counties after flash flooding from heavy rain began affecting the state last week.
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.
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.
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When the precipitation intensified in the early morning hours Friday, many people failed to receive or respond to flood warnings at riverside campsites known to be in the floodplain.
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.
There are reports some cloud seeding occurred a few days before the Texas flash flood. But it’s important to understand that cloud seeding has a relatively short-term effect in that a certain cloud is seeded and perhaps turns into one individual rain cloud or even a thunderstorm. The increased rainfall would not last for days.
A hydrologist explains why Texas Hill Country is known as Flash Flood Alley and how its geography and geology can lead to heavy downpours and sudden, destructive floods
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.