Fatigue from regular weather warnings and alerts

Flash flooding during the overnight hours can present increased dangers and challenges.

Many people in Texas were asleep in the early hours of Friday when the floods began to swell, making it harder to respond to weather warnings and alerts, especially in places like Hunt that have extremely limited cell service.

But even with phone access, residents in the area are inundated with weather watches and warnings at all times of day and night. In Texas Hill Country, where flash flooding is triggered frequently by summertime thunderstorms, so-called warning fatigue can settle in.

Critical warnings came in the surrounding areas — a flash flood warning was issued for Kerr County at 1:14 a.m., followed by a series of escalating warnings that culminated in a flash flood emergency at 4:03 a.m. The city of Kerrville was issued a flash flood emergency at 5:34 a.m.

But the blackness of night can also make it difficult for people escaping flooding to gauge water depths, superhot-slot.com/providers/gaming-corp/ see rising water levels and navigate potential hazards like debris or downed power lines in the water.

Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly said the area had floods all the time, but officials had no reason to believe one this destructive was coming.

“We had no reason to believe that this was going to be anything like what’s happened here,” he said.

“None whatsoever.”