Daily Dispatch 7/7/25: Texas Flood Death Toll A Result Of Long Term Infrastructure And Policy Failures

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas:

The latest on the July 4th floods in Kerr County and across Central Texas, where the death toll has surpassed 80 and over 40 remain missing: https://abcnews.go.com/US/live-updates/texas-flooding-updates-13-dead-20-campers-unaccounted/?id=123488468

...County and state leaders immediatly attempted to shift blame to weather forecasters - did they get it wrong? https://www.npr.org/2025/07/06/nx-s1-5458512/texas-flash-flood-weather-forecast

...Those same leaders themselves acknowledge cell coverage and public flood warning infrastructure shortfalls that might have made a difference: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0rvp24wvrqo

...Kerr County has passed on building outdoor flood siren warning systems for years, finding them too expensive: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/06/us/texas-flood-warnings-sirens.html

...State Rep. Wes Virdell, one of only 14 House members to vote against HB 13, which would have established new emergency infrastructure funding had it not died in the house, says events of this weekend have made him reconsider that vote: https://www.texastribune.org/2025/07/06/texas-disaster-warning-emergency-communication-bill-kerrville-floods/

...The flood itself is considered by many climate experts as a prime example of the type of weather behavior we can expect to see more frequently due to human-influenced climate degradation: https://www.axios.com/2025/07/06/climate-texas-tragedy-future

...Legendary Austin meteorologist Jim Spencer responds to Facebook trolls accusing him of "politicizing the situation": https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1aoZ5DZ5ov/?mibextid=wwXIfr

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