An online petition calling for warning sirens to be put in in Kerr County, Texas, the place flash flooding killed no less than 120 folks, has reached practically 40,000 signatures.
Nicole Wilson, who began the petition, instructed CNN sirens are a easy warning system that may alert everybody inside vary, particularly in the course of the evening.
Wilson, who grew up in Kentucky, mentioned residents had been educated from a younger age to establish the totally different sounds throughout a twister watch or warning and reply accordingly.
“We lived and died by the twister sirens, and this was within the 80s and 90s when there have been no textual content alerts,” Wilson instructed CNN’s John Berman on Thursday.
“So after I discovered that there have been no sirens on this space and in plenty of areas within the state of Texas … we had a twister just a few years in the past, and that blew my thoughts as a result of sirens are merely a simple warning system,” she mentioned.
She additionally emphasised catastrophe businesses can’t depend on textual content messages as a result of some folks sleep with their telephones off, whereas cell service can be patchy in some elements of Texas.
“So for instance, my daughters had been simply at a faith-based camp. These youngsters usually are not allowed to deliver any know-how by any means. It’ll get confiscated as a result of they’re there to be current. They’re there to develop of their religion. And the advisors are additionally not allowed to have cell telephones within the cabins. And so you can not depend on the textual content alerts.”
“You need to have layers and you can not depend on one single mitigation,” she added.
Wilson instructed her district’s state consultant concerning the petition who mentioned Texas state Rep. Wes Virdell – who represents Kerr County – is writing a brand new invoice to current on the particular session on July 21. Virdell initially voted towards House Bill 13 which might have created a grant program to determine an emergency alert system. The invoice failed.
“I plan to succeed in out to his workplace right now to make sure he’s conscious of the petition and ask that we work collectively to make sure this invoice adequately represents what the folks have voiced they need,” Wilson mentioned.
This put up has been up to date with further data.
