As someone who has lived in the Hill Country, I’ve seen firsthand how quickly things can turn dangerous out here. Dry creeks can turn into raging rivers in minutes. You don’t have to be caught in a storm — sometimes it’s raining miles away and the water still finds you.

Makes you think that maybe we should implement a system similar to a tornado warning.. where all along the river a siren would go off in the event of a flash flood. Most people probably didn’t receive the warning at 1am. In no way am I placing blame, though. This was a historic flood. It breaks my heart for all those affected.

This is the most thoughtful and helpful explanation of the events and what was known/done from his view. Thank you, I wish all information we could get was factual and helpful like this!

Thank you for helping to educate the public in a clear and factual, yet compassionate, way about this extreme weather event. We are all trying to understand.

Thank you for sharing this. I’ve seen so many people trying to lay blame for this situation. People do not understand how difficult it is to predict an event like this.

Thank you for sharing your knowledge, experience and wisdom. My prayers are with the families of those affected.

Thank you, Travis, for always being a guiding light in these unprecedented events. This was extremely insightful and sheds light on the hows and whys that I’ve seen many people asking over the past few days. Keep being awesome

Thank you for being a voice of reason and not politicizing this. No matter what - this is a terrible tragedy and we need to pray and support the families as much as we can. What can be done to reduce this risk in the future? Are there ways to drain the river faster wo affect downstream cities too badly? Pumps (I know they’d have to be gigantic), berms? Anything?

This information is helpful, BUT, most people on vacation aren't 24/7 tuned into weather at 1 a.m. or at 4 a.m. in the morning.

I think sirens are an opportunity Texas should consider.

The tragic timing of this event in the middle of the night surely contributed

Thank you for publishing your perspective, Travis. My heart is broken for all of the lost souls and for their loved ones who now must go forth without them. I pray that experts can establish a way to warn endangered people, so that in the future they can escape the horror that happened this weekend in the Hill Country.

I've had people tell me "they should have evacuated as soon as there was a flood watch" and I just cannot imagine what the roads would look like if everyone in a flood watch evacuated.

The NWS Austin/SA said they had 5 people on that night when there would normally be 2 in anticipation of bad weather.

We came to WImberley from Houston to vacation. The forecast promised scattered isolated storms but generally good weather. We woke up here Friday morning and it was like we had evacuated TO a hurricane.

Thank you Travis for taking the time to unpack the details of this terrible weather event and for your prayerful thoughtfulness as well . As always a trusted source for solid science dispensed with true compassion

Thank you for your detailed explanation which helps us logically understand how something this devastating can cause so much pain and damage in such a short time. The past years have shown us the different types of disasters that can sneak up on us in any part of the country at any time. I pray that we look at this disaster as an occurrence that has nothing to do with politics, but the better story that shows how local and neighboring communities come together to offer help, support, food, clean up, material needs and prayer!! This is about the people affected. Nothing more!!

Thanks a lot Travis for the objective and respectful analysis. It is VERY much appreciated these days where comments are generally useless, unhelpful and misinformed. We will learn a lot from this, which is not an event we haven't witnessed before at some level. The phrase "climate change" has been hijacked by the political class and triggers negative reactions unfortunately. Humans are just turning up the dial on the severity and frequency of extreme events and we're all contributing to it....red, blue, purple or any other tint, no distinction. The last thing we should be doing is bicker and burry our heads in the ground. May we learn from this and implement measures to warn vulnerable communities in the short-term and make sensible changes to turn that dial back down for the long-term.

Travis thank you so much for this detailed information that helps us to understand the order of events and the patterns that caused this to happen. Many continued prayers! So very tragic!

I’m here in SATX and by Thursday midday local meteorologists on just about all local stations were saying that the hill country needed to be on alert.

Thank you Travis for educating us thru your expertise and for giving an unbiased information. We as humans and citizens have to do better and think about how we can prevent this tragedy and many others we have witnessed. Let’s not forget. My heart is hurt and I cannot imagine what all the affected are going thru right now. My prayers for those beautiful souls, may they rest in peace