A retired national serious storm laboratory employee described floods in Central Texas as a “worst situation” in an interview in Monday.
Meteorologist Elon Gerard, with a 35 -year -old experience, said, “This was really one of the worst conditions where you had six to nine inches of rain in a few hours, which was just above the south fork of the river.”
“And the unfortunate reality is all soil and hills in the region that are correcting all parts of that rain in the river, and you can simply get these tremendous flood waves that develop very quickly,” said Gerrard, who worked for the share of the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Gerard stated that scientists are not equipped to predict the severity of one or two hours or more floods ahead of time, which does not always provide enough time to evacuate people. There is also a risk that people will not get that warning on time, as it is such a final minute.
“The unfortunate reality is that, we can do a very good job of identifying the overall environment that is helpful for flash flooding. But to identify the setup for such the worst situation-which was really it-it was-beyond the situation of what we can do now,” he said.
Gerrard stated that the National Meteorological Service flashs the flood alert, warning people that “are ripe to having conditions for such torrential rains,” but he admitted that it is unlikely that people would receive flash flood warnings every time – especially prone to flash flooding at these places.
“The reality is that, if people go out every time in these areas, it will be very difficult to get these places out, I mean, I mean, it is quite regularly, especially in this time of the year. It is a very flood-confident area. Therefore, it is always a balance,” he said.
“Ideally, scientists will be able to warn people of the seriousness of the storm six to nine hours ahead of the time, ideally,” ideally, “ideally, scientists.
“It would have been a different situation and I think could support very active tasks, including potential withdrawal,” he said.
“Unfortunately, we don’t yet have that kind of skill,” he said. “We are working with research to try to develop modeling and forecast approaches that will enable us to provide us with the kind of information, but unfortunately, we are not yet.”
The death toll of the horrific floods in Texas is close to 90, and experts have warned that search and rescue operations continue.
