Is the System Broken?

A lot of discussion about the warnings given about the (this time) TX floods. Unpopular opinion: It doesn't matter about staff or cuts when the SYSTEM is broken. Whether it's 1 person or 100, if they follow the System guidelines, and it appears they did, it wouldn't have made a difference.

BECAUSE THE SYSTEM IS BROKEN.

How is it broken? Yes, we get 'watches'. You know what a 'watch' is? It means 'maybe'. Things COULD happen. That's how 99.9% of the public thinks. "Okay, maybe. Go on with more preseeing things until something happens." And we do.

WNC did, too, in Sept. 2024.

Tell me, CA friends: If your weather people say, "Okay, earthquake watch"...do you say, "OMG, we're having an earthquake! Hurry, get outside!"
No. You don't until it happens--and it better be more than some little dinky 2, 3 or even 4 on the scale, cause those are just nothing.
Right?

OK, Friends, and all in 'tornado alley': During a tornado watch, do you get all your valuables and go into your shelters?
No. You wait until it's a Warning.

And God forgive me, before Helene, I trained new staff on 'watch' meaning there COULD be an upgrade to 'warning'. Warning is serious and means a tornado is coming, take action.
Not to 'ignore' watch, but definitely plan action on a 'warning'.

That's how our System is. They tell us 'watch out' for things. And TBH, and if you are too, you hear 'watch' and go, "Yeah yeah, it's freaking summer. Of course, there's a thunderstorm watch. There is every day cause it's freaking Summer."
"Yeah, yeah, there's a tornado watch. There always is this time of year."
"Yeah, yeah, earthquake watch. It's freaking CA, after all."

Right?

By the time the System says, "Warning,"...the event is ALREADY happening. The tornado is headed at you and you have seconds to act. The thunderstorm is lighting the sky around you and you better have your bottom inside because lightning can strike from 10 miles away. The ground is already shaking in an earthquake.
Areas are already covered in water.

I don't train that way anymore. Since Helene. I train anytime there's a watch, keep a radio on you that gives updates. I keep one on at home and at work. I text my kids during watches.
I listen more closely when the weatherpeople say 'watch'. I plan. I always will from now on, because I survived Helene. I have a weather warning system on my tablet that runs 24/7. I tune in to Ryan Hall, Y'all, to hear about severe weather. I don;t take for granted that I'm not in flood plane, or near an ocean.

But the SYSTEM has not yet changed. Because PEOPLE have not yet changed.

I am NOT victim blaming. Hell no. Nature is gonna do what Nature is gonna do, and NO human can predict 100% what Nature will do. Don't believe that, just watch your local weather and then compare how 'accurate' they are.

When Helene was still out in the Atlantic, and its path wasn't near WNC (it was supposed to go through our neighbor, TN), no one batted an eye here. When it looked closer, we heard about flooding 'in the low lying areas'.

Okay, I'm not in a flood plane. Most of WNC isn't. We're MOUNTAINS for Heaven's sake. We're 400 miles from a beach. I don't live near a river. (this little bit of water a football field from my backyard is barely even a creek). Hurricanes don't happen 400 miles from oceans. Sure, the depressions do. 100 years ago, there were floods here. But there weren't warnings like there are now. Maybe some wind, more rain, power could go out for a little while. Nothing to worry about.
After all, we have all this technology now. We know everything ahead of time.

Fate has to laugh at us. God facepalms.

And before Helene, if you told me that little creek, that I can step (not even have to jump) over, that is at most, ankle deep, and usually won't even cover my foot in the Summer, would flood to 12 ft, cover my neighborhood, would destroy homes & cars, and kill 2 people, I would have laughed at you.

I would have laughed at you 2 days before Helene. I would have laughed at you on Sept. 26 and even Sept. 27 until 7AM in the morning.

I will never laugh at that again. Ever.

We got a 'stalled' system that dumped lots of rain, just like Kerrville, TX did. Yup, low-lying areas flooded, like the System said. But most of WNC didn't. We just went about life. Just like Kerrville did.

Then we heard, 'lots of rain'. 'Maybe historic' rain. BUT NEVER, EVER DID ANYONE SAY, "20 ft or water is going to wipe Chimney Rock Village (it's a '500 yr' flood plane, not 100, or even 10 yr) off the map. Biltmore Square in downtown Asheville will be underwater. And even my backyard, that never flooded before, will be under 10-12 ft of water. Hundreds of people are going to die. Power will be off for weeks. There will be no cell phones. No internet. No water. All roads are closed and damaged. Grocery stores closed or out of food. No fast food or restaurants. Gas stations out of gas. No showers or laundry. Cash only, and yet banks & ATMs are closed.

NO ONE SAID THAT. THERE WAS NO WARNING ABOUT THAT UNTIL IT ALREADY HAPPENED.

From what I've heard, even with the 'Flash Flood Emergency' warnings, when they started AFTER the rivers were already flooding, none of them ever said 'Wall of Water' or '12 feet of water' or '27 feet of water'. Not here, in WNC. Not in Kerrville.

The System didn't warn that. Because the System didn't KNOW. Until it happened.

The System is broken. Maybe Humans are, too, because we don't take, and aren't conditioned to take, a 'watch' as a prediction, for lack of any other word, something awful might happen.

Maybe it's not the System we need to fix. Maybe it's Humans.