This week, the Texas House of Representatives voted on numerous bills in response to the deadly July Fourth floods across the Central Texas Hill Country.

Several new government entities and $350 million in surplus spending is being proposed as the answer to this summer’s national tragedy. But it’s nothing that a $10 device cannot address well (see analysis below).

This summer’s flooding led to the deaths of more than 130 people, including 25 girls at Camp Mystic, who were asleep as the waters began to rise. Other deaths were reported along the Guadalupe River as well as major creeks in Travis County as recovery operations are still ongoing. A destroyed bridge in western Travis County linking it and neighboring Burnet County was rapidly rebuilt, reopening just this week. In some rural communities, such as in San Saba County, a few remaining residents have been unable to return home due to a combination of devastation and slow-moving bureaucracy.

Numerous legislative remedies were offered in wake of the tragedy in the first specical session in July and now in the second — all intended to be in full compliance with the items in the special session call laid out by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. The regular session concluded in early June.

Republican Rep. Brian Harrison said that he voted on two of the six bills passed by the House on Thursday (HBs 1, 2, 3, and 22) but opposed four of them (HBs 5 and 20), “Keeping in mind that government solutions can often be worse than the problems they’re intended to solve.”

Harrison’s comments sum up what his Senate companions and Gov. Abbott will have to consider in the remaining days of the special session, as Democrats continue to be absent in protest of mid-decade resdistricting maps: What is the role of government in preventing these deaths? And will any government solutions ultimately prove effective?

Hours of emotional and tearful testimony dominated news headlines this week, as parents of summer campers who died and survived flooding along the Guadalupe River expressed support for various state government reforms. Some said at the mic “any” relief would be welcome. Let’s take a look at the myriad solutions being seriously considered:

• Requiring overnight camps to submit evacuation plans to the state and banning the licensing of youth camps in 100-year flood paths, and mandating rooftop ladders (HB 1 and SB 1 — the differences between the two are being hashed out)
• Mandatory outdoor sirens (SB 3, in House committee Friday)
• Training programs for local officials and licensing requirements for county emergency management coordinators (SB 2, approved by House)
• Creation of a Texas Interoperability Council to review emergency communication equipment and oversee grants to counties and cities to build radio towers (HB 3, no Senate cognate)
• A new, voluntary accreditation program under the attorney general’s office or groups taking diaster relief donations plus a hotline (HB 20)
• Nearly $350 million in state surplus funds to go to sirens and rain gauges, as well as the new government entities in the aforementioned bills (SB 5, approved by House and headed to governor’s desk)
• Expansion of the multi-million-dollar broadband infrastructure fund so it can cover emergency communication and warning systems (HB 22)

FROM THE HIP

That’s a lot of new government! And possibly a lot of noise and worry to camps intended as getaways from the daily grind. But there’s one element of SB 1 that caught our eye: a simple, inexpensive, non-intrusive requirement that camps:

“[M]aintain operable radios capable of providing real-time weather alerts issued by the National Weather Service or a similar professional weather service in each cabin …”

This, to us, is the simplest and most effective reform that can be made — with or without government mandates. And even if the Democrats break quorum yet again.

Needless to say, at one point in the history of overnight camps, this was not as-necessary. People were more in-tune with nature during those days a century ago when Camp Mystic was founded. They knew, almost instinctively, the signs of flash flooding and other coming weather events. They were more prone to take on the consequences of bad planning on themselves. People died back then, too.

Radio availability wasn’t far around the corner. Today weather radios can stay off until a coded signal from the NWS turns on the units to alert listeners of a severe storm approaching or other emergency.

The modern concept of a nationwide network to provide public warnings was spurred by the 1965 Palm Sunday tornado outbreak. The network, later renamed NOAA Weather Radio in 1970, still provides continuous broadcasts of official weather warnings and hazard information to the public. Specific Area Message Encoding (SAME) was implemented in 1996 to trigger radios within certain areas off impending danger — a massive improvement for those not inclined to constant radio chatter (and with all due respect to those who are).

Weather radios have been credited with saving untold numbers of lives over the decades and are still recommended by meteorologists as the best way to be informed of approaching extreme weather.

Sadly, radios have become less of a preference as cell phones and other smart devices took over the role of mobile and instantaneous informer. If you have a new-ish car with a video head unit, see how long it takes to tune in to an FM station after turning the key or pressing the ignition button.

There’s always a trade-off with any new technology. Cell reception issues. Alert fatigue from over-use of Amber Alerts and similar notices. Battery life. Shutting off prompts and alerts at night when sleeping. We’re all mostly familiar with why a cell phone may not be the best advance warning system, such as during the July Fourth floods. And this came up during Texas House committee testimony this week numerous times.

Yet radio was at one point considered part-and-parcel to the future of handheld phone technology. Early iPhone chips produced by Broadcom, for example, contained FM reception ability which was never made acceesible by Apple in the U.S. Some Android devices allowed and still allow for FM reception via an app, using headphone wires as antennae. AM and Shortwave reception may be difficult due to the size of components required plus RF interference.

Sad to say, most users probably have no idea a radio feature is available on certain kinds of smart phones, let alone listen to the radio at all.
But Spotify won’t alert you during a tornado warning.

According to the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), during recent California wildfires, there were reports about widespread problems with the wireless emergency alert (WEA) system for mobile devices. Yet in the days following Hurricane Harvey, NextRadio, a popular FM radio application on Android smartphones, saw a 160% increase in listening. Hurricane Irma saw a 1,127% increase in radio app use — imagine how high that would be if Apple allowed for FM reception.

The Japanese communications ministry reported that radio was the number one source for news the day of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami — this also according to the NAB. FEMA has designated radio stations that operate “hardened” transmission facilities as the primary source of initial emergency information so they can be the lifeline service that everyone can depend on. And in the event of a nuclear event or widespread EMP (electromagnetic pulse, either by an advanced weapon or massive solar storm) vacuum tube and solid state radios may be some of the last vestiges of telecommunication available.

Radio may seem old or antiquated to a consumer culture used to rapidly changing everything. But maybe in our finnickiness we lost the ready availability of a peak technology. Fortunately, it can easily be brought back, but if we swallowed our pride about what is “old” and embrace what still works.

Weather radios can be found for around $10 for a AA-powered handheld (some with hand-cranks in case of dead batteries) or $200 and up for one that fits in a vehicle’s dash. Moderately priced units come with many nifty features, such as digital tuning, projector displays, and rechargable lithium-ion batteries via a simple USB port. Others come in vintage and retro cases. Some found on eBay actually ARE vintage and still function as well — but maybe without the auto turn-on feature.

No, a conspicuous box with a telesccoping antenna sitting on a nearby shelf may not be sexy, novel, or fresh — especially to a group of young campers. But none of that matters if it saves lives.

Continued use of weather radios could have saved not only hundreds of lives but millions of state dollars. Who cares if it’s grandpa’s technology? Let’s make weather radios normal again.