Even before the Central Texas floods, the state was partially guided by geography in the US flood deaths, which could put rainwater into fatal fraud, according to a decades -long study.
According to a 2021 study in Journal Water, from 1959 to 2019, the floods killed 1,069 people in Texas, which is currently about fifth of the 5,724 flood casualties in the lower 48 states. This is about 370 more than the next nearest state, Louisiana.
According to the national maritime and environmental administration, after heat, after heat, floods due to the second largest season of death in the country, is an average of 145 deaths in the last decade.
This year, other floods have become deadly: Last month, 13 people died in San Antonio, including 11 people who entered the water, thinking that they can think that they are studying in San Antonio, according to Hatam Sharif, a civil and environmental engineering professor at the University of Texas.
For many years, Sharif has called on state and local officials to integrate better emergency action programs to use floods and save lives by informing people and shutting down the weakest intersections from roads and water.
Sharif said, “I think in Kerr County, if they have an integrated warning system that uses rain forecast to predict the effects of real -time on earth, which can save a lot of lives and also help the emergency staff know which location will come to the flood,” said Sharif. “They could take action.”
The character of geography and region
Experts say there are many deaths due to geography, population and size in Texas. The area where the recent deadly flood has hit, is known as Flash Flood Eli because of the hills and valleys.
“The steep, the mountainous region will rise and the mainstream will increase, as the water will travel down faster than rivers and ground,” said Kate Abshire, the lead of Noaa Flash Flood Services. “The rocky region can increase the development of floods and wrath waters, because the soil and clay do not allow the soil to penetrate.”
“There is a risk of flooding due to the large amount of concrete and asphalt levels in urban areas, especially in urban areas that do not allow water to enter the soil easily,” he said.
Along with these hills, “You’ve got the Gulf Mexico, the largest body of hot water in the entire North Atlantic,” Jeff Masters, a former official meteorologist who has a joint of the underground and is now in the Yale climate contacts. “So you’ve got a prepared source of moisture to create a flood.”
Drawing driving deaths
According to experts, historically, many deaths are the same in the entire nation and Texas. The Masters said that nothing makes it clear that Sharif’s study was better than a figure: 86 % of the flood deaths since 1959 who were driving or operating in flood waters.
About 58 58 % of the deaths and trucks were people. Sharif said that this is especially a problem in Texas because due to hills and low -lying areas, there are more than 3,000 places where roads cross roads and waterways without bridges or bridges.
“People in Texas, they like trucks and SUVs, especially trucks,” said Sharif. “They think the trucks are tight, and it thinks a factor. So sometimes they use their big car or SUV or truck, and they say they can defeat the flood on the road … especially at night. They reduce the depth and speed of water.”
Now, Shire said that not only people ignore the safety of the seasonal services, “turn, not drown, drown,” but studies have revealed that these casualties occur when people drive through the blockade of flood roads.
Sharif said that the latest flood in the Texas mountainous country was less common because many deaths were in a camp where water left the victims behind, not people in the water. According to the study, only 8 % of flood deaths have occurred in the last 60 years in permanent homes, mobile homes or camping.
The flood took place on July 4, which was a normal flood death. Sharif’s research has said that more than half of the deaths have occurred since 1959, when darkness and people cannot see how much floods are awakened for warnings, Sharif’s research has been reported.
According to the study, as far as settlements are concerned, about 62 62 % of the US flood deaths were men.
“The danger is usually associated with men,” he said, adding that this is why the deadliest victims of car accidents are men.
Photo: Kevin Scott, Danny Liberova and Lincoln Edward Eden Heartfield, who used to camp with friends and are missing, Wednesday, July 9, 2025, after flooding in the Texas city of Keravill, near a bad truck and branches near the Gwadalpe River. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
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