riosity: In the wake of Texas floods, how do emergency alerts work, and where do they fall short?
In riosity, experts across the Boulder campus answer pressing questions about humans, our planet and the universe beyond.
This week, Carson MacPherson-Krutsky, a research associate at the at the University of Colorado Boulder, answers: “How do emergency alerts work, and where do they fall short?”
Aftermath of the deadly flooding that devastated Central Texas in July 2025. (Credit: CC photo by World Central Kitchen via Flickr)
In the early hours of July 4, flash floods rose through parts of Texas’ Kerr County and surrounding regions, killing more than 130 people, including 27 children and counselors at a local summer camp.
In the wake of the disaster, numerous media reports raised questions about whether residents had enough warning to make it to safety.
Carson MacPherson-Krutsky knows how important timely emergency alerts are for people in the path of natural hazards like floods, wildfires, tornadoes and more. She’s a research associate in the at Boulder and has investigated emergency alert systems in Colorado. Simply put, she said: They’re all over the place.
Carson MacPherson-Krutsky
“The biggest takeaway is that it’s complicated,” said MacPherson-Krutsky, a geologist and social scientist by training who studies how to communicate risk and help people prepare for natural disasters. “There are multiple systems at work, and they vary from municipality to municipality.”
In a , MacPherson-Krutsky and her colleagues surveyed 222 officials from 57 of Colorado’s 64 counties about their emergency alert systems. The research was passed by the state legislature.
One of the most basic kinds of disaster warnings, she said, are (WEAs). These text messages go directly to the phones of people located in a particular geographic area. Amber Alerts for abducted children use the same system. (You may be familiar with the blaring beeps and vibrations that accompany these messages).
A wide range of government groups, both local and national, can send out WEAs in the event of natural disasters or acts of violence. Personnel need to take a training, and they work through a system administered by the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and its partners.
Before dawn on July 4, for example, the National Weather Service (NWS), which is part of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), sent out several such text alerts. , one alert at 4:03 a.m. local time urged recipients to “SEEK HIGHER GROUND NOW!”
Beyond WEAs, alerts get more complicated.
In Colorado, for example, every county tends to have its own alert system, which can be managed by a wide range of groups—from sheriff’s offices to fire departments and 911 call centers. They may send out warnings over text messages, social media, TV and radio, word of mouth or even sirens. In many cases, residents have to sign up or download an app to receive messages.
“Depending on who's sending the alert, they have different procedures and protocols in place for what triggers an alert, who sends it, what approvals are needed and so on,” MacPherson-Krutsky said.
Those disparities become especially glaring for people with disabilities or who speak languages other than English, MacPherson-Krutsky added. Currently, the WEA technology can only support messages in English and Spanish. The federal government has made moves to expand the languages available, but she noted that a from the Trump administration could make those changes harder to enact. In Colorado, more than one-third of the emergency personnel the researchers surveyed didn’t know if their emergency alert systems had the ability to translate to other languages or alert people who are deaf.
“That creates a lot of inequity,” she said. “A deaf person living in one county might receive an alert, but their brother who lives across the border wouldn’t.”
In their report, MacPherson-Krutsky and her colleagues recommended that Colorado adopt a single, state-wide system for sending out emergency alerts. Connecticut, Florida and Oregon have such a system, which counties or other localities can use at no cost to them.
She added that federal and state funding is critical for sending timely alerts in the event of natural disasters. The White House’s proposed budget for 2026 includes a more than 25% cut in funding for NOAA.
“Natural hazards researchers are worried about what these cuts would do to public safety,” MacPherson-Krutsky said. “Our colleagues at NOAA and the National Weather Service are doing such amazing work to make these warnings better. And if some of them aren’t there to advance this research, we’ll all bear the consequences of that.”