Texas Vigil, Flood Danger Zones, Ukraine Air Defenses

0:02Mourners in Kerrville, Texas held a vigil for those who died in last week's flash floods. It was a moment to just pause, catch our breath. Some wore green ribbons, the official color of the girls' summer camp where many lives were lost. I'm A Martinez with Michelle Martin, and this is Up First from NPR News. Some Texas officials are challenging the idea that anyone is to blame for the deadly floods. We had no reason to believe that this was going to be anything like what's happened here. None whatsoever. But an NPR investigation found a long-standing risk from flooding in the area. what exactly was known.

0:37And another night of massive Russian airstrikes inside Ukraine has caused fires across the capital city of Kiev. Stay with us. We'll give you the news you need to start your day.

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2:12Last night, hundreds of mourners gathered in a football stadium at Tyvee High School in Kerrville, Texas. They came together to remember those who died in last week's flash floods that have killed at least 120 people. It was also a vigil for the many more who are still missing. The Texas Newsroom's Lucio Vasquez joins us now from Carville to tell us more about all this. Good morning, Lucio. Good morning. So just paint a picture for me, if you would. Tell us about the gathering at the high school last night. Yeah, well, organizers held a large cross in front of the bleachers, which were filled with grieving neighbors.

2:43They prayed together, they sang, remembering those that they had lost. The vigil also included a tribute to Camp Mystic. It's a Christian girls summer camp here in the area that became the heart of one of the deadliest natural disasters in Texans history. Many in attendance were also wearing green ribbons. That's the official color of the camp. Randy Rose was also at the vigil. He told me that this is a pretty tight-knit community and that any loss is really felt by everyone here. It was a time of healing. It was a time of trying to get back to some normalcy and step away from the tragedy for a minute.

3:16It was a moment to just pause, catch our breath, and remember that there's still light and goodness. You know, many stayed after the vigil ended. Kids were running around the football field, balls were being tossed back and forth, and there were a lot of hugs. And so people said that they felt lighter after being there. Oh, that's good to hear. And you've also been talking with people who were in the path of the river, who of course now are trying to put their lives back together. So just tell us a little bit about what they told you. Yeah, there's just been an overwhelming sense of disbelief and exhaustion.

3:49I spoke with another man. His name is John Cox. He's a 77-year-old man who's been here for a few years. He has a house just down the road, and he told me that he's never seen anything quite like this, that his place was almost completely submerged by the river when it crested. Flood got in the house. You know, you can see the mattresses out there ruined all of the furniture in the house. He's been cleaning for days now, filling a nearby dumpster, but despite losing most of his home, he actually says he's grateful for the help he's received from the community and from volunteers who've come into town after the floods.

4:23And the response has been striking. I've seen what looks to be an army of volunteers and public safety agencies setting up shop throughout the region to help search for victims and jumpstart recovery efforts. I think that people are starting to, you know, look at their state and local officials and ask them, you know, talk about the lack of preparedness and in some places people not getting warnings in time. Is this being addressed? Yes, you know, that's what locals have been telling the Texas newsroom, that they didn't get sufficient warnings or that they never got an alert at all. And there's been a lot of questions and people want to know what exactly happened.

4:56At yesterday's press conference here in Kirk County, Kirk County Sheriff Larry Letha, he said that officials would be investigating. When or if necessary, if improvements need to be made, improvements will be made. Notably, earlier this spring, state lawmakers voted down a bill that would have provided more money for communications and warning systems during natural disasters. But now Texas Governor Greg Abbott says fixing that is a priority. So yesterday, he called for a special session of the state legislature for later this month. And he wants lawmakers to pass a new bill that would provide funding to improve early warning systems and other preparedness infrastructure in flood-prone areas across Texas.

5:37The question for a lot of people here, though, is whether that will prevent a tragedy like this from happening again. That is the Texas Newsroom's Lucio Vazquez. Lucio, thanks so much. Thanks for having me. In the days following those deadly floods in Texas, some officials challenged the idea that there is anyone or anything to blame. The chief elected official of Kerr County, Rob Kelly, said there was no way to predict that kind of flood was coming. We had no reason to believe that this was going to be anything like what's happened here. None whatsoever. But NPR investigative correspondent Laura Sullivan has been looking into just what was known about the flood danger at the camp.

6:13And she's with us now to tell us what she's found out. Good morning, Laura. Good morning. So I think as everybody's seen by now, Camp Mystic is on the banks of the Guadalupe River. It has flooded before. But what exactly was known from the flood maps about the area that its buildings and the cabins were in? So we found there is significantly more risk in the area than the federal government has reported. You know, FEMA's flood maps tell Americans where the agency believes water is likely to come. But their maps did not include much of the camp that was at risk. We found at least 17 buildings and cabins had a flood risk that FEMA failed to report.

6:51Now, companies that model climate risk, like First Street in New York, have been making new maps. And the differences are pretty stark. For example, in Kerr County, where the camp is, FEMA says about 2 ,500 homes had a danger. First Street found the real number is something closer to 4 ,500 homes. And this is true nationwide. More than twice as many Americans live in dangerous flood areas compared to what the government is reporting or telling them. So 2 ,500 homes in FEMA's report versus 4 ,500 homes in the First Street report, that's a big difference. Why is the data so different when it comes to these private data companies?

7:28FEMA is not mapping rainfall or flash flooding. Their maps are based on historic data from tidal surges and large river flooding, which is a problem in a new climate world where much of the danger that we're seeing from these storms is coming from these large rainfall events. FEMA does have the scientists who can do this, but what they don't have is a mandate or funding from Congress. A lot of politicians don't want to raise insurance rates. And also, we did an investigation earlier this year with PBS Frontline and found special interest groups like homebuilders associations have lobbied to keep maps from being updated.

8:05You know, they're saying they're trying to keep homes affordable. So for the parts of the camp that were in FEMA's maps where maybe they could at least learn of the risk, what did that danger look like? So the most dangerous area in a FEMA flood map is what's called a floodway. It's where the water is supposed to go. You know, think of the banks of a river, right? In a flood, it's where the water is at its highest depth. It's sort of its highest velocity. And our analysis showed the camp had eight structures that were in this area. And some of them may have been built long ago, but at least four of the structures were cabins that housed some of their youngest campers.

8:46And the county did make changes to its flood rules five years ago that largely prohibit development in this kind of area. And that's true nationwide as well, but that was obviously too late to help the campers here. The camp also built a new section a few years ago, a little bit farther down the river. And we found many of those cabins showing up in high-risk areas as well when using the new data. That's NPR's Laura Sullivan. Laura, thank you. Thanks so much.

9:27Another night of Russian airstrikes on Kyiv has caused fires across the city, killing at least two people and injuring more than a dozen. The Trump administration says it has started sending weapons to Ukraine again. Russia is intensifying its attacks and the Kremlin continues to ignore calls for a ceasefire. Joining us to discuss all this is NPR's Joanna Kakissis in Kiev. And a warning, we will hear explosions during this conversation, Joanna. So tell us about the latest attacks where you are in Kiev. Well, it was another very loud and pretty scary night here. We heard a number of these Iranian-designed attack drones flying over our neighborhood, buzzing.

10:04They sound like fleets of lawnmowers or mopeds. And then the sound of Ukrainian air defense units trying to shoot down the drones as well as ballistic missiles.

10:17It's shocking, but these sounds have become familiar. They're like part of life here right now. And at one point, we heard like an hour of almost continuous explosions. The airstrikes caused lots of fires and damage, hitting apartment buildings, gas stations, a health care center here in Kiev, lots of places. Why is Russia launching so many airstrikes right now? You would think it might have something to do. It might be connected to President Trump saying he will send more defensive aid to Ukraine. I mean, just a couple of days ago, Russia launched nearly 730 drones at Ukraine. That's like a record.

10:50But actually, Russia has been stepping up drone and missile attacks since March. That's when Ukraine agreed to a ceasefire brokered by the United States. Russia never signed on to that ceasefire. So how close are these airstrikes to overwhelming Ukraine's air defense? It sounds like it's just a lot to handle right now. Yeah, yeah. Ukraine's military says that's exactly what Russia is trying to do by sending hundreds of drones all at once. It's a challenge to shoot down so many, and at some point Ukraine is going to run out of air defense munitions. I spoke to lawmaker Oleksandr Ostinova about this strategy.

11:23She chairs the Ukrainian Parliament's Committee on Arms Control, and she said Russian President Vladimir Putin has failed to make significant progress on the battlefield. That's why his new strategy is to threaten the civilian population and to kill as many civilians as he can. And in this case, the number one priority for us is the air defense. And the number one priority, I think, for our partners should be protecting the civilian population and our children. So Sunova says Ukraine relies on Western partners, including the United States, to provide systems and munitions that protect from airstrikes.

11:56Russia has also intensified its attacks on the 1 ,000-mile front line, where Ukraine's army is spread very, very thin. So there's a lot resting on President Trump's promise to send additional air defense weapons to Ukraine. Any hope for a ceasefire at this point? Well, you know, President Trump said he did not make any progress toward a ceasefire during a phone call with Putin last week. And this week he made some scathing statements about the Russian leader saying Putin is, quote, not treating human beings right and is, quote, killing too many people in the war. But so far, the White House has not imposed any additional sanctions on Russia or tried to force Putin and the Kremlin to move toward a ceasefire.

12:34I spoke about this with Phillips O 'Brien. and he is a professor of strategic studies at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. I think as long as Putin believes the war is trending in his direction and Trump is totally uninclined to put any pressure on him, then I think Putin will keep fighting as long as he thinks the war is going in his direction. So right now, Ukrainians are waiting to see if the Trump administration actually follows through on promises to provide defensive weapons, and they are hoping Congress will approve new U.S. sanctions on Russia. All right. That's NPR's Joanna Kakissis.

13:07Joanna, thank you. You're welcome.

13:17The U.S. has reported 1 ,288 measles cases this year. That's according to the latest figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and it's the highest number of cases in over 30 years. Caitlin Rivers is the director of the Center for Outbreak Response Innovation at Johns Hopkins. She says it's upsetting to see the increased spread of measles, which is one of the most infectious diseases. And more importantly, it's preventable. And so we really hate to see this resurgence of a preventable virus. The vast majority of people who've been infected this year were unvaccinated. And here's how it breaks down.

13:53The CDC says you need a vaccination rate of 95 percent in order to prevent outbreaks in a community. But across the U.S., kindergarten vaccination rates against measles have been falling for years. They are currently at just under 93 percent nationally, and in some communities, they're much lower.

14:14And that's Up First for Thursday, July 10th. I'm Michelle Martin. And I'm E. Martinez. How about listening to Consider This from NPR? We here at Up First give you three big stories of the day. At Consider This, they take a different approach. They go deep into a single news story and what it means to you. That means that you can learn what you need to know about a big story of the day in less than 15 minutes. Listen now on the NPR app or wherever you get those podcasts. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Alfredo Carbajal, Barry Hardiman, Jane Greenhalgh, Jenea Williams, and Jan Johnson.

14:46It was produced by Ziad Butch, Nia Dumas, and Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Stacey Abbott, and our technical director is Zach Coleman. We hope you'll join us again tomorrow.

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