On the weekend of July 4, it became a nightmare in the picturesque mountain region of Texas, with sudden floods that swept cabins, camps and riverside villages, causing the death of more than 100 people and leaving more than 160 missing. Among the deceased were 30 children, including a second -grade student who loved the glitter and pink ties, and a 19 -year -old counselor who had dedicated his summer to being a mentor of smaller girls in the Mystic camp.

But while the search teams, armed with hydrodeslizers, helicopters and even horses, travel the dangerous shores of the Guadalupe River in search of signs of life, a different storm is coming, not in heaven, but in the public discourse. This storm has a name: Elon Musk.

In a surprise action that caused shock in political and technological circles, Musk turned to social networks on Tuesday night to issue a overwhelming statement: «This tragedy did not have to happen. A simple flooding alert system promoted by Starlink, implemented years ago, could have saved each and every one of these lives ».

His words quickly became viral, amplified by videos of research teams digging in mountains of devastated debris and parents holding teddy bear stained mud found near the camps of their children.

Musk’s comments arrive at a time when state and local officials face intense scrutiny. The State Republican governor, Greg Abbott, visited the helicopter disaster area and declared to the press that it is not time to blame anyone. “That is the favorite word of the losers,” he said, comparing the situation with that of an American football team that learns from their mistakes.

But for many, including Musk, it’s time to account. “Champions teams do not ignore the score,” Musk replied in a later publication. “And in this case, the result is 100 lost lives because the leaders were too tacaños or too proud to modernize.”

In the center of this growing controversy is Kerr County, headquarters of the Centennial Camp Mystic and dozens of other youth camps on the shores of the Guadalupe River. The authorities confirm that so far at least 90 bodies have been recovered and that five children and a counselor are still missing.

The locals have long known the nickname of the area: “alley of sudden floods.” However, despite this story and a subsidy request for one million dollars for an alert system presented eight years ago, the municipality never received federal support and the project was abandoned.

Musk’s criticism focused on this failure. «Eight years ago, Kerr County asked for a million dollars. That is less than a Spacex launch. They denied it. And now we are here, crying children who never had a chance, ”he said.

He also revealed that, in previous years, Spacex and Starlink had offered discreetly to pilot a rural rural alert system based on the low orbit satellite internet and storm tracking with artificial intelligence. According to Musk, the offer was rejected by local officials who did not see the urgency or questioned the need for external technological solutions.

Starlink, the Musk Satellite Internet company under Spacex, has quickly become a global communications infrastructure, especially effective in difficult and underdeveloped areas. In recent months, it has been used to restore the Internet in areas affected by disasters, facilitate Ukraine communications during blackouts in war times and support rural schools in the Amazon jungle.

Technology allows instant access to broadband with a minimal infrastructure. And what is more important, allows real -time communication and emergency transmissions in areas where mobile phone towers are inactive or non -existent.

According to Musk, the integration of Starlink artificial intelligence with weather data, river level sensors and predictive analysis could provide personalized flood alerts to each family, cabin and camp in a matter of minutes or hours before the deadly water wall rises 26 feet in less than 60 minutes.

“A siren or someone with a megaphone would not be needed,” Musk argued. “All devices, from a child’s smart watch to a father’s phone, could issue a unique and synchronized evacuation signal.”

But that warning never came. Witnesses describe how the waters rose before dawn on Friday, surprising entire camps. Some children had to break the windows of the cabins and swim all night. Others clung to the trees for hours before being rescued.

Videos recorded by local residents showed how the roads disappeared in seconds. Outside the mystic camp cabins, only mud covers and small suitcases are left, some still with bright stickers.

For Aidan Duncan, a 17 -year -old who escaped just in time from the Riverside RV Park, the trauma is recent and deep. “I cried a lot,” he said, pointing to his bird’s cage and his sports cards, now buried under the mud. On the other side of the river, Charles Hanson, 91, swept wood and debris near his residence for older people.

“Let’s settle for the best we have,” he said, but the pain in his voice was evident. The best thing they had was not enough.

What worries many families and citizens now is not only devastation, but the feeling that everything was preventable. Generations in Hill Country have warned about floods. A deadly event in 1987 claimed the lives of ten teenagers. Local leaders have been insisting on the need for a better system.

And yet, as Kerr County judge admitted, Rob Kelly, at a press conference, there is still no alert system throughout the county.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has rejected financing requests in the past, and, according to reports, local residents refused to pay taxes to finance it. In Musk’s words: “They preferred budget cuts to bodies, and are now counting corpses.”

Governor Abbott, on the other hand, tried to focus the conversation on recovery, promising not to rest until he finds all missing persons and support all families. He added that President Donald Trump has promised full federal assistance and will visit the State on Friday. However, this failed to stop the growing wave of criticism online.

It is rumored that Elon Musk is in conversations with non -profit organizations and private emergency response coalitions to launch an independent alert system, free of bureaucratic procedures and financed by its foundations. Internal sources suggest that he could begin as a pilot in Kerr County and expand to flood -prone regions throughout the United States, taking advantage of Starlink and hardware fueled by Tesla batteries for uninterrupted operation even during blackouts.

Regardless of whether this plan materializes or not, Musk’s intervention has revived a national debate: in a country with billionaires that build rockets and fried potatoes, why do children continue to die in the cabins without a five -second warning?

For families in duel in Texas, it may be too late. But for the rest of the United States, the question persists: will we hear the next time someone like Elon Musk tried to warn us?

Or are we going to wait – once again – to raise the water?