Former White House Chief Information Officer: The Right Tech Could Have Saved Dozens in the Texas Floods. My Industry Needs to Step Up | Opinion

Hearts are breaking all over America and the world as the devastating stories from Texas continue to take shape. The rising waters of the Guadalupe River have claimed over a hundred lives. Camp Mystic, a girls’ summer camp nestled in the Hill Country, lost dozens of its campers in the surge, along with staff members who died trying to save the girls entrusted to their care.

As a mother, my heart aches for all the families who will never be able to hold their loved ones again. As a veteran of the tech industry for over 30 years, my mind races to the ways we can step up our efforts to help make sure tragedies like this never occur again. We have the technology right now, today, to issue earlier warnings of freak weather events, identify areas at greatest risk, and save as many lives as possible when the worst does happen.

A devastating event like this shows us where we can and must do better. To see so many Americans use this horror as yet another cudgel to bash political opponents just compounds the tragedy further. Not only is it ghoulish, it’s unproductive. It won’t bring a single Camp Mystic camper back, or save any other lives in the future. Peace and renewal will come from finding and implementing solutions, not scapegoating.

We can start with harnessing the power of artificial intelligence (AI) for something positive, not just replacing entry-level jobs and churning out deepfake celebrity porn. AI tools can be used to map flood-prone areas with precision, and model flood, fire, and storm risks for every county in America, with special attention given to vulnerable sites like camps, schools, and hospitals. These maps can then be shared with local officials and those in charge of high-risk facilities, to help them develop their own risk mitigation plans and enable earlier evacuations. AI could also unify National Weather Service, law enforcement, and community or camp data for seamless communication.

Early reports suggest there were several issues with alerts reaching residents in vulnerable areas. To enhance communication, mandating the use of specialized apps that deliver National Weather Service alerts directly to law enforcement and staff at camps and other vulnerable rural locations, bypassing “Do Not Disturb” settings, could ensure timely and critical notifications. Versions of these exist in war-torn countries like Israel and Ukraine to warn of incoming missile attacks. They can wake people up even in the dead of night. If there are limitations in cell service, a backup network of satellite (like Starlink) or radio-based emergency alert devices could be implemented and activated.

There are recent examples of cutting-edge technology being used to great effect in the wake of catastrophic flooding. After Hurricane Helene swept through western North Carolina in 2024, Elon Musk and SpaceX deployed hundreds of Starlink terminals—some through FEMA, some on their own—to enable emergency responder communications and allow displaced residents to contact loved ones and the rest of the outside world. Musk has also offered Starlink as a connector for rural areas, advocating for its inclusion in the $42 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program to bring affordable, high-speed internet to underserved communities, some of which are at greatest risk of flooding and other extreme weather.

Musk’s role in national politics may court controversy, but his emergency deployment of Starlink terminals after Helene shows how the tech industry can step up successfully in the face of disaster. Sometimes it means partnering with government agencies, which we know can be slow and inefficient—two attributes we in the tech world cannot abide. Sometimes it means putting people before profit—something I feel our field is getting worse and worse at doing.

Despite their claims to the contrary, Big Tech is not all-powerful. It can’t prevent the next Camp Mystic tragedy on its own. There’s a place for decidedly low-tech measures, too, like off-grid, old-school extraordinarily loud horns that can be installed in high-risk areas that can scream a warning of danger for miles with absolutely no digital components. And every high- or low-tech solution will require new training and implementation plans for officials and everyday citizens to get used to them.

But these are small inconveniences compared with the unfathomable thought of another empty seat at the dinner table, another small bed left empty except for a lonely stuffed animal waiting for a child that will never hug it again. If there is any meaning in such senseless tragedy, it should be found in reminding us of what matters. For those of us in tech, we should remember the importance of using our talent and training not just to streamline corporate profits, but to make the world a bit better—and even, where we can, to save lives.

Theresa Payton is the CEO of Fortalice Solutions. She served as the first female White House chief information officer under President George W. Bush.

The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.