【新闻摘要】
德州洪水上演"死亡三重奏"！7月4日凌晨，百年一遇的暴雨让瓜达卢佩河水位暴涨9米，流量秒杀尼亚加拉瀑布，直接冲走基督教夏令营的27名女孩和工作人员。这场悲剧背后是"天时地利人不和"：地处全美最易洪涝的"暴洪走廊"，又遇上热带风暴残余加持，偏偏当地连个洪水警报系统都装不起，特朗普政府还裁掉了国家气象局10%的人手——看来在德州，防洪基本靠祷告啊！
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**Graphic detail | Water fall Why was the flooding in Texas so deadly? A mixture of geography, catastrophic rainfall and a lack of preparedness**
图表详解 | 德州洪灾为何如此致命？地理环境、灾难性降雨与准备不足的三重因素
**M ore than 100 people have died in one of the worst floods to hit America in a century.**
这场美国百年来最严重的洪灾已造成超100人死亡。
**Torrential rain swept through Kerr County, in central Texas, early on July 4th.**
7月4日凌晨，暴雨席卷德州中部的克尔县。
**Among the dead are 27 girls and staff members carried away from a Christian summer camp as the water surged.**
遇难者包括被暴涨洪水卷走的基督教夏令营27名女孩和工作人员。
**More heavy rain is forecast this week. The charts and maps below explain what made the flood so deadly.**
本周预计还有强降雨。以下图表揭示洪灾致命原因。
**Part of the cause was record rainfall in a particularly vulnerable area of the state.**
部分原因是该州脆弱地区遭遇破纪录降雨。
**At the Ingram weather station near Camp Mystic—where the girls had been staying—more than 13cm (5 inches) of rain fell in 24 hours, nearly double the historical average for the whole month.**
在女孩们所在的Mystic夏令营附近的英格拉姆气象站，24小时降雨量超13厘米（5英寸），几乎是该月历史均值的两倍。
**The location of the downpour—at the head of the Guadalupe river—amplified its effects.**
暴雨位于瓜达卢佩河上游的位置放大了其影响。
**Between 2.30am and 5.10am on July 4th the river rose almost nine metres (29 feet) at the Hunt water gauge near Camp Mystic.**
7月4日凌晨2:30至5:10，夏令营附近的亨特水文站水位暴涨近9米（29英尺）。
**At 5.10am the river reached over 11 metres, after which the gauge stopped working for several hours.**
5:10分水位超11米后，监测站瘫痪数小时。
**At this point more water was surging through the river than the typical flow over Niagara Falls.**
此时河水流量已超过尼亚加拉瀑布常态流量。
**Kerr County and the broader Hill Country region lies in"Flash Flood Alley", a band of central Texas that curves south from Dallas through Austin, then west via San Antonio to the Mexican border.**
克尔县及更广的丘陵地区位于"暴洪走廊"——从达拉斯向南经奥斯汀，再向西经圣安东尼奥至墨西哥边境的德州中部地带。
**Warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico rises over the cliffs and hills of the Balcones Escarpment. It then cools and condenses into heavy rain.**
墨西哥湾暖湿气流在巴尔科内斯悬崖上升遇冷，凝结成暴雨。
**This natural mechanism makes the region unusually prone to downpours, says Hatim Sharif, a hydrologist at the University of Texas at San Antonio.**
圣安东尼奥德州大学水文专家哈提姆·谢里夫称，这种自然机制使该地区异常容易发生暴雨。
**This weekend the amount of water vapour rose because of remnants from Tropical Storm Barry, which made landfall in Mexico on June 29th.**
6月29日在墨西哥登陆的巴里热带风暴残余增加了水汽量。
**The landscape compounds the danger. Semi-arid soils soak up little water. Rain races down hills into a dense network of narrow creeks, which rise quickly.**
地形加剧了危险。半干旱土壤吸水少，雨水顺山流入密集的狭窄溪流网络，水位迅速上涨。
**When the water surges it can sweep away buildings, vehicles and people.**
水位暴涨时可冲走建筑、车辆和人员。
**That danger is well known to Texans: their likelihood of dying in a flood is twice that of the average American.**
德州人深知此风险：其洪水死亡率是全美平均的两倍。
**Between 1959 and 2019 more than 1,000 people in Texas were killed in floods—the highest death toll of any state.**
1959至2019年间德州超1000人死于洪水，居全美各州之首。
**Despite the forecasts and its history of flooding, Kerr County appeared unprepared.**
尽管有预报和洪水历史，克尔县似乎准备不足。
**Local news reports note that the area still lacks a flood-alarm system to notify residents and visitors: efforts to fund one have failed since 2018.**
当地媒体报道该地区仍缺乏洪水警报系统，自2018年来筹资努力均失败。
**The timing of the floods—in the middle of the night—may have made it harder to spread warnings and evacuate.**
洪水发生在深夜，可能增加了预警和疏散难度。
**Questions are also being asked of the Trump administration and its Department of Government Efficiency ( DOGE ).**
特朗普政府及其政府效率部(DOGE)也遭质疑。
**Since January the National Weather Service ( NWS ) has lost around 560 staff—through sackings, early retirements and voluntary redundancies—reducing its workforce by 10%.**
1月以来国家气象局(NWS)通过裁员、提前退休和自愿离职减少了约560人，裁员10%。
**Some of these roles now need to be rehired. The NWS ’s offices in central Texas have unfilled posts for important positions, including a senior hydrologist and a warning-co-ordination meteorologist.**
部分岗位需重新招聘。德州中部气象局仍有高级水文专家和预警协调气象师等重要职位空缺。
（翻译说明：
1. 机构缩写首次出现标注全称(DOGE/NWS)
2."Flash Flood Alley"译为专业术语"暴洪走廊"
3. 数据单位统一转换为公制(厘米/米)并保留英制注释
4."Tropical Storm Barry"保留飓风命名"巴里"
5. 专业职称"senior hydrologist"译为"高级水文专家"
6. 整体保持灾害报道的严谨性与公共政策的批判性）
