Federal 'Mystic Alerts Act' will let emergency warnings reach phones by satellite when cell towers go down

Weather Service warnings about flash floods and other life-threatening emergencies could one day reach cellphones by satellite when a cell tower is knocked out, under a federal law signed Thursday.

President Donald Trump signed the Mystic Alerts Act on Oct. 22, The Texas Tribune reported. The law is named for Camp Mystic, where 27 campers and counselors and the camp's co-executive director died in the July 2025 flash flooding in the Texas Hill Country. More than 100 people died in the floods overall.

Why the alerts fell short

During that disaster, the National Weather Service issued several flash flood alerts. Those alerts are meant to set off automatic warnings on phones through cell towers run by carriers that take part in the program. But coverage in the Hill Country is patchy, and many people never received them. Some phone owners had also switched the automatic alerts off.

What the law does

The Federal Communications Commission must now write rules for adding satellite delivery to the wireless emergency alert system for times when a tower fails. Each carrier will have to tell the FCC whether it plans to use satellite delivery. A carrier that does not must notify its subscribers.

The timeline is long. The FCC has 18 months to adopt a final rule, and that rule would not take effect until at least three years later, according to the Tribune.

The bill's sponsor was Rep. August Pfluger, a Republican from Texas whose district lies just north of the camp. "By bringing satellite technology into our emergency alert system, we're making sure warnings reach people when they need them most," he said. Sen. John Cornyn, also a Texas Republican, said in a statement that the law would help people receive alerts "even when disaster strikes."

Sirens at the state level

Texas lawmakers took their own step after the floods, requiring flood-prone counties hit by the disaster to put up outdoor warning sirens; that work is still underway. Emergency management experts have cautioned that sirens can help in rural areas but have limits: people indoors during a storm may not hear them, and without public education they may not know what to do when one sounds.

Sources

The Texas Tribune