People who lost everything describe leaving homes and express anger at poor preparedness and officials who seemed to shirk responsibility
As Texas marshals a formidable response to the flash floods that have already killed dozens, questions are now being posed about warnings that were given on Thursday and early Friday about the severity of the approaching storm and the co-ordination between local officials and the National Weather Service.
New flood alerts were issued for Texas “hill country” on Sunday, prompting rescue services to suspend the search for missing people, including at least 11 from Camp Mystic, the summer camp on the banks of the Guadalupe River hard hit by Friday’s flash flood.
At an early evening press briefing, Kerr county authorities said they were suspending the search and evacuating first responders from the river valley. They confirmed that 68 had died there, including 28 children. Not all have been identified, with officials still examining the bodies of 18 adults and 10 children.
Every time the dumbass Texans get fucked by their representatives the question their leadership for about a month from what I’ve seen 😂 then back to business as usual. they love the free market so much I’ll bet they still haven’t winterized their infrastructure after that cold snap that destroyed a bunch of people’s houses. They probably don’t even think about it anymore, guess we will find out the next time that it happens
Remember when there was a natural disaster on the East Coast and when there were fires in California and Texans said it was God’s judgment?
I do.
It is almost like dumb shit Republicans are going to get you killed.
It’s like a death cult where they’re in a cult and their biggest objective is death
This area is prone to flooding, according to scientists. This is when floods happen, according to scientists. Forecasters sent flood warnings hours in advance, based on the data.
Officials did not pass the word along. Massively fucking stupid thing to do. Waiting 4 hours and then you post to social media?
Parents had their kids staying in camps “without technology.” In flood lands, during flood season. Massively stupid thing to do. I mean how fucked in the head are these parents? They put their kids directly in harms way, took away their communication, and now many are dead.
We’ve known for decades that Texas has loose regulations allowing development to ignore flooding concerns. "Texas shoulders the most urban stormwater runoff of any state in the country ". After Hurricane Harvey flooded Houston in 2017, everyone was talking about the development issue, but alas, mostly just about Houston instead the state as a whole.
Post Harvey, The Atlantic had a big piece on how, “The combination of climate change and aggressive development made an event like this almost inevitable.”
Also from that 2017 disaster, The Washington Post concluded:
Thus, to ensure acceptable stormwater-system performance, jurisdictional agencies and officials must ensure that the type, timing and amount of real estate development are in sync with the capacity and configuration of the jurisdiction’s storm system. Many communities are at risk because of overbuilding or for allowing building in areas with inadequate infrastructure.
Some argued that “Houston isn’t flooded because of its land use planning” … but while the author there is an expert in urban planning, he is not an expert in hydrology.
Of course the recent tragedy was no where near Houston. It was closer to Austin and San Antonio. On Austin: “Flash flooding is a pressing concern for Austin, so much so that it has been labeled the “Flash Flood Alley” of Texas.” On San Santonio:
San Antonio is a populated area in one of the most flash-flood prone regions in North America. SARA manages a series of structural controls (dams and drainage systems) to help prevent and/or reduce flood problems. For example, the San Antonio River Tunnels (see illustration) proved invaluable as they diverted water safely underneath downtown during the 1998 and 2002 floods.
I don’t want to hear “No warning at all.” This was a risk known for decades where the state and municipalities decided they’d rather allow an eventual catastrophe than spend the money needed to prevent one.
Kerrville, where the campers all died, is an hour west of San Antonio, and 2 hours west of Austin. no where near the city limits of either city.
San Antonio lost 13 people in early June when a massive wall of flash flood water pushed every car on a specific section of road into a ditch and carried them a mile down stream. I don’t think anyone died in the most recent storm.
Austin had a similar event where one specific area where two rivers converge caught a group of people.
Kerrville is too small to get cited as an example in a big national report on Texas flood issues, so my citations are meant to show this is a problem for the whole state rather than a particular town. If you go to USGS, you’ll see they don’t even have a flow gauge upstream of Camp Mystic. The closest is downstream at gauge:hntt2(click dot on map to see readings). Simple link without map: https://water.noaa.gov/gauges/HNTT2
This is what happens when vital weather data is kept from forecasters and the weather service gets its funding shredded
No, warnings were sent out by forecasters. It was hours before officials passed the word along.
The officials who let people die are saying it’s because funding was cut. Trump cut funding, so that’s why they waited 4 hours before posting the warnings to Facebook? Ok.
Yes but NO ONE could have PREDICTED that
You could say a lack of funds wasn’t in the… forecast.
Harumph. That was because something something Biden and “old technology”, obvs.
Team Taco is only trying to make things more “efficient” and get rid of the (repeat after me, in a mindless drone), “waste, fraud, and abuse”! Team Taco is only trying to clean up the mess of the Biden administration who was letting this go on for far too long and was the worst President in history with the worst economy ever [1], yadda yadda. We should all be thanking Taco right now for his glorious plans for our future…
[1] Which Taco is going to keep repeating forever even if we could see the economic data ourselves under Biden. It’s about repeating the big lie over and over and over. Sadly, many on the left help him in this…
saving so much damn $$$ you’ll be sick of saving so much damn $$$…
Good thing Texas Republicans killed the bill that would have expanded the warning systems.
Also actively took funding from existing systems that would warn of weather problems.
Between this and blaming wind turbines for their massive power outage a few years ago (instead of, you know, actually exploring the real cause), it seems Texas has a hate-hate relationship with weather and general preparedness.
it’s clear that no one can rely on help or warning from “officials” anymore. everyone needs to get themselves prepared for whatever weather disaster might happen in their area. supplies, bug out bags, escape plans–all of that
western NC is still trying to recover from the hurricane last september, with state legislature (all R) bickering and not passing the budget
it’s clear that no one can rely on help or warning from “officials” anymore. everyone needs to get themselves prepared for whatever weather disaster might happen in their area. supplies, bug out bags, escape plans–all of that
This is the Libertarian wet dream.
Every dumbfuck Dale Gribble that distrusted the Big Gubbermint couldn’t get normal Americans to buy into their Galt’s Gulch bullshit. Now that they’ve captured the government with the likes of Taco, they are going to FORCE normal Americans to join them in their stupid dystopian fantasies in Galt’s Gulch.
We all live in Galt’s Gulch now and I guess it’s prone to flash floods.
This has always been the far right endgame. They don’t want people to rely on government, so they make government unreliable. Citizens become more exploitable, and thus more profitable.
What do Republicans (fascists) actually want or even do? Besides raising taxes, expanding military budget, war, dismantling institutions and programs, and rounding up immigrants. Crazy people vote for them, they literally dismantle everything to line their pocketbooks. They have no actual policy.
Furthermore, they don’t think there is anything you can do about weather/climate change, school and mass shootings, housing, education, healthcare, etc. Anytime some major event or catastrophe happens… “these things just happen, nothing you can do about it! Thoughts and prayers! Let’s not make it political.”
And then we just move on, with no actions being taken at all while everything around us just gets worse. Yes you CAN do things to help mitigate weather disasters and school shootings and all the rest. If they don’t think there is a way why are they in leadership positions? That’s the hypocrisy.
They want to own everything, even the people.
Theyre living in their power fantasy and are willing to destroy everything to gain more of it.
What do Republicans (fascists) actually want or even do?
To be feared. To exercise each and every whim with absolute authority and no consequences.
Outside of that, the usual. Chicks, football, cocaine, whoopin’ and a-hollerin’.
Saw an interview of a guy whose house had like 5 feet of water…
He swam out a broken window, climbed on an electrical box but couldn’t make it to the roof so he held on for 3 hours.
He said the phone alarm that there was a warning came thru while he was already outside clinging to the side of his house.
Hope he sees the connection in his voting habits. I hate to assume but he seems like a squeaker when it his turn at bat
Over 200 people died in winter storm Uri, we had the Uvakde shooting, and then 2022 had insanely low turnout (like 45%) and the Republicans held onto control at all levels in the state. This is another absolutely tragic loss of life, but I’d be surprised if it impacts their votes (Abbott won Uvalde county).
You know they won’t. They dont want to make it “political.”
Now’s not the right time for this conversation.
Or tomorrow, or the next day. In fact let’s just keep our heads in the sand and keep doing nothing!
There’s consequences to our actions… and our votes. Oh well at least it was Christian girls in the middle of Texas. No harm done.
Children died. Children who only knew what they were indoctrinated into. It’s horrible no matter how you look at it, and hand waving it away because they’re kids of people who are likely to be shitty is just as horrible. Shame.
Yep. Lots of kids (and parents) only kind of tacitly take part in such activities/groups, because it’s something fun to do. They might not buy into very much or even any of the religious part…
/Leopards_Ate_My_Face has entered the chat
