From an Austin meteorologist this morning:

The flooding this weekend was so extreme that a number of the equipment sites that monitor river levels were damaged or destroyed. The USGS has been working to retrieve some of that lost data, and we have some final numbers regarding the historic crests on the Guadalupe, San Saba, and San Gabriel Rivers from the July 4th & 5th floods.

🔹Up to 22" of rain fell on part of the San Gabriel watershed. That sent the river to its 2nd HIGHEST crest on record, and about 6 feet higher than the 2007 flood in Georgetown

🔹10-20" on the San Saba watershed brought the San Saba River to its HIGHEST CREST on record in McCulloch County

🔹10-15" of rain July 4th morning west of Kerrville took the Guadalupe River up to 10ft at 3 AM, 29ft an hour and a half later (that's when the flood gauge was damaged), then finally to a crest of 37.36ft by 5:10 AM in Hunt, TX. That's the highest level that flood gauge has ever measured, and it's located near just downstream from Camp Mystic and the many other camps that sustained catastrophic damage.

🔹That wall of water quickly moved into Kerrville with devastating consequences from there and further downstream towards Comfort, TX. The Kerrville flood gauge topped out at its 3rd highest crest on record.

Closer to Austin, two flood gauges operated by the LCRA were washed away in the catastrophic Saturday morning floods. One on Big Sandy Creek was destroyed after sending its last reading of 21ft. Another on Hamilton Creek in Burnet county was destroyed after topping 26ft. We may never know the true heights of those creeks which tore through so many homes, businesses, and lives this weekend.
As of this writing, the 13 fatalities reported in Travis, Burnet, and Williamson counties is the same number of deaths from the 2015 Memorial Day weekend floods along the Blanco River in Wimberley. With many still reported missing, the grim reality is that the death toll will likely climb higher.
The fact that this flood will likely eclipse the 2015 Wimberley flood is unbelievable. I thought I would never see anything like that again in my life. What's worrisome is that the state and national attention has been heavily concentrated on Kerr County. Obviously, they need all of the assistance that they can possibly get, but I hope state and national leaders will also recognize the critical need for equipment, manpower, and supplies in the disaster zones of Travis, Williamson, and Burnet counties in the coming days. So many people need so, so much help.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mo-Ranch, 17 miles from Mystic, successfully evacuated all campers. Elevation was on their side for sure.

So many camps in Kerr County. Not all signals were shoddy and some camps had enough time to act based on warnings, functioning technology, common sense. Why didn’t others warn Mystic? Hell, some of those camps had many hours to act. They had to know Mystic was in the worst possible zone. A single security person or director or even a spare counselor could have driven their truck 15 minutes down to Mystic to 🆘 At the very least, alerted county emergency dispatchers on behalf of Mystic.

They knew and they were evacuating.

I remember a report that other camps evacuated sooner. Some had warnings many hours earlier.

As for Mystic, a program director said at 3:11 am they were woken up to help evacuate campers from their cabins. The National Weather Service's first flash flood warning was broadcast at 1:14 a.m. Friday morning.

Regardless, a tragedy that could have been prevented. Will leave it at that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would love to see a system where camps couldn't get permits unless they demonstrate an effective communication/evacuation system

This is already in place.

If it was in place we wouldn’t have had this catastrophe. Please stop gaslighting.

Gaslighting? I am not sure what you mean. I know for a fact the camps are required to have these systems in place. Also, one can have all the plans and permits in the world but that is no guarantee with the unpredictability of mother nature and water especially in today's climate.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am so tired of blaming Trump for everything, or blaming Biden, or whomever. Natural disasters happen, people die, it’s horrible and devastating but it’s not always someone’s fault. If that lake had a history of flooding, why was a children’s camp built right there beside it?

Alternatively you could ask why that Texas town didn’t value flood monitoring enough to pay the $50k required to install a rudimentary system. Instead they wanted to keep taxes low. Smart science based policies save lives. Regulations about flood areas save lives. Rural Texas voted against this and now there’s a lot of dead kids (and adults).

Why I would never send my child to camp in rural Texas. Yes disasters happen. But this one was predictable had they had smarter local government officials.

https://www.tovima.com/wsj/officials-pushed-for-better-warning-system-for-years-before-deadly-floods/
Officials Pushed for Better Warning System for Years Before Deadly Floods

07.07.2025
17:00
The Wall Street Journal
By Scott Calvert, John West, Jim Carlton and Joe Barrett, The Wall Street Journal

A sheriff in 2016 recalled pulling ‘kids out of trees’ in summer camps as leaders repeatedly discussed installing a siren system, but didn’t do so
former sheriff pushed Kerr County commissioners nearly a decade ago to adopt a more robust flood-warning system, telling government officials how he “spent hours in those helicopters pulling kids out of trees here (in) our summer camps,” according to meeting records.

Then-Sheriff Rusty Hierholzer was a proponent of outdoor sirens, having responded as a deputy to the 1987 floods that killed 10 teenagers at a camp in nearby Kendall County. He made the comments in 2016, after deadly floods ravaged a different part of Texas the year before.

“We were trying to think of, what can we do to make sure that never happens here?” Hierholzer, who served as Kerr County sheriff from 2000 to 2020, recalled in an interview Sunday with The Wall Street Journal. “And that’s why we were looking at everything that we could come up with, whether it be sirens, whether it be any other systems that we could.”

That suggestion, from him and others, was never adopted.

Seems like red states have very short memories about preventable tragedies…

Do you also blame "blue state" California for its repeated fire deaths?

DP here. I actually do blame Californians for living and rebuilding in known flood and fire prone areas. I think these homes should be uninsurable for floods even through the federal government. We (as taxpayers) are just enabling the lunacy.

I can’t stand Trump but I actually don’t really blame DOGE for this. Local politicians in Texas are the ones with the institutional memory and inside information. They have chosen repeatedly not to address this very well known issue.

Why do they build stick homes with tarpaper rooves? Can't they find enough mud to build adobe with tile rooves?

Anonymous wrote:I think it is dumb to build on flood zones, fire zones, fault lines, anywhere that will make a structure crumble. Even dumber not to have emergency systems in place.

The folks in Texas thought they were blessed and couldn't imagine God doesn't truly favor them. Wanna bet that to them, having a system in place signaled a lack of faith in Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mo-Ranch, 17 miles from Mystic, successfully evacuated all campers. Elevation was on their side for sure.

So many camps in Kerr County. Not all signals were shoddy and some camps had enough time to act based on warnings, functioning technology, common sense. Why didn’t others warn Mystic? Hell, some of those camps had many hours to act. They had to know Mystic was in the worst possible zone. A single security person or director or even a spare counselor could have driven their truck 15 minutes down to Mystic to 🆘 At the very least, alerted county emergency dispatchers on behalf of Mystic.

They knew and they were evacuating.

Not in time. They didn’t get to the last cabin in time. Obviously.

Yes, just correcting the notion that they did not know and were not acting.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would love to see a system where camps couldn't get permits unless they demonstrate an effective communication/evacuation system

This is already in place.

If it was in place we wouldn’t have had this catastrophe. Please stop gaslighting.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mo-Ranch, 17 miles from Mystic, successfully evacuated all campers. Elevation was on their side for sure.

So many camps in Kerr County. Not all signals were shoddy and some camps had enough time to act based on warnings, functioning technology, common sense. Why didn’t others warn Mystic? Hell, some of those camps had many hours to act. They had to know Mystic was in the worst possible zone. A single security person or director or even a spare counselor could have driven their truck 15 minutes down to Mystic to 🆘 At the very least, alerted county emergency dispatchers on behalf of Mystic.

They knew and they were evacuating.

Not in time. They didn’t get to the last cabin in time. Obviously.

Anonymous wrote:I would love to see a system where camps couldn't get permits unless they demonstrate an effective communication/evacuation system

This is already in place.

I would love to see a system where camps couldn't get permits unless they demonstrate an effective communication/evacuation system

Anonymous wrote:Mo-Ranch, 17 miles from Mystic, successfully evacuated all campers. Elevation was on their side for sure.

So many camps in Kerr County. Not all signals were shoddy and some camps had enough time to act based on warnings, functioning technology, common sense. Why didn’t others warn Mystic? Hell, some of those camps had many hours to act. They had to know Mystic was in the worst possible zone. A single security person or director or even a spare counselor could have driven their truck 15 minutes down to Mystic to 🆘 At the very least, alerted county emergency dispatchers on behalf of Mystic.

They knew and they were evacuating.

I think it is dumb to build on flood zones, fire zones, fault lines, anywhere that will make a structure crumble. Even dumber not to have emergency systems in place.

Anonymous wrote:This all is yet another sad example of the Republicans. Democrats try to promote sane and sensible land use, Republicans scream “FREEDUMB! LET US PUT CAMPS WHERE WE WANT YOU COMMIES!” - Democrats try to fund science, like climate change, stream gauges, monitors, radars, sensors, satellites, improving antiquated models and so on, Republicans shriek about “climate change is a hoax, the earth is cooling, we’re so funny and clever, throw that coal roller switch on the pickup truck Cletus” - Democrats talk about trying to use FEMA to improve response, they talk about warning sirens and so on, Republicans shriek “JADE HELM, DEMS WANT TO USE FEMA TO PUT US INTO CONCENTRATION CAMPS IN ABANDONED WALMARTS.”

You can’t make this shit up. Sadly it’s all real, like some bad dream that we can’t wake up from.

Left out “Jewish Space Lasers” and “Chemtrails” and “Deep State”

Ugh. I hate this timeline SO MUCH. Please, Republicans, FIX YOURSELVES.

This all is yet another sad example of the Republicans. Democrats try to promote sane and sensible land use, Republicans scream “FREEDUMB! LET US PUT CAMPS WHERE WE WANT YOU COMMIES!” - Democrats try to fund science, like climate change, stream gauges, monitors, radars, sensors, satellites, improving antiquated models and so on, Republicans shriek about “climate change is a hoax, the earth is cooling, we’re so funny and clever, throw that coal roller switch on the pickup truck Cletus” - Democrats talk about trying to use FEMA to improve response, they talk about warning sirens and so on, Republicans shriek “JADE HELM, DEMS WANT TO USE FEMA TO PUT US INTO CONCENTRATION CAMPS IN ABANDONED WALMARTS.”

You can’t make this shit up. Sadly it’s all real, like some bad dream that we can’t wake up from.