Anonymous
07/07/2025 20:27
Subject: TX flood and climate change
This was not “unprecedented” at all.
Officials Feared Flood Risk to Youth Camps but Rejected Warning Systems
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/06/us/texas-flood-warnings-sirens.html
Eight years ago, in the aftermath of yet another river flood in the Texas Hill Country, officials in Kerr County debated whether more needed to be done to build a warning system along the banks of the Guadalupe River.
A series of summer camps along the river were often packed with children. For years, local officials kept them safe with a word-of-mouth system: When floodwaters started raging, upriver camp leaders warned those downriver of the water surge coming their way.
But was that enough? Officials considered supplementing the system with sirens and river gauges, along with other modern communications tools. “We can do all the water-level monitoring we want, but if we don’t get that information to the public in a timely way, then this whole thing is not worth it,” said Tom Moser, a Kerr County commissioner at the time.
In the end, little was done. When catastrophic floodwaters surged through Kerr County last week, there were no sirens or early flooding monitors. Instead, there were text alerts that came late for some residents and were dismissed or unseen by others.
Officials Feared Flood Risk to Youth Camps but Rejected Warning Systems
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/06/us/texas-flood-warnings-sirens.html
Eight years ago, in the aftermath of yet another river flood in the Texas Hill Country, officials in Kerr County debated whether more needed to be done to build a warning system along the banks of the Guadalupe River.
A series of summer camps along the river were often packed with children. For years, local officials kept them safe with a word-of-mouth system: When floodwaters started raging, upriver camp leaders warned those downriver of the water surge coming their way.
But was that enough? Officials considered supplementing the system with sirens and river gauges, along with other modern communications tools. “We can do all the water-level monitoring we want, but if we don’t get that information to the public in a timely way, then this whole thing is not worth it,” said Tom Moser, a Kerr County commissioner at the time.
In the end, little was done. When catastrophic floodwaters surged through Kerr County last week, there were no sirens or early flooding monitors. Instead, there were text alerts that came late for some residents and were dismissed or unseen by others.
Anonymous
07/07/2025 20:01
Subject: TX flood and climate change
Anonymous wrote: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…
Joe Biden was president for 4 years. He had FOUR years to fix the flooding problem in Texas. But he didn’t.
The blood of these children is on his hands.
Right? Never mind that this camp was built on a dry river bed in a flood zone. Texas authorities clearly don't give a damn where you build anything because God will protect the faithful. Obviously the solution is that the President of the United States should decide where to build summer camps. Why wasn't Trump on top of this?
They thought Moses would come down from the sky and part the Guadalupe.
Texans are thick as bricks.
Anonymous
07/07/2025 19:52
Subject: TX flood and climate change
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…
Joe Biden was president for 4 years. He had FOUR years to fix the flooding problem in Texas. But he didn’t.
The blood of these children is on his hands.
Right? Never mind that this camp was built on a dry river bed in a flood zone. Texas authorities clearly don't give a damn where you build anything because God will protect the faithful. Obviously the solution is that the President of the United States should decide where to build summer camps. Why wasn't Trump on top of this?
They thought Moses would come down from the sky and part the Guadalupe.
Anonymous
07/07/2025 19:46
Subject: TX flood and climate change
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…
Joe Biden was president for 4 years. He had FOUR years to fix the flooding problem in Texas. But he didn’t.
The blood of these children is on his hands.
Right? Never mind that this camp was built on a dry river bed in a flood zone. Texas authorities clearly don't give a damn where you build anything because God will protect the faithful. Obviously the solution is that the President of the United States should decide where to build summer camps. Why wasn't Trump on top of this?
Anonymous
07/07/2025 19:31
Subject: TX flood and climate change
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…
Joe Biden was president for 4 years. He had FOUR years to fix the flooding problem in Texas. But he didn’t.
The blood of these children is on his hands.
You are quite stupid. Republicans voted against additional funding for flood warning systems, including the Republican rep for this Texas flood alley area where Camp Mystic is (was) located. They’d rather have money for tax cuts for billionaires than for public safety.
https://thehill.com/policy/equilibrium-sustainability/5388538-texas-floods-flash-flooding-camp-mystic-dhs-nws-warnings/amp/
One such system exists in other flood-prone basins, where gauges in a cresting river automatically send alerts to a network of river sirens, which sound alarms across the area.
That’s technology that Kerrville officials say they have needed for years. But locals “reeled at the cost” of a county program, Kelly told PBS’s “Frontline,” and attempts to pay for it with state or federal funds failed.
In 2018, during the first Trump administration, Kerr County and the Upper Guadalupe River Authority applied to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for about $1 million to build a flood warning system — and were denied, KXAN reported.
This year, a bill that would have spent $500 million on a modern system of disaster warnings across the state passed the House but died in the Senate. One House member who voted against it, first-term state Rep. Wes Virdell (R), represents Kerr County.
“I can tell you in hindsight, watching what it takes to deal with a disaster like this, my vote would probably be different now,” Virdell told The Texas Tribune on Sunday, adding that he had objected to the measure’s price tag.
Anonymous
07/07/2025 19:26
Subject: TX flood and climate change
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:It is what it is now.
The US only has three more years to get with the program or massive climate change will be guaranteed. Since Republicans are undoing everything that was done to help in previous years, it is what it is.
If you live or vacation in a flood plain, it would be best not to do so any longer.
People who voted Republican wanted personal responsibility, now they have it, just like in the "good old days" when people just die without a national response.
At least Mexico is coming to the aid of Texans.
Uh, NO.
You apparently don't look at anything other than FOX News.
Mexican fire fighters aid in Texas recovery
https://www.sacurrent.com/news/firefighters-travel-from-mexico-to-aid-texas-flood-recovery-37930016
Climate warning from two years ago
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/mar/20/ipcc-climate-crisis-report-delivers-final-warning-on-15c
https://www.ipolitics.ca/2025/07/02/its-too-late-david-suzuki-says-the-fight-against-climate-change-is-lost/
the end of that conference, they said global warming represented a threat to humanity, second only to global nuclear war. If the world had followed the conclusions from that conference, we would not have the problem we face today and we would have saved trillions of dollars and millions of lives.
Now, it is too late.
I’ve never said this before to the media, but it’s too late. I say that because I go by science and Johan Rockström, the Swedish scientist who heads the Potsdam Institute, has defined nine planetary boundaries. These are constraints on how we live. As long as humans, like any other animal, live within those nine constraints, we can do it forever, and that includes the amount of carbon in the atmosphere, the pH of the oceans, the amount of available fresh water, the nitrogen cycle, etc.
There are nine planetary boundaries and we’ve only dealt with one of them — the ozone layer — and we think we’ve saved ourselves from that threat. But we passed the seventh boundary this year, and we’re in the extreme danger zone. Rockström says we have five years to get out of the danger zone.
If we pass one boundary, we should be shitting our pants. We’ve passed seven!
Anonymous
07/07/2025 19:06
Subject: TX flood and climate change
Anonymous wrote: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…
Joe Biden was president for 4 years. He had FOUR years to fix the flooding problem in Texas. But he didn’t.
The blood of these children is on his hands.
They chose their fate. They considered a local flood alert system with sirens and voted against it. What was Biden going to do? Override the local government like Trump and NYC tolls?
That’s no excuse!
You have no excuse
You voted for Trump.
If we are flinging around blood, I think your hands are pretty bloody
Anonymous
07/07/2025 18:57
Subject: Re:TX flood and climate change
I've been following stories about the unprecedented warming of the Caribbean Sea that has been occurring since 2023. For example, this WPost article is from January 2025.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2025/01/04/caribbean-has-been-unusually-warm-thats-not-good-thing/
It is plausible to me that the severity of the Texas storm is related to the increased volume of Caribbean water vapor. I've seen several news stories hint at this, but I would love to see detailed calculations as to how the Texas storm strength relates to the Caribbean (and global) warming.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2025/01/04/caribbean-has-been-unusually-warm-thats-not-good-thing/
It is plausible to me that the severity of the Texas storm is related to the increased volume of Caribbean water vapor. I've seen several news stories hint at this, but I would love to see detailed calculations as to how the Texas storm strength relates to the Caribbean (and global) warming.
Anonymous
07/07/2025 18:51
Subject: TX flood and climate change
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…
Joe Biden was president for 4 years. He had FOUR years to fix the flooding problem in Texas. But he didn’t.
The blood of these children is on his hands.
They chose their fate. They considered a local flood alert system with sirens and voted against it. What was Biden going to do? Override the local government like Trump and NYC tolls?
That’s no excuse!
Anonymous
07/07/2025 18:38
Subject: TX flood and climate change
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…
Joe Biden was president for 4 years. He had FOUR years to fix the flooding problem in Texas. But he didn’t.
The blood of these children is on his hands.
They chose their fate. They considered a local flood alert system with sirens and voted against it. What was Biden going to do? Override the local government like Trump and NYC tolls?
Anonymous
07/07/2025 18:36
Subject: TX flood and climate change
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I hate summer camps. All kids should be in school year round, these are all simply indoctrination camps.
Weirdo. Summer camp was the happiest time of my 80s childhood.
Are there any overnight summer camps that aren’t religiously affiliated?
Girl Scout and Boy Scout camps are not religiously affiliated. Lots of others too.
Have you ever slept at a Boy Scout Camp?? We're talking canvas tents and latrines with open walls and no running water. Totally different thing.
Anonymous
07/07/2025 18:35
Subject: TX flood and climate change
Anonymous wrote:It is what it is now.
The US only has three more years to get with the program or massive climate change will be guaranteed. Since Republicans are undoing everything that was done to help in previous years, it is what it is.
If you live or vacation in a flood plain, it would be best not to do so any longer.
People who voted Republican wanted personal responsibility, now they have it, just like in the "good old days" when people just die without a national response.
At least Mexico is coming to the aid of Texans.
Uh, NO.
Anonymous
07/07/2025 18:34
Subject: TX flood and climate change
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…
Joe Biden was president for 4 years. He had FOUR years to fix the flooding problem in Texas. But he didn’t.
The blood of these children is on his hands.
Anonymous
07/07/2025 18:32
Subject: TX flood and climate change
It is what it is now.
The US only has three more years to get with the program or massive climate change will be guaranteed. Since Republicans are undoing everything that was done to help in previous years, it is what it is.
If you live or vacation in a flood plain, it would be best not to do so any longer.
People who voted Republican wanted personal responsibility, now they have it, just like in the "good old days" when people just die without a national response.
At least Mexico is coming to the aid of Texans.
The US only has three more years to get with the program or massive climate change will be guaranteed. Since Republicans are undoing everything that was done to help in previous years, it is what it is.
If you live or vacation in a flood plain, it would be best not to do so any longer.
People who voted Republican wanted personal responsibility, now they have it, just like in the "good old days" when people just die without a national response.
At least Mexico is coming to the aid of Texans.
Anonymous
07/07/2025 18:29
Subject: TX flood and climate change
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I’ve noticed that Trump supporters don’t have the ability to detect cause-effect relationships. Everything happens to them out of the blue, not a result of their choices.
They cannot linked unprecedented weather to the scientists warning about unprecedented weather events for decades.
Before “never seen before” flooding in TX there was “never seen before” flooding in NC, there was a “never seen before” fires in California and Canada, tornadoes in Michigan that were never seen before, not to mention hurricanes. Every summer is the hottest summer on the record.
Yet, these imbeciles cannot put 2 and 2 together. Instead of 2+2=4, in Republican mind it’s just 2 and 2
And they think it’s going to affect them. Well, you are wrong. You kids will be drowning in floods and burnt in fires and fighting in wars for a drop of fresh water.
Your kids’ kids will look at you and damn you for living for yourselves only, for not preserving the environment for future generations.
Flooding is so “never before seen” in central Texas that the Guadeloupe River watershed is literally nicknamed “flash flood alley”.
I’m sure they gave it that nickname because it NEVER floods.
Right?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_Flood_Alley
Exactly. Cue the “inconceivable!” scene from Princess Bride. You keep saying that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.