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photo:Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP |
I wrote a complete episode on the bull-hockey email I received from the Social Security Administration. It's no longer relevant. I cannot stop seeing the Camp Mystic signs in my head. I cannot wrap my head around what happened in Texas. Mostly I want to throw up.
I spent a summer as a sleepaway camp counselor. I had a cabin full of Debs...the youngest campers. We had a week of torrential rains that summer, and even moved the kids to the dining hall one night because our roof was leaky, but never did a wall of water crash down on us. I cannot help but think of the counselors trying to save their kids. I want to retch thinking of the kids trying to save each other.
And my heart stops when I think about my granddaughter who will leave for camp on Monday.
Did the National Weather Service fail to issue appropriate warnings to the area that floods were imminent? Were recent cuts responsible for their inefficiency? Over 600 NWS worker were removed from their posts, including senior meteorologists, and, as a result, field offices were closed, many were no longer operating 24 hours a day, and concerns about forecasting and dissemination of information were already at the forefront as the US heads into hurricane season.
There will be lots of finger pointing. President Felon intimated his predecessor was responsible for the National Weather Service's shortcomings
I’ll tell you: You look at
that water situation, that was really the Biden setup. That was not our setup.
But I wouldn’t blame Biden for it either; I would just say this is a
hundred-year catastrophe, and it’s just so horrible to watch.
But the truth is sadder than that. There were no sirens on the ground in Kerr County. Cell service was spotty. Unless you had a weather radio, you probably did not recognize the danger you were in.
The NWS did issue warnings in a timely and detailed manner. But it was in the middle of the night with no human follow up as there might have been in a more populated area.
The first warning was sent on July 3rd to Bandera County only at 11:53 p.m. Kerr County, the location of Camp Mystic, was not included in that initial bulletin.
JULY 4Th
- 1:15 a.m: the first warnings issued for Kerr and Bandera Counties
- 3:35 a.m., Bandera and Kerr Counties — NWS sends a repeat of its earlier warning to the two counties, but in the warning language it adds: "It is important to know where you are relative to streams, rivers, or creeks which can become killers in heavy rains. Campers and hikers should avoid streams or creeks."
- 4:03 a.m., Bandera and Kerr Counties - This is a PARTICULARLY DANGEROUS SITUATION. SEEK HIGHER GROUND NOW!" and "Move to higher ground now! This is an extremely dangerous and life-threatening situation. Do not attempt to travel unless you are fleeing an area subject to flooding or under an evacuation order.
5:34 a.m., Kerr County — NWS sends a repeat of its earlier warning to Kerr County, which includes Camp Mystic. "This is a FLASH FLOOD EMERGENCY for the Guadalupe River from Hunt through Kerrvile and Center Point. This is a PARTICULARLY DANGEROUS SITUATION. SEEK HIGHER GROUND NOW!" and "Move to higher ground now! This is an extremely dangerous and life-threatening situation."
6:06 a.m., Bandera and Kerr Counties — NWS sends a repeat of its earlier warning to both counties. It reads in part: "Local law enforcement reported numerous low water crossings flooded and major flooding occurring along the Guadalupe River with rescues taking place. Between 5 and 10 inches of rain have fallen. Additional rainfall amounts up to 2 inches are possible in the warned area. Flash flooding is already occurring. This is a FLASH FLOOD EMERGENCY for South-central Kerr County, including Hunt. This is a PARTICULARLY DANGEROUS SITUATION. SEEK HIGHER GROUND NOW!"
All those notices are functionally in the middle of the night. If there are no sirens, no warning system, not modern way to get the information out, how is anyone going to respond to an emergency? WTF did they think was gonna happen?
Obviously the NWS was ill prepared to think. You'd think they would've been trained about middle of the night emergencies with tornados. Apparently not.
Kelly said the county considered a flood
warning system along the river that would have functioned like a tornado
warning siren about six or seven years ago, before he was elected, but that the
idea never got off the ground because of the expense.
“We’ve looked into it before … The public
reeled at the cost,” Kelly said.
He said he didn’t know what kind of safety and
evacuation plans the camp may have had.
“What I do know is the flood hit the camp
first, and it came in the middle of the night. I don’t know where the kids
were,” he said. “I don’t know what kind of alarm systems they had. That will
come out in time.”
The public reeled at the cost? Are we now to accept child sacrifice on the altar of public hubris? Are weather alert systems to go the way of vaccines? If you die, you die?
What kind of country has the technology to get the word out, but doesn't do it? President Biden and others before him have consistently urged Congress to allocate funds for weather warning systems and other safety infrastructure programs. But does congress respond? No. They are too busy denying other attempts at repairing and restoring our infrastructure. Oh, yeah, wanna talk about Air Traffic Control? How about highway bridge safety? The list is endless.
It's not enough to force people out of healthe care, food programs, and other safety nets one might think is the reasoning behind having governments in the first place. There are dozens of dead people in Texas because We, the People, do not insist our government serve We, the People who elected them in the first place.
This should be but will not be a wake up call. That Muskrat wants a third party? Maybe he should find out what people expect from their government first, because his tenure at DOGE certainly didn't serve the people at all. Maybe someone, ANYONE, could think about what We, the People need, not what oligarchs and billionaires want. There is a bit of a disconnect between the twol.
My cousins and their toddler went Austin to the Hill Country last week for a bit of vacation fun. They left for home in Austin earlier than planned to get ahead of the storms. I can only think Baruch Ha'Shem ...thank G-d.
The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week
For G-d's sake, hug someone you love.
You may never know when they'll be ripped from your arms.