*sigh*
It seems to have been a blindspot for sure.
California has been good about earthquake building codes, going so far as to seismically retrofit older structures. But wildfire-wise, it’s ridiculous how densely packed and high up into brushy hills construction of so many new multimillion dollar homes have been. It shouldn’t keep taking catastrophe to wake people up.
But floods seem even more difficult to escape. Prayers.
There's also a road that runs parallel to the Guadalupe River (Highway 39 I think) that the water never crossed. So it appears someone knew that was the true river bank.
So, yes, tragically and stupidly, it appears that camp was situated on a river bed, not next to a river.
Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
It’s a shame that this area will probably flash flood again and loss of life will happen again.
It seems history shows it.
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Reference.
I’m very very critical of camp leadership. They knew they were on a flood plain. Or even a riverbed as someone above pointed out. They knew there were watches and warnings including the last one two hours before the catastrophe. If they didn’t know they should have. In this day and age there are several ways to keep apprised of weather conditions. It sometimes is critical. They chose to ignore the watches and warnings. Apparently they just went to bed. Of course they were surprised when waters rushed in at 400 am. They did literally nothing to prepare. By some means, they should’ve monitored weather in this very volatile time of year. Given history, that is a minimum. They should’ve taken heed before bedtime and by some means monitor the river. Given history, this would be a given. Does everyone really just go to sleep at 1100 pm here?? Jeez. You’re in charge of 700 little girls and you let everyone ignore weather alerts and just go to sleep??
This was back in 1987 and a lot changed since then. Plus time increasingly dulls the mind’s perception of what might happen. The camp did have a test of the system seval days before, but I imagine this was one of those “something we have to do but will never have to implement” kind of training”. Very few people stay “frosty” on a day to day basis, especially if the event hasn’t recurred for 40 years.
Agreed. And as unpopular as it may sound, the state IMO shouldn’t be on the hook for a million-dollar warning system for a handful of camps. Federal bailouts incentive people to build in precarious areas.
Although this is an account of another bad one, dangerous floods happen in central Texas all the time. The only way you don’t know this is if you haven’t been in the area very long.
What is stupid is thinking warning sirens will help. After the sirens start going off everytime it rains, people will just ignore them.
This has been proved time and again. The river rose 30 feet in an hour.
30 years and yet the heathen rage. Ps2:1. It’s a river, they are full of water and flood. Damn Christians, how dare they pray.
I think the area is called Flash Flood Alley!
I wanted to drive some canyons roads to the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon. The roads were securely closed because there was a remote chance it might rain.
I later learned by reading the news how real and dangerous that chance of rain could be even if it was a very small chance.
I was taught to never camp below the high water marks of anybody of water.