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Posted on 07/07/2025 3:04:48 PM PDT by Miami Rebel
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.
....
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.
The rural county of a little over 50,000 people, in a part of Texas known as Flash Flood Alley, contemplated installing a flood warning system in 2017, but it was rejected as too expensive. The county, which has an annual budget of around $67 million, lost out on a bid at the time to secure a $1 million grant to fund the project, county commission meeting minutes show.
As recently as a May budget meeting, county commissioners were discussing a flood warning system being developed by a regional agency as something that they might be able to make use of.
..........
The idea of a flood warning system was broached in 2015, in the aftermath of a deadly flood in Wimberley, Texas, about 75 miles to the east of Kerrville, the Kerr County seat.....
People living near the Guadalupe in Kerr County may have little time to seek higher ground, especially when flash floods come through late at night when people are asleep. ...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
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The New York Times. They know everything.
Could have bought them all $20 NOAA weather radios.
Coulda, shoulda, woulda.
They could have required it as a part of licensing or permits, one in every cabin.
Have not yet read the NYT. It’s on my reading list just behind “News from Planet Venus Alien Sofciety”.
NYT should take care of the mountains of shi...er...Obamastuff currently smelling up and infecting NYC by looking into the Democrat Communist Party before looking into Texas, a far superior state.
I don’t think the camp had enough busses to evacuate ~700.
“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.”
Word of mouth down river?
Do they think we are in 1825 not 2025>
No need for buses.
The junior camper cabins were down in the flats down by the river. The senior camper cabins were up hill by the tennis courts, that area and the people there did not get swept away.
I don’t think this is the time to second-guess what was done, but clearly they could have done more. Of course the barn doors will be securely nailed shut - now.
This is why we do need some governmental regulatory oversight - because places like private and church camps really ARE too tight to spend the money, and can get away with not protecting the kids. Doesn’t have to be a camp in a flood plain - how about fire and CO2 alarms? A kid died not long ago because of a CO leak in a propane-fired RV furnace. Someone should have minimized the risk to these kids and they failed to do so.
“...because places like private and church camps really ARE too tight to spend the money...”
Too tight?
The cost of Camp Mystic was $4,375.00 per camper for a 30 day stay.
They had 750 campers.
That comes to $3,281,250.00
Why do they need to be so tight?
I noticed this was 2017 and I’d also absolutely love to know what an early warning system was going to do when the river goes up 26 feet within an hour. You could have had an army of meteorologists sitting in boats on the river and nothing was going to prevent this type of tragedy.
The river rose somewhere between 30 and 40 feet in 45 minutes to an hour. No plan in this world could have provided the necessary logistics to have saved these people in the time frame given.
There will be more to come out od this casual safety attitude. There’s always lots of moving parts on things like this.
NOAA weather radio’s do not tell you the river state. They talk about rain. It’s utterly inexcusable that there are no flood gauges on the river connected to sirens.
And it would probably really piss you off if you saw the list of crap that county wasted money on.
We have one, and we get flash flood warnings regularly.
Do you even have a NOAA weather radio?
“No plan in this world could have provided the necessary logistics to have saved these people in the time frame given.”
It’s the Texas Hill Country, these type of flood events are not unheard of, they are actually quite common.
There may not be a single plan in the world, but along the rivers in Central Texas, you better have a plan.
But Jesus got the byline..must be true//LOL
With 45 minutes notice, you could’ve walked up to safety. It was that close. Imagine someone is 15 miles away in a golf cart and headed your way to do you harm. And you have to walk 500 yards or so to get to safety.
They had more than enough time to cram every bus like the last helo out of Saigon, drive 2 or 3 miles dump them high and go back for a couple of more loads.
But that would involve a warning system that costs money. And they like spending it on things that give them power.
“ I don’t think this is the time to second-guess what was done,”
This is the perfect time to second-guess. Three or four more weeks go by, they will have a big religious service of healing. And then it goes down the memory hole.
When is the last time you heard discussions about North Carolina, or Tennessee? Or Maui?
They only talk at those places is the master plan for redevelopment
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