History repeats itself, over and over again. Part of dealing with extreme weather is it's unpredictability - the best safeguard is mandatory evac zones. The fact that kids camps continue to be held here means someone needs to be held accountable. 1987: When the Guadalupe River turned deadly On July 16 and 17, 1987, a flash flood created a wall of water along the Guadalupe River near Comfort COMFORT, Texas – Nearly 40 years ago, a flash flood resulted in one of the worst tragedies to ever strike the Texas Hill Country. On the night of July 16, 1987, just outside Comfort, the kids at Pot O’ Gold Christian Camp were settling in for their final night of the retreat, while 30 miles up the Guadalupe River, at the other end of Kerr County, heavy rainfall would turn what had been a sleepy river into a wall of water. While trying to evacuate the camp, a bus carrying 43 campers never made it across. Sadly, 10 of those on the bus drowned. A report released by the National Weather Service in New Braunfels said, “The group was at exactly the wrong place at exactly the wrong time.” In the predawn hours, camp leaders made the decision it was time for the nearly 300 campers to leave. Kids from Seagoville Baptist Church in Balch Springs, near Dallas, had spent the week at the camp. ----
There was also the Wimberley flood 10 years ago. https://www.statesman.com/story/ent...al-day-weekend-remembering-honor/83798866007/ hill country is stunning, but the danger of the flood plain is always in the back of your mind
gift link will work for everyone Officials Pushed for Better Warning System for Years Before Deadly Floods 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 https://www.wsj.com/us-news/officia...1?st=sT91VB&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink excerpt: A 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. more at the link
in view of DOGE, it's a moot point. according to these two stooges, accurate weather forecasting / warning systems are not that important
I think the reflex to blame DOGE and Trump is a bit misplaced. I don't blame the dumb ass national Republicans for this one. I blame the dumb ass Texas Republicans. Even if NOAA could have warned Kerr County, Kerr County had no notification system to warn people. We know that area gets dangerous flash floods. We never found the money to do something to protect ourselves. Kerr County is rural and didn't want to take the burden. No regional organization put it together. The state of Texas has enough money to build something but were too busy being small government. The cost of Texan small government, low taxes, and laissez faire is drowned children. Good job, guys.
