MAGA response to floods in Texas

[struth]

What news are you watching?

Local officials facing questions over their actions in the years and hours before deadly Texas floods​

In recent years, multiple efforts in Kerr County to build a more substantial flood warning system have faltered or been abandoned due to budget concerns, leaving the epicenter of this weekend’s floods without emergency sirens that could have warned residents about the rising waters.

And while at least one neighboring county issued evacuation orders in the morning hours of July 4, Kerr County officials don’t appear to have done so.

A review of typically off-the-record communications from a real-time messaging system operated by the National Weather Service showed that no emergency manager from Kerr County was sending messages or interacting with NWS staff on the platform, even as emergency officials from other counties were doing so. CNN was granted permission to report some of the information from this platform.

The lack of messages doesn’t mean officials in Kerr County weren’t monitoring the communications from the NWS and acting on them. But it raises new questions about local officials’ actions, particularly in a crucial window between NWS’s first public warning alert at 1:14 a.m. and a more urgent flash flood warning sent several hours later.

Kerr County Emergency Management Coordinator W.B. “Dub” Thomas declined to comment when CNN asked him to explain actions the county took in the early morning hours of Friday.

“I don’t have time for an interview, so I’m going to cancel this call,” he said.

And Trump's cuts to FEMA

https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/07/politics/noaa-nws-fema-layoffs-cuts-texas-floods

Local officials should be answering questions…why did folks ignore the warnings? There were three starting 12 hours before the flood

 

[sealybobo]

can you explain apples to apples the conditions ahead of the disasters?

CA
no water to put out the fires, On the local officials
clean out of the brush which turned into kindling - On the local officials
Mayor out of town during the fires

TX
camps
Storm that sat and dumped 12 feet of water - Who's that on? Your belief?
Warning system wasn't used by local executives - on local officials
mobile phone warnings did go off
NOAA sent out notices 24 hours in advance that storms were coming, so forecasting was done
and, ........ enter your thoughts!!!

Oh you guys love to point out the differences and ignore the similarities when it suits you. Or you point out the similarities and ignore the differences when that suits you.

 

[jc456]

Local officials should be answering questions…why did folks ignore the warnings? There were three starting 12 hours before the flood

1 PM in the afternoon. The warning was for 5 to 7 inches of rain, now, I'm not a meteorologist, but if I'm sleeping next to river that has flooded in past years, maybe I leave? But just know, the no kings guy is now god, and can cause 12 inches of rain and people ignore warnings.

 

[sealybobo]

1 PM in the afternoon. The warning was for 5 to 7 inches of rain, now, I'm not a meteorologist, but if I'm sleeping next to river that has flooded in past years, maybe I leave? But just know, the no kings guy is now god, and can cause 12 inches of rain and people ignore warnings.

I think God took those Texans out. A sign from God. Punishment for voting for Trump. Or their just dessert.

 

[jc456]

Oh you guys love to point out the differences and ignore the similarities when it suits you. Or you point out the similarities and ignore the differences when that suits you.

well post the similarities ! I gave you that the local officials had no sirens. That's on them. But the mobile warnings did go out. Oh, and I heard the kids were told no phones in the camp, so none of them had phones, so their care was with the camp officials.

30 girls got out on a bus, how is it the other girls didn't? Something truly smells here. Warnings were out 12 hours before the storm, and those people didn't heed them.

But post the similarities.

 

[SweetTea]

Hey, science-nonbeliever Mike, you think this is fake?

View attachment 1132771

Wow a chart showing 160 years worth of data. That is like buying a stock because you recognized a "pattern" from 1 second of trading the last 10 years.

 

[Zincwarrior]

This is a good update:

Central Texas flooding death toll rises to at least 100 as search continues for survivors

About two dozen people were still missing. Many more people could still be unaccounted for, officials warned, noting that visitors to the area for the July 4th weekend make it difficult to assess an exact number.

www.texastribune.org

Search and rescue efforts continued Monday for 10 missing girls and one counselor from Camp Mystic, a Christian camp for young girls at the center of the catastrophic floods that swept the Texas Hill Country, local officials said.

At least 84 people were killed by the flooding in Kerr County, officials said Monday. At least 15 additional deaths were confirmed in surrounding counties, pushing the storm's overall toll to at least 100. That surpassed the estimated 68 deaths directly caused by Hurricane Harvey in southeast Texas in 2017.

More than 400 first responders from over 20 agencies were on the ground combing the area Sunday, Sheriff Larry Leitha said.

Among the dead in Kerr County were at least 28 children and 56 adults as of Monday evening.

"We have increased our number of personnel who are navigating the really challenging shores along the bank line, but we're continuing to make progress," said Dalton Rice, city manager of Kerrville.

 

[SweetTea]

Not necessarily. Extremes are happening and may have happened regardless of what humans are doing. However, the issue is that they don't spend money on warning systems.

But they weren't spending that before the DOGE cuts. It isn't like DOGE tore down sirens on flag poles. They never existed. The weather service sent out warnings via phones like they did before any cuts. The outcome would have been EXACTLY the same with or without the cuts. This is just a media spin to harm Trump politically.

 

[SweetTea]

That’s crazy. They forecasted light rain… then in the middle of the night they broadcasted ‘you’re all going to die now”. Great help.

Let’s not argue about whether they were effective. Let’s instead count the dead. That should be a good indication.

Where is the evidence that cuts had anything to do with a bad forecast? The NWS has had inaccurate forecast for years because predicting the weather is not an exact science, in fact, far from it.

 

[Zincwarrior]

But they weren't spending that before the DOGE cuts. It isn't like DOGE torn down sirens on flag poles. They never existed. The weather service sent out warnings via phones like they did before any cuts. The outcome would have been EXACTLY the same with or without the cuts. This is just a media spin to harm Trump politically.

Frankly this is a state issue. The state should have helped fund a river long siren system, given the number of camps/rv parks and potential floods - like they announced they are doing now.

 

[SweetTea]

Frankly this is a state issue. The state should have helped fund a river long siren system, given the number of camps/rv parks and potential floods - like they announced they are doing now.

View attachment 1133767

Yes, it has nothing to do with DOGE cuts. That is ridiculous.

 

[Zincwarrior]

Yes, it has nothing to do with DOGE cuts. That is ridiculous.

Additionally, while the Guadalupe river in Kerr had the majority of damage, Cow Creek and Sandy up here went boom. Western Williamson and Travis received 15-23 inches of rain. It turns out a Low to our West and and a High to our East compressed and held tropical storm remnants, basically creating a small hurricane (sans wind) level event. I knew I was seeing rotation saturday.

 

[sealybobo]

well post the similarities ! I gave you that the local officials had no sirens. That's on them. But the mobile warnings did go out. Oh, and I heard the kids were told no phones in the camp, so none of them had phones, so their care was with the camp officials.

30 girls got out on a bus, how is it the other girls didn't? Something truly smells here. Warnings were out 12 hours before the storm, and those people didn't heed them.

But post the similarities.

All I know is the Republican voters just got taught a lesson. They were cheap when it came to having a proper emergency response. So they paid for it bigly. This is what happens in Republican towns, cities, states and when the GOP run the Federal government.

At least this is what happens in blue states, usually. Compare how Bush bent over backward when it was Jeb's state Florida? Compare that to how he responded to Katrina when it was a bunch of poor people who got fucked. Why don't you tell me the similarities there?

It's not that these conservatives are incompetent or stupid. When their interests are at stake, they can be very efficient. Consider when Hurricane Charley hit Jeb Bush's state - a year earlier than Katrina - on the second weekend of August, 2004, just months before the elections. The White House website notes:

As of noon Monday [the day after the hurricane left], in response to Hurricane Frances, FEMA and other Federal response agencies have taken the following actions:

-- About one hundred trucks of water and 280 trucks of ice are present or will arrive in the Jacksonville staging area today. 900,000 Meals-Ready-to-Eat are on site in Jacksonville, ready to be distributed.

-- Over 7,000 cases of food (e.g., vegetables, fruits, cheese, ham, and turkey) are scheduled to arrive in Winter Haven today. Disaster Medical Assistance Teams (DMAT) are on the ground and setting up comfort stations. FEMA community relations personnel will coordinate with DMATs to assist victims. -- Urban Search and Rescue Teams are completing reconnaissance missions in coordination with state officials.

-- FEMA is coordinating with the Department of Energy and the state to ensure that necessary fuel supplies can be distributed throughout the state, with a special focus on hospitals and other emergency facilities that are running on generators.

-- The Army Corps of Engineers will soon begin its efforts to provide tarps to tens of thousands of owners of homes and buildings that have seen damage to their roofs.

-- The National Guard has called up 4,100 troops in Florida, as well as thousands in other nearby states to assist in the distribution of supplies and in preparation for any flooding.

-- The Departments of Health and Human Services, Veterans Affairs, and Defense together have organized 300 medical personnel to be on standby. Medical personnel will begin deployment to Florida tomorrow.

-- FEMA is coordinating public information messages with Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, and North Carolina so that evacuees from Florida can be informed when it is safe to return. -- In addition to federal personnel already in place to respond to Hurricane Charley, 1,000 additional community relations personnel are being deployed to Atlanta for training and further assignment in Florida.

All of this aid was vitally important to Bush family political fortunes in the upcoming election of 2004. Disaster relief checks were in the mail within a week. In just the first thirteen days after Hurricane Charley hit Florida, the White House web site notes that the Bush administration had succeeded in:

-- Registering approximately 136,000 assistance applicants

-- Approving over 13,500 applications for more than $59 million in housing assistance

-- Establishing 12 disaster recovery centers, which have assisted nearly 19,000 disaster victims

-- Deploying medical teams that have seen nearly 3,000 patients

-- Disbursing 1.2 million liters of water, 8.1 million pounds of ice, and 2 million meals and snacks

-- Delivering over 20,000 rolls of plastic sheeting and nearly 170 generators

-- Treating more than 2,900 individuals through FEMA Disaster Medical Assistance Teams, supporting damaged hospitals

That, of course, was for a Republican State, with a Republican governor, the crony brother of the President. Republicans needed to act like they cared about governing, because they wanted people to vote for them three months later.

It also shouldn't surprise us that although Dick Cheney has stayed on vacation in Wyoming through all of this, his company, Halliburton, has already obtained a multi-million-dollar contract to profit from Hurricane Katrina's cleanup.

 

[citygator]

Where is the evidence that cuts had anything to do with a bad forecast? The NWS has had inaccurate forecast for years because predicting the weather is not an exact science, in fact, far from it.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/07/07/us/texas-floods

 

[jc456]

All I know is the Republican voters just got taught a lesson. They were cheap when it came to having a proper emergency response. So they paid for it bigly. This is what happens in Republican towns, cities, states and when the GOP run the Federal government.

who was cheap? explain it for us?

At least this is what happens in blue states, usually. Compare how Bush bent over backward when it was Jeb's state Florida? Compare that to how he responded to Katrina when it was a bunch of poor people who got fucked. Why don't you tell me the similarities there?

Trump took care of CA

It's not that these conservatives are incompetent or stupid. When their interests are at stake, they can be very efficient. Consider when Hurricane Charley hit Jeb Bush's state - a year earlier than Katrina - on the second weekend of August, 2004, just months before the elections. The White House website notes:

no one can stop natural disaster. Yet it seems someone ought to? weird. Let me know when you can control the rain and fire.

As of noon Monday [the day after the hurricane left], in response to Hurricane Frances, FEMA and other Federal response agencies have taken the following actions:

All of this aid was vitally important to Bush family political fortunes in the upcoming election of 2004. Disaster relief checks were in the mail within a week. In just the first thirteen days after Hurricane Charley hit Florida, the White House web site notes that the Bush administration had succeeded in:

that's all old news. move on.

That, of course, was for a Republican State, with a Republican governor, the crony brother of the President. Republicans needed to act like they cared about governing, because they wanted people to vote for them three months later.

petty. You act with no compassion.

It also shouldn't surprise us that although Dick Cheney has stayed on vacation in Wyoming through all of this, his company, Halliburton, has already obtained a multi-million-dollar contract to profit from Hurricane Katrina's cleanup.

Who fking cares?

 

[jc456]

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/07/07/us/texas-floods

View attachment 1133772

And?

 

[jc456]

Additionally, while the Guadalupe river in Kerr had the majority of damage, Cow Creek and Sandy up here went boom. Western Williamson and Travis received 15-23 inches of rain. It turns out a Low to our West and and a High to our East compressed and held tropical storm remnants, basically creating a small hurricane (sans wind) level event. I knew I was seeing rotation saturday.

how is that connect to DOGE?

 

[jc456]

Frankly this is a state issue. The state should have helped fund a river long siren system, given the number of camps/rv parks and potential floods - like they announced they are doing now.

View attachment 1133767

how did the other campers escape?

 

[jc456]

But they weren't spending that before the DOGE cuts. It isn't like DOGE tore down sirens on flag poles. They never existed. The weather service sent out warnings via phones like they did before any cuts. The outcome would have been EXACTLY the same with or without the cuts. This is just a media spin to harm Trump politically.

they filed in 2018, and that was state requested.

 

[jc456]

Hey, science-nonbeliever Mike, you think this is fake?

View attachment 1132771

tell us how this impacted the rain.