🌎 The Texas storms / floods / death toll in the 80's.

[TerryP]

For all of the obvious reasons I hate this story.

Outside of "the box" it hits home because I went to this type of camp for several summers as a teen. Four total, two into the mountains and wild (WV) and two into horse ranching "somewhere in east Tennessee."

This is part of what gets me. We slept with windows open (as reports indicated they did.) We could hear the rain. I don't see how they didn't have people watching and ready to move. It seems so unlikely they'd be so unprepared, but it seems so likely that's the case.

So much rain, hitting so quickly, and few are thinking "get to higher ground?" Were they thinking "let's get inside a structure that can be swept away?"

I've heard some discussion this morning about some areas of the country still without the EBS. I wont how many people, not square miles.

 

[footballer]

Agree. Hell of a tragedy. If you are going to camp by a river or creek, what does common sense tell you? The leaders of this group and or proprietors of the campground should have paid more attention to weather forecast, radar and what was actually going on outside. Forecast and radar can be wrong or mis-calibrated. Raining hard for an hour, river is rising, wake everybody up and head for the hill. Better safe than dead.

 

[rick4bama]

For all of the obvious reasons I hate this story.

Outside of "the box" it hits home because I went to this type of camp for several summers as a teen. Four total, two into the mountains and wild (WV) and two into horse ranching "somewhere in east Tennessee."

This is part of what gets me. We slept with windows open (as reports indicated they did.) We could hear the rain. I don't see how they didn't have people watching and ready to move. It seems so unlikely they'd be so unprepared, but it seems so likely that's the case.

So much rain, hitting so quickly, and few are thinking "get to higher ground?" Were they thinking "let's get inside a structure that can be swept away?"

I've heard some discussion this morning about some areas of the country still without the EBS. I wont how many people, not square miles.

I heard that it was a flood area too! So to me why wasn't someone watching the river banks? My heart is breaking because of the lose.

 

[sean]

And there are people who are saying they deserved those floods and deserved to die because of who they voted for.

How big of a piece-of-shit human do you have to be to say that a child dying in a horrific flood deserved it simply because their parents voted a certain way.

 

[Brandon Van de Graaff]

Just a terribly sad deal all the way around. On some levels, at least in terms of the kids involved and their loss of life, it's on par with some of those really bad school shootings... Sandy Hook comes to mind (completely different situation obviously, but the helpless kids involved being the common denominator). It was hard to read the reports over the weekend and not feel emotionally invested in it. I feel bad for the families that lost loved ones, and feel terrible for those moments when little kids were overcome by rushing water... the fear they must have felt stings my heart. My hope (and belief) is God was with each of them... I'd like to think in situations like that, each child is being escorted by an angel and the fear and terror they experience in those few seconds or minutes isn't nearly as bad as it would seem to be. I've pretty much avoided the news coverage of it on TV, I just don't care to see it there. Seen enough on social media.

One thing I did seek out earlier today was a timeline of events, to help me get a better grasp of how it all happened, when it happened, and how the NWS dealt with it from the start. You can find a timeline here of you care to see it.

One thing that stood out was the warnings leading up to the actual event. While I find it really, really difficult to point fingers or place blame(s) on what is out there, with hindsight being what it is, those camps should have had weather radios on for the night, based on the forecasts and their proximity to the water/flood areas. If the water actually engulfed Camp Mystic at 4 am (which I'm unsure of, just based off reports), that means that'd have had basically a 20-25 minute warning with the following message on their NOAA's weather radio feed... "Move to higher ground now. Act quickly to protect your life. Flooding is occurring or is imminent..."

That warning falls in line pretty well with what we get during tornado warnings around around here. But, unlike tornado warnings, or maybe to a much lesser degree I'd say... I don't think flood warnings are taken very seriously in most areas. Even areas prone to major flooding. Basically, it just feels like everything happened at the wrong place (kids at camps during a holiday weekend) and wrong time (overnight)... obviously others were killed too that just lived in the area also which is also bad. And while it sure seems like some weather radios would have saved many lives, I stop short of laying any blame right now based on what I've seen. My hope is this event is learned from and never happens again. And obviously, my heart aches for the families impacted. As the father of a little girl, it would absolutely gut me to have to go through that.

 

[rick4bama]

And there are people who are saying they deserved those floods and deserved to die because of who they voted for.

How big of a piece-of-shit human do you have to be to say that a child dying in a horrific flood deserved it simply because their parents voted a certain way.

Are these the one from that Kansas Church? I may have the wrong state, but you should know what I mean?

 

[footballer]

Flooding and the loss of life , happened on this same river in 1987? i think. Same thing happened in Arkansas in a camp on a river at night, maybe 15 or 20 years ago?

 

[It Takes Eleven]

Flooding and the loss of life , happened on this same river in 1987? i think. Same thing happened in Arkansas in a camp on a river at night, maybe 15 or 20 years ago?

It's tragic. That area has been known for flash floods since it was settled. Thin soil, then bedrock, nothing soaks in. River went up 29 feet very quickly in 1987. The whole area is full of camps, think of Valley Head/Mentone. Plenty of finger pointing and those looking to make political hay. An alarm went out around 1AM and the flooding occurred around 3:30-4. Poor cell reception, many didn't get it. The patriarch of the camp lost his life trying to get kids to higher ground. Interestingly, Ted Cruz had picked his daughter up last week from a neighboring camp. Laura Bush was a counselor at Mystic.

I looked at the publication developed after the 1998 flood. One statement struck me - if you don't want to get flooded, don't live in a floodplain. Those businesses in Asheville - flood plain. Many of the cabins - flood plain. A hundred year floodplain means nothing if it's a millennial flood. Look at Sweetwater Creek in Atlanta some years back, Flint River in South Georgia before that, Elba several times on the Pea River.

 

[Brandon Van de Graaff]

What a badass. The USCG doesn’t get nearly the recognition that they deserve (though this did is getting his well earned 15 minutes). When reports of his (and his crews) heroics started to spread on social media on Saturday, I honestly thought it was more like some Ghost of Kyiv type fairytale in the midst of a disaster. Or at the very least, way exaggerated. He (and they) are legit though. And thank God for them.

 

[alabama mike]

This is such a horrible tragedy.

 

[rick4bama]

This will be felt for a long time after the river returns to its normal level, guys. While I was up in East Tennessee, a man's body was found; his wife's body was found right after the storm.