Coverage of the horrific floods in Texas has dominated the media for several days–first, with videos and descriptions of the devastation and reports of the growing numbers of dead and missing, and more recently, with emerging evidence of governmental failures that undoubtedly cost lives by delaying both effective warnings and responses.
According to numerous media reports, local officials had been told repeatedly over a number of years that the area needed a better warning system, including sirens. But this was Red Texas, which–like Red Indiana–is a state governed by lawmakers congenitally allergic to taxation and dismissive of the common good. Local and state officials refused to spend tax dollars to pay for improving the warning system.
Worse, according to the Washington Post, the county had technology to turn every cellphone in the river valley into a blaring alarm, but local officials didn’t use it before or during the early-morning hours of July 4 as river levels rose to record heights. County officials did eventually send text-message alerts that morning, but only to residents who had registered to receive them. According to the Post’s review of emergency notifications that night, county officials did not activate a more powerful notification tool they had previously used, even as federal meteorologists were warning of catastrophic flooding.
As usual, the cuts made by DOGE–ostensibly to “waste and fraud”–were also implicated in the tragedy. Thanks to indiscriminate cuts by people who had no understanding of the systems they were devastating, the National Weather Service was short-staffed. Its forecasting evidently remained accurate, but the job of “warning coordination,” the position responsible for transmitting information from the forecasts to relevant local officials — was vacant.
FEMA’s reduced staffing–including terminated contracts for call-center operators–also deepened the crisis by delaying relief efforts for several days. Phone calls weren’t answered–indeed, according to media reports, response rates declined from nearly 100% to just over 5% on July 7.
And then there was the further delay caused by Kristy Noem, one of the members of Trump’s inept cabinet (appointees who confirm the accuracy of my favorite protest sign: “IKEA has better cabinets.”) According to CNN, Noem recently enacted a sweeping rule requiring every contract and grant over $100,000 to obtain her personal sign-off before any funds can be released–a rule displaying a total lack of understanding of the agency’s function and mission.
For FEMA, where disaster response costs routinely soar into the billions as the agency contracts with on-the-ground crews, officials say that threshold is essentially “pennies,” requiring sign-off for relatively small expenditures.
In essence, they say the order has stripped the agency of much of its autonomy at the very moment its help is needed most.
“We were operating under a clear set of guidance: lean forward, be prepared, anticipate what the state needs, and be ready to deliver it,” a longtime FEMA official told CNN. “That is not as clear of an intent for us at the moment.”
For example, as central Texas towns were submerged in rising waters, FEMA officials realized they couldn’t pre-position Urban Search and Rescue crews from a network of teams stationed regionally across the country.
Noem didn’t authorize FEMA’s deployment of Urban Search and Rescue teams until some 72 hours after the flooding began.
Of course, the overall lack of preparedness, both locally and nationally, was enabled and abetted by the GOP’s widespread denial of the reality of climate change. (What’s that saying? “Reality doesn’t care if you believe it or not…”)
I wonder whether those MAGA Texans who enthusiastically supported Trump are delighted with the administration’s destruction of that hated “deep state,” filled with “elitists” who actually knew what they were doing. Are they applauding the substitution of lily-White ignoramuses for those despised (and credentialed) “DEI hires”?
And predictably, In the wake of this enormous tragedy, Texas Republicans are adding insult to injury. Rather than exacting consequences for the glaring ineptitude of various state and federal officials, Texas has moved to further protect them from any possible voter retribution. Governor Greg Abbott has announced that mid-decade redistricting will be taken up during the state’s upcoming special session. The move is in response to White House pressure; Texas Republicans have been urged to redraw the state’s congressional districts ahead of the 2026 midterm election in order to protect the party’s slim majority in the House–a majority delivered via the GOP’s previous gerrymandering.
Welcome to MAGA’s version of democracy. Are we great yet?
Ideocracy, but lacking earnestness and with sadism and indifference
I lived and worked not far from the Guadalupe River for 15 years. We experienced these firehose storms a few times, but nothing this horrific. OF COURSE Texas Republicans don’t care about the well-being of the citizens. They curry favor with big oil, big real estate and big insurance there. That’s as far as they go.
Abbott is a worthless, cruel and stupid man. His lackeys like Patrick and Paxton are equally evil and corrupt. They and the Republicans in the Texas state legislature emulate the current federal executive administration. OF COURSE they will gerrymander for this psychopath’s wishes. It’s what they do.
Texas has also experienced an influx of more educated people from other states, but apparently the tipping point to blue hasn’t yet occurred. Maybe another disaster that finds those in power running around like scalded cats will help change that.
BTW, Mexico sent first responders to Texas to help save lives and recover bodies. Gotta love the irony.
All you say is true! Selma AL was devastated by a tornado related storm in 2023. The storm resulted in Selma’s Black Community being devastated through the present. Most White Households have had insurance helping the rebuilding by Class and Race.
I didn’t know of this until recently.
Texas
Is both different and similar.
Will “the people” confront the oppression systemically- or have donate money and “move on” to the next crisis???
A few signatures and a little money isn’t enough!!
The small number of text messages sent occurred at 4 a.m. while everyone was still asleep. I wonder where the class-action lawsuits will start. What a long list of defendants to choose from!
The only qualification to serve in Trump’s administration is loyalty to The Donald. Watching this administration gather around the table to kiss Trump’s ass is hilariously hideous. They actually try to outdo each other’s ass kissing! LOL
Anyone with a basic understanding of leadership knows that the best way to achieve disaster is to surround yourself with “Yes People.” What’s ironic is that the creator of the Dilbert cartoon is a MAGA fanatic. He’s missing a great opportunity to trash what’s been assembled in the White House.
The good news for Trump is that the Texas tragedy is diverting a little attention away from Epstein’s botched rollout. Watching politicians on both sides of the aisle scramble to show the people they are being active has also been botched.
I agree with Tim, we are an idiocracy; Oligarchy and Kakistocracy rolled into one. Will the adults ever return to D.C., or are we doomed?
p.s. For those who thought Trump was a Putin puppet, have you finally let go of that thesis? He’s a Bibi bitch! 😉
Redties are, hopefully, the last of the colonialists living off the backs of those who sweat and, or think, to survive life with some modicum of safety and comfort. Humans are capable of great good individually, yet collectively they hate.
Tribalism was functional when there were few of us, but we left that evolutionary era as our numbers grew to fill, then exceed, Earth. It’s incomprehensible to me why countries return to it.
Coincidentally, NASA’s new report on climate change will not be released to the public. This is a change over previous reports that have come out from NASA every 4 to 5 years. The public has always had access to these reports, until now! You think there’s a little CYA going on? By time they get finished, The only thing left is going to be a pile of smoldering ruins. And most voices that rise against what’s happening are going to be bound and gagged, and dropped in some offshore concentration camp that are being built right now. The massive expansion of the mask wearing border patrol and ICE, is a ready supply of brown shirts. And shortly they’re going to be used against anyone the administration desires.
Hexas.. yea,thats right. self rightious, self assuring self unaware. they dont give squat about any other state or institution. if ive tallied my driving and load times over 47 years of driving, ive spent years in every part of the forest of no sense. BB Q and cattle, oil and gas, get out of my way, and screw you.. thats the working persons attitude. where was emergency personel? probably enjoying the 4th swilling lone star and eating BBQ at some lake. no one asked that question.. abbot short of costello and his new bride neom, are gonna say whatever, and do whatever they want. trumps rule here. and abbot will crawl for him. the cover is dense as ivy and the thorns are gonna be deep. maybe texas will see how the new game works, its all right to kill people for being a slave to its own authority.
I appreciate the discussion in addition to Sheila focusing on the sad tragedy with much attention to Camp Mystic.
I grew up in Central West Texas and attended Camp Flaming Arrow on the Guadalupe upstream a fifteen minute canoe ride from Mystic. The boys from Flaming Arrow knew the girls at Mystic were from elite families of Dallas and Houston. When we met them by canoe on the river, the girls were friendly and polite. We enjoyed a few splash showers with each other slapping paddles from the clear river water.
Today’s discussion focuses on what our federal and state government did or did not do. What is missing is what local management at the camp did or did not do.
Who gerrymandered the flood plain maps (yes, local and state authorities took a knee to lobbying power) so that Camp Mystic could get building permits for cabins closer to the river? Who assigns the cabin closest to the river for the youngest girls in camp? Who created their own accreditation entity to avoid the more rigorous standards of the American Camping Association? Who ignored the first warning to evacuate until an hour too late and died of his own folly while desperately trying to save girls too late?
We can lobby the Kerr County Commissioners to install warning sensors on the river in their jurisdiction like other River Authorities have done in collaboration with more alert County Commissioners on the major rivers and tributaries elsewhere in Texas.
Folks, if you have influential local operators and municipal or county commissioners who refuse to exercise their authority in return for profit (Mystic is a private for profit) and or lower taxes, it really doesn’t matter how you choose to rant about the Feds.
Now five eight year old girls are still missing who have yet to be found even by special unit divers exploring into entrances of underwater caverns along the limestone beds of the river.
This is not what the parents bargained for when entrusting care to operators who for decades groomed their trust to enroll their daughters and grand daughters.
I usually work to edit my post to 25 words or less, but this one has my passionate goat.
Norris,
I concur completely with your comments today. As my British friends would say, Texas Republicans couldn’t manage a piss-up inside a brewery.
Vernon, remember that famous line from the Broadway play: “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” when the local sheriff exclaims?
“Son … I don’t need someone piss’n on my boots in the middle of a thundering rain!”
The things that habe me wondering are who the “agents” are who trained them? It’s clear that, if they were trained at all, the training was pathetic. They come for specific people and claim they don’t need warrants? They have nothing identifying them as government agents. They even show up in unmarked vehicles.
If someone they approach has a weapon, sees masked, unidentified, men coming towards him, can he claim the stand your ground defense if he kills one and survives? I really don’t think anyone would survive, but I posed the question because anything is possible.
John Sorg, indeed the brown shirts are here, and the Marines are still in LA. Also, Orange Jesus used that opportunity to make it possible to send in the Guard from any state at any time. My advice to everyone: stay away from the beer halls for the next few years.
The administration is a gang that thinks and acts like gangsters. They realize they don’t have to be accountable or proficient; they’re gerrymandered in office for as long as they want. If they’re charged or indicted, Trumps supremely biased court will render just the right opinion to get them off the hook – probably without an actual discussion among the justices. John Robert is a criminal as are Alito and Thomas. Should they be concerned – no, one hand washes the other. We are a dictatorship.
Oh, I forgot to add that that son of a bitch McConnell is responsible for the fall of the courts and democracy.
Norris, I’m with you on this. The people down there were responsible for the decisions made that allowed this tragedy to happen. Just as MAGA voters across the country are responsible for what is now happening to the government of the United States.
It all gets down to what and who we are legally responsible FOR and what and who we choose to be responsible TO. MAGA believes that they have no responsibilities for or to anyone or anything. “I got mine, too bad about you.”
Here’s my take on a few things. First, the youngest girls were most likely in cabins that put them at closest access to most of the main facilities with the least amount of walking and up and down hill.
Secondly, that night the weather was full of torrential rain, and with a cabin of small girls, the most likely safest place was warm and dry in the cabin. The last thing you need is to wake up a bunch of young children to slog up hill, especially when there has been no official warning (at least not until it was most likely too late) and big storms are common in the area. It gets to feel like crying wolf. In recent years with super accurate weather apps where I can see major storms are going to go past my summer camp location, nervous camp staff have herded us to various shelters for what seems like no good reason other than NWS issued a watch and we happen to be nearby where the real weather was happening. I’m not surprised the camp owner died trying his best to rescue people.
There are several faults here. First, is the renewed permits to allow the buildings to be occupied in the flood plane.
Secondly, I would also assume there should have even been some camp accreditation association that would have red flagged this situation. I know Scouting has a camp accreditation program that looks at safety first. That might also explain the nervous camp staff.
Thirdly, the elimination of the “warning coordination” position at the NWS. This is a classic example of cutting jobs when management doesn’t know or care what that person was doing. I also suspect that the guy they cut had published contact procedures that just got lost from “corporate memory” because sloppy, uncaring, or demoralized staff.
Forth, we also have seen in the last 10 years more intense rainstorms so climate change is happening fast and it’s going to take a while for people to wrap their heads around this one. I live in a third floor condo, so flooding is going to be a non-issue for me, but I have checked with auto insurance to make sure that car, which is parked at ground level, will be covered if flooding occurs. In this day and age there is a very real possibility of getting 10 inches of rain dumped in a small area over a short time and causing never before seen flooding almost anywhere.
Since congress willingly relinquished its powers and authorities to our king, why is congress necessary? Let’s eliminate the waste and fraud of their infrastructure and salaries and let lobbyists deal directly with the king. We will wind up in the same place but without the theatrics and wasted time.
Daleb, I can not agree with you more!
The contagion of Trump’s idiocy spreads out from him like a runaway river. Everything he touches dies, as has been pointed out here previously.
Much less striking than the horror of the Texas situation, but telling of the pernicious impact of this thug, as it spreads through the culture is the story I am sharing below. The woman featured here is a relative of a cyber friend of many years, and her story is about birthright:
https://time.com/7301861/birthright-citizenship-americanness-thread/
Daleb, that would be the obvious next move, but how would you ever get those bloodsuckers to relinquish their cozy gigs? They won’t even vote on eliminating Citizens United because it benefits them financially. I mean, not just their salaries, but look at all the benefits of insider trading!
We must acknowledge that the current political system and our economic system both contribute to corruption and oppression. Americans are looking to political parties to correct this problem, but they are part of the problem themselves. Now that Cuomo has chosen to run as an independent, we’ll see how all the propaganda impacts New Yorkers.
Most Americans aren’t bright enough to understand they are even being oppressed via manipulation.
For years now the wealth redistribution uppers have drooled over a national sales tax in their efforts to favor Mar-a-Lago and Bedminster folks (especially the owner), over those who create the wealth from muscles, brains, innovation, and hours of labor to survive.
Behold that disguised as Making America Great Again over Tariff Wars.