Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said his state “will not stop until every missing person is found” following devastating flooding in central Texas over the Fourth of July weekend that left at least 105 dead. Five young girls and a counselor from Camp Mystic in Hunt remain missing Tuesday.
6 Comments on Texas flooding death toll surpasses 100 as Camp Mystic campers, counselor remain missing
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IF THE WEATHER/FLOOD ALERT WAS NOT HEARD BECAUSE IT WAS ANNOUNCED DURING THE WEE HRS AND EVERYONE WAS ASLEEP, DOESN’T IT BEG THE QUESTION WHY IS THERE NOT A 24/7 WATCH OVER THE PLACE, A SMALL, MANNED COMMAND CENTER AT A PLACE RESPONSIBLE FOR SO MANY YOUNG PEOPLE, WITH ALARMS, NEWS, ALERTS, SECURITY?
So… A couple things have come out about this camp. It has a “no devices” rule. So the kids and perhaps even the teen councilors had no ability to check the weather, or receive alerts. The entire weather safety burden is on the camp management here, with some backup responsibility on local law enforcement. The towns in the valley had looked into a flash flood alert and rejected it on cost. The NWS alerts were timely and appropriate, but they’re useless if they’re not received and acted upon.
There are something like 7 other summer camps impacted, a couple RV parks, and several homes of permanent residents. You’re only hearing about Mystic because the youngest campers were 8 yo girls placed right next to the river. This area is the flash flood capital of Texas, an event like this happened in 1987, and 1932 I believe. But… In this case it’s a 1 in 500 year storm. It broke the previous surge height by almost 2 feet. Nobody had this on their prediction bingo card before 11 pm Thursday, and I believe only one model predicted it at that point. The others didn’t swing into agreement until after 1am. At that point, you’d have maybe a couple hours to go into the camps with sirens and wake people up. The people that can authorize that kind of action are likely asleep at that point. You can call that a chain of command failure, but… It’s a 1 in 500 year storm.
KR
KALI, GOOD TAKE, GOOD INFO, THX
Here’s why it happened. https://x.com/Marooned_Maroon/status/1942433006100042161
Home Caught On Camera Actually Washing Away In Devastating New Mexico Flood
https://youtu.be/qPGke_hy-cY
@Marooned,
That ArcGIS map doesn’t really tell us anything. Yes it’s inside the boundary of the river’s flood plain. The camp has been there for nearly 100 years. When was a waiver granted? You need to provide that for it to make sense.
To which I’ll point out, since it’s almost 100 years old it’s likely grandfathered under previous regulations if any. Texas is kind of odd here. If I own land outside of a city, I can pretty much build what ever I want on it. There are limitations where my project annoys the neighbors. For example I need to own 10 acres to build a shooting range.
Otherwise… It would be up to insurance premiums or common sense to run them out of business. Common sense isn’t common these days.
KR