While most of us were celebrating the Independence Day weekend, families in central Texas were searching for loved ones, hoping to find survivors amid the flash flooding that started before dawn Friday morning. Currently, more than 82 people are known to have died, most in Kerr County, including 27 children and counselors at Camp Mystic near the Guadalupe River. Ten children from the camp are still missing.
The Guadalupe River has flooded multiple times, including in July 1987, when flash floods killed 10, and October 1998, when flash floods killed 31. Just three weeks ago, flash floods in nearby San Antonio killed 13.
The National Weather Service released a timeline of alerts issued ahead of the floods, and while some armchair critics would like to believe that the ability to predict when and where flooding will occur is pure science, the fact is, even stable weather predictions can vary substantially in 24-48 hours, as anyone who follows the best weather apps can attest. Weather watches and warnings are very important predictive alerts for specific geographic areas, but when they come in the middle of the night, that can result in loss of life for those who were not aware of the alerts.
Though flash floods are not a threat to our mountaintop communities in East Tennessee, floods have swept away many lives in the ravines and valleys around those mountains. In Western North Carolina and Eastern Tennessee, we are still recovering from massive damage resulting from Hurricane Helene last September, though that storm did not make the top 15 list of worst hurricanes since 1900.
There were a total of 251 deaths in seven states impacted by Hurricane Helene, including 107 in North Carolina alone and 19 in our area of East Tennessee. Much as was the case in Texas, the vast majority of the inland deaths from Helene were caused by flash floods, and many of those occurred in the dark with little warning.
As with all mass-casualty incidents across our nation, there emerge among the tragic accounts of lives lost stories of goodness. The director of Camp Mystic, Dick Eastland, died while attempting to save his campers. A Coast Guard rescue swimmer, Scott Ruskan, was credited with saving more than 165 flood victims from Camp Mystic.
But just as predictable in the wake of a mass-casualty incident, before the flood waters had receded, Democrat politicos and hordes of their unhinged leftist surrogates emerged to blame Trump for the flooding and deaths. Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) blamed Trump, claiming the tragedy was the result of vacancies at the National Weather Service. But in fact, the NWS had additional personnel in the New Braunfels weather center covering this area. Rep. Castro took his talking points from ABC talkinghead George Stephanopoulos, who claimed erroneously, “We’re also learning there were significant staffing shortfalls to the National Weather Services offices in the region.”
The Demos’ Leftmedia talkingheads exploded. CNN anchor Dana Bash asserted that so-called “climate change” and Trump are responsible. Ron Filipkowski, editor of MediasTouchNews, protested: “The people in Texas voted for government services controlled by Donald Trump and Greg Abbott. That is exactly what they (sic) getting.” Grant Stern, editor of Occupy Democrats, asserted, “It only took 9 days for Trump’s cuts to the [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration] to kill dozens of children in Texas when Tropical Storm Barry landed this week.”
But Texas-based meteorologist Avery Tomasco rebutted: “The National Weather Service issued a flood watch for Kerr County more than 12 hours ahead of the catastrophic flood. A flash flood warning was issued for Hunt & Ingram 3 HOURS before the Guadalupe started to climb. They did their job and they did it well.” Meteorologist Chris Vagasky added: “The forecast office in San Antonio did a fantastic job. They got the warning out, but this was an extreme event.”
This was similar to Demos blaming Trump for the last mass-casualty incident, the April collision between American Airlines 5342 and an Army Black Hawk helicopter, asserting there were vacancies in the Air Traffic Control tower — but those vacancies occurred under the previous administration.
Nationally, the Jackass Party was also blaming Trump. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) declared: “Accurate weather forecasting helps avoid fatal disasters. There are consequences to Trump’s brainless attacks on public workers, like meteorologists.”
Meanwhile, families continue grieving after a catastrophic natural weather incident. For his part, President Donald Trump immediately activated federal search and rescue resources and will be personally surveying damage in Texas this week.
Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis
Pro Deo et Libertate — 1776
