Editorials & Other Articles

It's not a common weather pattern, but the Texas coastal bend brings warm, moist streams of Gulf of Mexico moisture over the Hill Country, that can drop a whole year's worth of rainfall in one night, about once a decade, though it is hard to predict. Prior to this disaster, Camp Mystic's property partially flooded in 1987, and before that, 1983. At one point, in the 1930's, the water went up to where it did this last time. The frequency and unpredictability warrants taking steps to keep people safe, since there are dozens of summer camps, small lodges and RV Parks all up and down that stretch of the Guadalupe, and many of them are build on land that is within the potential flood zone. Although all the attention has been focused on Camp Mystic, several other camps were also in operation, and some of them experienced a catastropic scenario. There's a boys camp just up the river where, at daybreak, drone photos showed dozens of the campers huddled on the roofs of the dining hall and one of the main buildings, not able to get to dry land, with the water just one foot below where they were taking refuge.

They had the money appropriated and given to them for this purpose. Maybe, in the wake of the outcry, and the lawsuits, that are going to come as a result of so many kids dying, something will get done. Texas isn't a state where right wing politicians will ever be held responsible.