The images from Texas have been heartbreaking. The flash floods in the state's Hill Country swept away the lives and dreams of hundreds. Lives were also lost in flooding in New Mexico and North Carolina.
But Texas, by far, suffered the greatest tragedy and loss of life. The images of uncontrolled water were more akin to what you might expect in the likes of Bangladesh, a nation born to deal with the consequences of flooding from mighty rivers and the Bay of Bengal.
But the flooding in Texas was not altogether unexpected. Why else would an area be dubbed "Flash Flood Alley"?
It's easy enough to second guess after such a disaster; easy enough to point fingers at fault and blame. That can come later. But not waiting for later was Texas governor Greg Abbott who deflected early questions concerning blame by yammering on about football.
Unfortunately, there had been a lot of yammering in the lead up to the floods, and it has been going back years.
Multiple reports focused on Kerr County, the hardest hit locality, and failed efforts over the years to install fully functional and effective warning systems for potentially catastrophic weather. Those systems would have included loud sirens.
There was this in multiple reports: “The thought of our beautiful Kerr County having these damn sirens going off in the middle of night, I’m going to have to start drinking again to put up with y’all,” said H. A. “Buster” Baldwin, who died in 2022."
This was from the transcript of a Kerr County Commission meeting to discuss the possibility of installing sirens.
America, unfortunately, is home to many whistle-past-the-graveyard Busters. Mr. Baldwin, a county commissioner, would remind you of Mayor Larry Vaughn in the movie "Jaws." But even the "Mayor of Shark City" eventually saw the light.
You would think that some light might be forthcoming after the latest tragedies in Texas and the other states, but don't bet on it.
Washington today sees red when it comes to a range of federal agencies charged with warning us about deadly weather, and dealing with same once it strikes.
It is not only the wrong time for financial cuts to such agencies, it is also plain wrong and stupid.
More than ever we need FEMA. More than ever we need the National Weather Service. We need NOAA and NASA, and the National Hurricane Center. We need to be arming up first responders at federal, state and local level.
We need science, not junk science. We need knowledge, not willful ignorance. We are living in the 21st century, not the nineteenth.
Forget the argument over climate change. Leaving it aside we have in recent years been witness to climate events, fires, floods, hurricanes and tornados, that have been deadly and devastating beyond all imagination.
One of the reasons why so many have been tragically lost is that, regardless of changes in weather patterns, or which side of the climate change debate you come down on, there are now so many more of us in the climatic line of sight. The population of the United States is closing in on 350 million. It is literally getting harder for us to dodge deadly weather.
A couple of hundred years ago, pre the conclusion of science that our climate is warming, there were indeed massive floods and huge fires. But many of them raged across vast empty spaces. Those spaces remain vast today, but they are not nearly as empty.
The Hill Country floods struck in the early hours of July 4th. Children and their adult minders in summer camp, Camp Mystic in particular, were readying for a day to celebrate our nation's independence. It was not to be.
As the extent of the disaster became all too evident people rushed from near and far in a massive rescue and recovery operation. There was humanity and heroism in bold display - just what we expect from Americans facing into disaster and its aftermath. But it was, in so many respects, too late.
We can not afford to be too late next time, or at any time, with regard to effective advance warnings and precautions.
