As the Texas Floodwaters Rose, One Indispensable Voice Was Silent

[Omaha Steve]

FULL story here: http://archive.today/lh7ET




July 9, 2025

By Zeynep Tufekci

Opinion Columnist

When a reporter demanded to know why the summer camps along the Guadalupe River weren’t evacuated before its waters reached their deadly peak on July 4, Rob Kelly, the highest-ranking local official, had a simple answer: “No one knew this kind of flood was coming.”

Why not? Kerr County, Texas, had lots of history to go on — as Kelly went on to explain: “We have floods all the time. This is the most dangerous river valley in the United States.” The National Weather Service had even brought in extra staff that night. Most important, the service had issued three increasingly dire warnings early that morning — at 1:14 a.m., 4:03 a.m. and 6:06 a.m.

What Kelly didn’t mention, but which has since become well known, is that the Weather Service employee whose job it was to make sure those warnings got traction — Paul Yura, the long-serving meteorologist in charge of “warning coordination” — had recently taken an unplanned early retirement amid cuts pushed by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency. He was not replaced.

To a Washington bean counter, his loss might have looked like one tiny but welcome subtraction in a giant spreadsheet, but not in a region so prone to these perilous events that it’s known as Flash Flood Alley. Hundreds of kids at summer camps slept in cabins along the river. The plan was for folks at the upstream camps to send word to the downstream camps if floodwaters got scary. But if even the highest official in the county wasn’t on high alert, how were the camp counselors supposed to understand the danger — or, in an area without reliable cellphone coverage, to act on it?

Original PAY link: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/09/opinion/texas-floods-nws.html

[Vogon_Glory]

1. Shrinking the federal government so you could drown it in a bathtub

Never mind all those dead bodies.

Mission accomplished!

[Kid Berwyn]

12. The words few dare speak.

Truth.

[IronLionZion]

16. And drown any kids along the way

[SalviaBlue]

27. We Remember

[UpInArms]

2. The story leaves out that the county had $5 million from Biden's infrastructure act

https://www.reddit.com/r/TexasPolitics/comments/1ltnjf8/comment/n1st2km/?context=3

The people also didn't want to spend any of the ARPA money because it was tied to the Biden administration. Even the Judge suggests just holding on to the money so that it can’t be sent to states that don’t share their same values. And now we have 10s of people who have died and many might have lived if the county had updated their flood warning system and installed flood sirens along the river like the multiple counties/towns around them did.

Commissioners' Court Regular Session 11/08/21

Resident: Are you accountable to anyone for how you spend it? Or is it a, kind of, a reward and shows your support for this particular program? It's not free money. Being present as we talk. How do we know this? Immediately. Unless you want it on the COVID lies and vaccination pressure, you have to send it back. Those are heavy strings. And those are strings. The deep state harangue and vilified President Trump for calling COVID for what it was and then suggest responses that were non-draconian, and then when Biden took office, the leftist government took its gloves off. It has lied and lied more about this COVID -- about COVID.

The temptation is great, you're accountable, and we would like to know where your allegiance is.

Resident 2: And I'm here to ask this Court today to send this money back to the Biden administration, which I consider to be the most criminal treasonous communist government ever to hold the White House. And Kerr County should not be accepting anything from these people. They're currently facilitating an invasion of our border, and we're going to support these people? So that's what I have to say. Thank you.

Resident: I happen to know that there is no such thing as free money. It's never government-funded; it's tax-payer funded. So they're taking our money and they're putting strings attached to it and then they're giving it back to us. And they're going to get their foot in the door in this county. We don't want their money. I feel like the people have spoken and I stand with the people. Thank you for your time.

COMMISSIONER BELEW: We have money in the bank, $5.1 million, that was sent to Kerr County.

JUDGE KELLY: We didn't ask for it. They sent it.

COMMISSIONER BELEW: They sent it.

MS. DEWELL: Exactly.

COMMISSIONER BELEW: The money is in the bank right now. Hasn't been spent. In the event that you don't spend it, you send it back. That's part of the Treasury's rules on it. If you do spend it, whatever percentage, there would be no expense to the taxpayers in Kerr County. It would all come out of that account, no matter what you do with it.

JUDGE KELLY: And GrantWorks has been very helpful in -- in getting us focused on what colors between the lines and what doesn't. As of last Thursday, when I got a call from Bonnie White telling me about this -- the problem that y'all were going to present at the meeting, I went and got on the telephone to their Senior Vice President from GrantWorks. And there -- there are discussions that they want to have with us and so we want to sit down and listen to them. And we want -- we want you to hear them, too. Because you're the public. But we -- we need to know and get very comfortable with where we are with this grant before we start taking that money. And the claw back was the first thing. As far as where that money sits for the next year or two, my old law partner John Cornyn tells me that if we send it back it's going to New Jersey or it's going to New York or it's going to --

MRS. LAVENDER: Or California.

JUDGE KELLY: -- or California. And so I don't know if I'd rather be the custodian of the money until we decide what we have to do with it rather than giving it back to the government to spend it on values that we in Kerr County don't agree with. So --

COMMISSIONER BELEW: And any spending of it would have to be done in Commissioners' Court so you'll be able to see it and know it.

[róisín_dubh]

4. If I said what I thought...

I’d get banned. I feel sorry for the people who died. But the politicians and residents on that transcript can go fuck themselves with rusty pikes.
From a former resident if California and a native of New Jersey

[Mr. Evil]

18. This is the sum total of their precious fucking "values."

If it's white, then it's alright. That's it.

Fuck them! Sick sadistic dumb motherfuckers!

[calimary]

20. I know exactly how you feel, risn_dubh.

This former Californian agrees completely.

[Skittles]

23. it is scary how easily they fall for propaganda

pathetic, really

[marble falls]

5. Order of power in a Texas County (too close to the Louisianna model for comfort) ...

... County Judge who might also be county coroner), County Commissioners, Sheriff. They walk lockstep, they're always white, they're also wealthy, from particular families. These are the real 'good ol' boys'.

[rampartd]

28. if everyone in town works for the same factory

the local manager of that corporation wields extensive power over public policy..

[NJCher]

6. The hatred....

In these comments is breathtaking.

So worried that money might go to a place like NJ, CA, or NY, let alone spend it to protect their children.

[róisín_dubh]

21. I'll never forget or forgive those bastards...

who voted against relief for northeastern states after Sandy. Never. I've lived in tornado alley and every goddamn spring, politicians there go crying with their hands out to the federal government and then turn around and fuck over "blue" states whose tax revenues save their sorry asses. I grew up in an area devastated by Sandy.

Sorry if that makes me sound like a regional elitist or like I'm shitting on those who live in Red states- I've lived in a few and I get it. But the rage I have at these assholes is off the charts.

[gay texan]

7. Stick it to the libs

With deadly concequences. God i fucking hate this state

[marble falls]

3. Highlight paragraph three.

[mwmisses4289]

8. What only a few articles that are reporting on this are mentioning,

is that on Wednesday July 2, the NWS issued a flash flood watch for that area, which they then upgraded to a flash flood warning on Thursday, July 3, and sent out their first alert at 1:14 a.m. July 4. That alert was basically ignored by at least one county, posibly other counties in the warned area, until almost 5a.m. July 4, by which point, it was too late.

[Hornedfrog2000]

9. Are we tired of darwinning,

Yet?

[calimary]

19. Oooooooooh GOOD one!!!

[NJCher]

10. pic of Paul Yura at this link

Williamson County Emergency Management honored by National Weather Service
By Nalani Nuylan on Thursday, March 7, 2024

The Williamson County Commissioners Court recognized the county’s Office of Emergency Management for being designated as a StormReady community by the National Weather Service during the March 5 commissioners court meeting. To be certified by the National Weather S...

[Farmer-Rick]

11. Musk and the idiot Nazis in control of our federal government

Are using very typical corporate capitalist methods to run the government. They are merely using very common corporate management techniques that capitalist use to make profits off newly acquired businesses. They are treating government like a business.

The problem is that the consequences of stupid mistakes in business are not the same as stupid mistakes in government. If connections to a social media platform are bad, no one dies. If you get a pair of shoes that fall apart in a month, it won't kill you. But bad decisions in government because of poor training, mass layoffs that reduce your workforce to a ghost ship, and poor planning can and does kill people.

We need to put more democracy in corporate capitalism and not more capitalism in our democracy. This is why feudalism, dictatorships and oligarchies eventually turns their citizenry into poverty stricken drudges. The idiots in power think it's a business for them to make money off of.

[calimary]

13. The "brought in extra staff that night" part.

Well, thanks to all those shrewd trump budget cuts, THAT’S one thing we won’t have to worry about anymore! Gee, THANKS, donald!

[mdbl]

14. And the magat US Govt doesn't give a shit

They will just blame someone else or use some other dumb distraction.

[Mr. Ected]

15. I can't imagine Paul Yura's current state of mind

Though his departure was entirely due to the Trump administration's policies and Elon Musk's DOGE attack, this man probably realizes that many of these deaths could have been avoided had he simply been allowed to carry on his work as he had before. That's quite a burden for one's conscience.

[rubbersole]

22. He should have a very clear conscience.

As should air traffic controllers and any other competent public servant who tsf/putin/musk/heritage foundation, etc. fucked over for their billionaires' dream world.
The 'Administrative State' exists for the betterment of society. Destroying it only benefits the uber-wealthy.

[Clouds Passing]

17. They murdered by neglect their own children.

[msongs]

25. I am going camping in the flood plain of a known killer river. Don't care about flood watches or warnings. No problemo

[Norrrm]

26. Abbot got very upset when a reporter asked him who was to blame.

Abbot got very upset when a reporter asked him who was to blame.

https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Ademocraticunderground.com&q=abbot+blame

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100220470059

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100220470000

'Word choice of losers!' Texas gov lashes out over ...

[JT45242]

29. Afraid of the lawsuits and angry his name and his donors names will be on them

The wrongful death lawsuits associated with this should bankrupt a lot of politicians in Texas if there is any justice.

Lily white camp full of white girls just might get justice rather than "just us" that some other members of the community might get from a jury.

Abbott is an asshole. But he was likely following the advice of his lawyers to refuse to assign blame before the lawsuits are filed. Of course, the lawyers probably didn't tell him to do it in the most despicable, arrogant way that won't play well with a jury. "It's far too early for that. We will conduct a root means analysis after a full investigation." That's what his lawyers would have preferred and it at least would have made him look human rather than some cartoon villain.