news
Texas governor says more than 160 people are still missing after deadly floods
Discussion
For reference, Niagara Falls flows at about 100,000 cubic feet per second.
The USGS river gage at Hunt showed the devastating result of all of this, as the river rose from a stage of 7.7' and a flow of 8 cubic feet per second at 1:10 am as the rain began, to a a stage of 29.45' and a flow of 120,000 cubic feet per second at 4:35 am. https://balancedweather.substack.com/p/balancedwx-special-tragic-flash-flooding
I saw another source that cited 147,000 cubic feet per second. Twenty-six feet in 45 minutes means the water was rising a foot every two minutes, but keep in mind it was not rising up canyon walls; it was rising while spreading out wide. It happened while they were all asleep in one of the many areas of the country with spotty cell phone coverage. Even blue urban areas would have a hard time if hit by a sudden onset of Niagara Falls deep in the night.
Here is a real-time video downstream from a bridge in Kerrville, where they knew it would be coming. No music, no voice over. Just water, trees, lumber, coolers, kayaks, and finally a house with a cat. https://youtu.be/0kYjiTEDqtw?si=WL5orlFJOtMCItgN
Before seeing this video, I couldn’t wrap my head around the magnitude of the flood waters.
Same. This video just changed everything for me. Terrifying.
That video is impressive and terrifying
I certainly wouldn't be standing on that bridge, especially once the water got high enough to be overflowing on the road deck.
Anyone else watching this with a growing anxiety that the floodwaters were gonna crest the bridge and sweep away the guy doing the recording and any cars that were still there?
It seemed like that bridge should have been closed way sooner than it was...
Dude they closed it in like 30 minutes. That's not terrible.
In addition to that, are they not concerned about getting out once they get off the bridge? Are all the roads to the sides of the bridge on substantially higher ground or something, with no chance of being cut off?
Holy shit that's an incredible video. It goes from barely a creek, mostly just a dry riverbed with a trickle, a minute later it's already extremely dangerous, and by the time it ends you can't even tell which part used to be the river.
After watching this video, scroll back to the beginning for depth comparison.
How did that guy even see the cat?! I looked forever and couldn't even find it. And he saw it in real time.
I think it was in the window or patio door. Hope it made it out of there.
I think it was in the window or patio door.
Poor lil' guy was clinging to the drapes.
That's terrifying. I've taken the Hornblower (Canadian version of Maid of the Mist. Those two ferries go as close as possible to Niagara Falls from the bottom of it) and it's hard to appreciate the true power of the falls from the top. The foot of it is full of powerful whirlpools and waves. The Ferry goes at full speed to hover in place as close as it can get, which isn't anywhere close to within reach.
Anything sucked into that would be gone. I'm so sad for the people who were lost in the floods. I don't see how even 10% of them will show up alive at this point.
I always thought the flash flood sequence during the universal studios backlot tour was super hokey and unrealistic, in how quickly and suddenly the water is released all at once. Turns out it is unrealistic, but only in that it's not actually aggressive enough. That footage is insane.
This video really puts the speed and intensity of the flood into perspective. Imagine being in one of the areas hit while it was still dark and people were sleeping. Really terrifying.
When you describe the water rising a foot every two minutes I wasn’t considering the speed of that water. That video clip is crazy, I don’t think a grown adult could survive more than a minute before getting washed away. Even at the beginning the water look strong enough to take you off your feet either with debree or just roaring water.
After the flooding from Helene, some victims were initially identified as multiple people due to their bodies being smashed apart.
Did they get the cat out?
and drunk people on holiday. Even if they reacted quickly they were getting into cars and by the time they were driving the car was half under water.
I read somewhere that either Obama or Biden offered money for this type of safety plan, and they turned it down because it was democratic money. Is this true?
Yes. There are transcripts from the meetings. Most recently they had $5m to use from Covid relief but they declined to use it because it was from the Biden admin.
They ended up using it for communication upgrades for police, fire, and emergency services based on the transcripts I saw
Saw a post from Austin FD that they were told not to initiate rescues by their chief, despite having the gear and being ready to go, because of costs.
Fuck Texas, for real.
They took and held the money instead so it didn’t help out blue states.
Texas has a thing for drowning pedestrians.
No, not quite. They applied for FEMA grants twice specifically for the flood warning system and they were denied. In connection with this, one commissioner said he didn’t want sirens because they were loud and only really would help non-locals so who cares. They also make it clear that if they didn’t get FEMA grants, they didn’t want to pay for it themselves, so the initiative would be “dead in the water” (har har). The naysaying commissioner did get outvoted in that they did end up applying for the grant though. But like I said they were denied, and they didn’t want to pay for it themselves, so they just let the warning system they knew was inadequate be.
Separately, Biden offered public funds through the ARPA for COVID-related recovery and mitigation, but you could use the funds for tons of things, including things not directly related to COVID. That’s where the county received over $5 million in funds, and some residents said they didn’t want to spend the money because it was from Biden who is an evil commie and they don’t believe in Covid etc. But the discussion of the funds was about using them for emergency communications (namely radios) for the police, firefighters, and EMS. For some reason there’s no discussion of using the funds for updating the flood warning system, and it’s unclear why that use wasn’t considered. The county DID accept ARPA funds and did spend them on their emergency comms system.
Governor Abbott blamed everything under the sun on Joe Biden; I’m surprised he isn’t still
The majority of Republicans polled said Obama was either partly or entirely responsible for 9/11, these people are incredibly stupid.
I knew when I saw the report first thing in the morning July 5th and saw videos of the rushing flood on the news that there must be hundreds and hundreds dead. Just the magnitude, strength of this event occurring in the middle of the night without warning on a holiday where many people were camping in the flood zone. I think entire RV sites were washed away. A lot of campers may not even been reported missing if nobody knew their itinerary. I truly will not be shocked if this did not kill 500+ people. That’s all I could think. There are so many people gone in those waters. Absolute catastrophe
Greg Abbott, their governer, when asked about who was responsible for the deaths:
“Every football team makes mistakes,” he said. “The losing teams are the ones that try to point out who’s to blame. The championship teams are the ones who say, ’Don’t worry about it, man, we got this. We’re going to make sure that we go score again and we’re going to win this game.’ The way winners talk is not to point fingers.”
Who the fuck are the winners in this situation? Is he saying the people who lost loved ones due to incompetence are losers? W... T... F... is he talking about!?
Getting washed away in a flood and dying has to be a bad way to go. Especially kids. Well maybe getting gunned down at school is worse. Or maybe it's freezing to death at home with no food. Seems like you are on your own in Texas to find out.
Abbott:” The way winners talk is not to point fingers.”
Might want to tell your orange daddy.
Doing a heck of a job, Brownie.
They sacrificed innocent people to what? Own the libs? They sacrificed their own healthcare to what? Own the libs? Sacrificed their farms? Food? Jobs? National security? To own the libs? Wow.
Did they find Rafael Cruz yet?
He's still on vacation in europe
Fu*ker comparing it to a football game?
Texas gonna Texas
And yet Texas keeps voting these chucklefucks in.
How many more days before missing gets upgraded? Are they even likely to be found at this point?
Hopes and prayers,
but no warning sirena, satellite data or local officials that actually care
Libs 0 , Texas 2858
200 people are going to end up being dead and not a fucking thing will be done about it. Literally only in America.
“Word choice of losers” is an odd comment
They never put out the total amount of death due to Helene in Western North Carolina. I live here and was told by local authorities they were going through local streams looking for the dead. They never reported how many were actually found.
Why didn’t they request the president just turn off the water spout? That’s unacceptable
Even in the beginning, I hate to say this, but the missing count seemed low considering the camps and the holiday. It’s possible you’ll never know just how many people were there and it’s also possible they’ll never find everybody. This really is just a beginning and I’m waiting for worse and worse news about “oh, btw…” just like it happened in Uvalde after the politicians came and patted each other on their backs.
I'm sure the number jumped when a bunch of people didn't show up for work yesterday and today. With entire families wiped out because they all got together for the holiday there was no one to report them missing until they missed work and no one could get ahold of them or their emergency contact.
I saw some pictures of a camper/rv that was found upside down and buried up to the wheels in mud. So buried in around 10-15 feet of mud. There is no telling how many people are buried under 10+ feet of mud and will never be found.
Not even thinking about RVs, but about the people that were just in tents along the river shore. Floodwaters could drown them, their remains are then wrapped up in tents, buried in the mud somewhere. Horrific.
July 4th weekend too. Lots of people just out for some nice camping for the weekend.
and drinking heavily so even if they noticed or got the warning lots of drunk panic decision making.
20+ ft of water in 45 minutes. It didn't matter if they got the warning if they were near the river. They were fucked.
Probably although CNN has been reporting the government knew the number of missing was this high for days now. S&R in the field says they think actual deaths will be more like 500 based on what they’re seeing and for the reasons you’ve mentioned.
That's heartbreaking
Oh my GOD
Yeah, I was just thinking today about how my husband is the type of person who, if he lived on his own, would think nothing of deciding to go camp for a weekend and not tell anyone he was going. Or like, when I was in college, there were definitely weekends my friends and I would go to the river and I wouldn’t have let my parents know beforehand. I imagine the number of missing will only climb this week.
yea, campgrounds are notably not very good at keeping track of who is there. the camp host may have a general idea of the # of people but may only have the name of the primary occupant. and if the camp host is missing then what? with the girls' camp there was probably a good paper trail as well as families urgently seeking their child.. but for whole families that may have been hit in a campground, that will take time to develop the real number.
CNN had the head of the Cajun Navy on. He said based on what they've seen assisting with searches there's probably more like 500 to 600 missing. He said there are tons of RVs and campers in the debris.
The news was not reporting the unconfirmed missing. Basically we knew how many people are missing from campsites that have registered visitors, but tons and tons of people would have been in town around the river who just showed up for the holiday. Those people are much harder to track down.