TRUSK-DOGE CUTS KILL 27; 25 MORE MISSING
Cuts in National Weather Service are blamed for bad forecasting leading to deaths of at least 27 people so far—18 adults and nine children— due to the unexpected flooding in the Texas Hill Country. About 25 young girls from Camp Mystic, a Christian summer camp that sits near the river, are still missing.
Three inches were forecast. Ten inches fell in a flash. A wall of water, immediately followed by a wall of logs and tons of flotsam behind, was the last nightmarish sight of the dead and missing, who likely double the numbers above.
These deaths coincided with Trump signing the Big Ugly Bill, (where he argued against the Democrat belief that BUB is a killer, saying “No, everyone will live,” while more than 50 people were being swept away). This is not “irony.” This is Tragedy.
Living here in San Antonio, America’s 7th largest city, these aren’t anonymous strangers; the communities comprising Bexar and Kerr Counties feel these deaths personally, identifying with the victims even as survivors tell of the horrors they also experienced. The populace and particularly the Law Enforcement and Crisis Management civil servants all know the dangers Texas’s wild and woolly nature. Weeks of ongoing meetings in Emergency Response Centers, collaborating with all available resources including significant military personnel and expertise, precede every major holiday in this recreation-rich region. All they need is adequate data to know what’s coming, an epic failure of the federal government.
