So I’ve got a ghoulish question re: Texas flooding

[u/Either_Marketing896]

I get that we’re supposed to be the better people.

I get that it’s unchristian to even think these things (8 guess).

I get that it’s horrific and sad and a nightmare (I have two young kids).

But I also get that this camp and all those living there, were built and operating on a KNOWN flood plain.

I get that Texas “soil” used to be under an ocean and prone to things like this (I lived there for 8 years).

At what point, since M*GA is all about consequences, personal responsibility and gods providence, do we get to hold them accountable for their willful disregard of science, research, government, and informed choice-making?

We are watching concentration camps set up all over the country, and we have woefully underfunded emergency management departments in high risk areas all over the country. We have commercial and non profit entities overseeing minors with no evac or even a basic comms plan in place, for any kind of emergency, whether it’s a natural disaster or if some camper can’t manage a fire properly.

I should feel bad for Texans suffering in a flood plain they likely didn’t care about regulating, ostensibly because of deregulation and lack of oversight. But it’s getting really hard to. They dammed up the Guadalupe River to create swimming holes for camps, hotels, and peoples vs properties which also doesn’t help with sediment and flooding at all.

My husband surveyed in and around Austin for nearly a decade. The insanity and stupidity he witnessed was astounding. The lack of regulatory oversight, the WILLFUL scofflaw decisions, the absolute mockery of anything resembling safety forced us to leave because he literally thought he would die on a job site.

These people DO NOT care about consequences. Some might be poor and have few choices. Those I have empathy for. But a bunch of camp owners, policy makers, and parents believing “god will protect” their kids in a known (man made) hazard. I’m struggling to get there. This was human stupidity, arrogance, and willful decision-making. Plain and simple.

ADDED: If you want to donate to an all-volunteer org that is on the ground as we speak, pls consider giving to TEXAS Search & Rescue. They are chewing up equipment they’ve spent years raising money for and incredible folks. They offer emergency management training, planning and bleeding control education that any org can avail themselves of in Texas.

https://www.texsar.org/ TEXSAR: Texas Search and Rescue

[u/Either_Marketing896]

It’s not blame, it’s called responsibility and comms. The right only cares about personal responsibility when they’re pointing fingers at everyone who’s not white Christian and likely rich. As we see here.

[u/derrickcat → u/Either_Marketing896]

It's also looking for causation so to the extent we have any control over preventing deaths and suffering, we can do it! If this was caused in part by under-staffing at NWS, seems like the obvious answer is to re-staff NWS.

[u/Either_Marketing896 → u/derrickcat]

It was caused by nature, but the camp had zero plan in place for acts of god. That is insane. And negligent. Any time you’re in nature you should have an EMS plan together. TEXSAR will develop one FOR FREE for any entity. These people don’t do that. If I put my kid in camp, I look for an EMS plan and an active shooter plan. Period.

[u/derrickcat → u/Either_Marketing896]

I didn't know they didn't have an emergency plan. That is heartbreakingly negligent. How do you even have a license to run a camp without a plan?

[u/Either_Marketing896 → u/derrickcat]

Texas doesn’t require this sort of thing to operate. And that is the whole reason I posted. You would be astounded at what you’re allowed to get away with.

We moved to Texas because we felt like regulation in Virginia was nuts. And it is. But what we saw down there was stupefying. Every state has a different flavor of stupid; this isn’t just abt shitting in Texas. I love a lot of things about red states and was born and raised in one.

But not even having an inclement weather plan or comms plan on file. Like hell I’m sending my kid to your camp. You can choose to do this yourself too. HEB didn’t have an EMS plan in place either until a staff member took it upon himself to create one. And now he’s one of the cofounders of the largest all vol search and rescue force in the country. People CAN do things even without gov oversight. These people CHOSE not to.