1. Kerr county balked at the cost of flood sirens. [0]
2. Kerr county didn't alert all cell phones of the emergency. [1]
3. Kerr county repeatedly asked the State of Texas for flood help and the state said no. [2]
4. Kerr county was in the bottom half of property taxes in the state of Texas in 2017. [3]
[0] https://www.wowt.com/2025/07/11/small-texas-community-where-...
[1] https://www.nbcdfw.com/investigations/fema-records-kerr-coun...
[2] https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/10/us/politics/texas-flood-a...
[3] https://www.uttyler.edu/academics/colleges-schools/business/...
Might not have helped. Camp Mystic campers were not allowed cell phones.[1]
[1] https://www.campmystic.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/FINAL-...
"Some residents argued that outdoor sirens blaring warnings in the event of a flash flood would ruin the natural feel of the area that many prized. “The thought of our beautiful Kerr County having these damn sirens going off in the middle of the night,” one county commissioner at the time, Buster Baldwin, said during a 2016 meeting. “I’m going to have to start drinking again to put up with y’all.” (Mr. Baldwin died in 2022.)"
I'm thinking hard here, but I'm reasonably sure this is at least in the top-5 most moronic short-sighted, selfish, brain-dead things I've ever seen in my life. Possibly even top-3. Yeah, I'd join Buster in the bar to drink ourselves in a coma.
The spam-y nature of many disaster warning systems is widely understood to be an issue. If these people have existing experience with other low hit-rate warning systems like for tornados, it isn’t surprising that they would find even more warnings to be a nuisance. The false positive rates that people experience is too high by an order of magnitude to be an effective system.
If they have warning sirens that are ineffective at conveying real risk, they stop being warnings and become background noise.
Essentially it was “An earthquake is coming now, seek cover”.
I picked up my phone, read it, gave it a kind of WTH look, and, indeed, an earthquake hit. And it was a notable quake.
I rode out the quake at my desk.
And that’s the thing. Where I’m at, we get hit all the time. Rollers, shakers, slammers. We had a week or so last year where we got hit by a swarm of a dozen of them.
But they’re small. Close 3s. During the swarm, I felt for the folks about 2 miles away. All of them originated beneath them, so they were getting more than I was.
So, it’s hard to take an earthquake warning very seriously. First, I didn’t even know we had warnings. Second, we’re (I’m) used to just riding them out. With that kind of warning, all we can do is duck and cover, assume the worst, hope for the best.
I will say this, next time I get that warning, I’ll heed it. The quake that hit us was interesting enough to justify caution should they send another one, and, one way or another, it’s going to be over soon. So the overall precaution in response to the warning is quite low.
On the other hand, we also get the flash flood warnings. They’re broadcast over a huge area, 95+% of which is, honestly, not susceptible to the flooding.
These are long lasting warnings. With 12 hour durations. The most interesting one is the one for a local river basin. That warning goes off when crossing the river on the freeway.
There are certainly areas susceptible to flash floods. Lots of mountains and canyons. Especially in the foothills in the deserts. Down here in the greater LA, Orange, Inland Empire regions, it’s less of an issue. 100 years of development, dams, and flood control infrastructure actually do the job quite well.
Spamming us with flood alerts just numb us to alerts in general when things might really go bad.
I know for me and my family, when we get a tornado siren we do actually go to our designated safe spot. It's never touched down anywhere near us, but we still do it.
It's far easier killing off any new economic and public development at the local level than any national level environmentalist or small government movement could ever dream for.
If you can't see past poverty, I could just as well ask: why do people live in expensive homes on the sides of eroding oceanside cliffs?
> “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,” one resident told commissioners in April 2022, fearing strings were attached to the money.
> “We don't want to be bought by the federal government, thank you very much,” another resident told commissioners. “We'd like the federal government to stay out of Kerr County and their money.”
Translation: Not in my back yard.
Because every time the economy went down the drain the first things that got cut from the budget were the dikes (it's no coincidence the worst flood in history was in 1953 when the great recession, WW2 and colonial war drained the treasury). And there's always another storm.
> On July 5, as floodwaters were starting to recede, FEMA received 3,027 calls from disaster survivors and answered 3,018, or roughly 99.7 percent, the documents show. Contractors with four call center companies answered the vast majority of the calls.
> That evening, however, Ms. Noem did not renew the contracts with the four companies and hundreds of contractors were fired, according to the documents and the person briefed on the matter.
> The next day, July 6, FEMA received 2,363 calls and answered 846, or roughly 35.8 percent, according to the documents. And on Monday, July 7, the agency fielded 16,419 calls and answered 2,613, or around 15.9 percent, the documents show.
> "Accepting the ARPA money and putting our County under existing and future executive orders would federalize us and make us all slaves."
These people are certifiably insane.
The 10 million did eventually get spent on new police radios and bonuses for the sheriff's department. [2]
[1] https://www.chron.com/news/article/kerr-county-flood-funds-2...
[2] https://www.texastribune.org/2025/07/10/texas-kerr-county-co...
I’m sure that they claim to “back the blue” while refusing to put the communications tools that keep them safe in place as well.
What people of this ilk have done to our nation makes me sick.
For many, politics is a team sport. Something so detached and imaginary. When the Giants lose, your house stays intact. They don't realize politics DOES affect their day-to-day lives.
They vote for something for it's consequences, while simultaneously wishing to be exempt from said consequences. It's classic self-destructive behavior.
"We'll be fine on our own" didn't work out unfortunately.
I would like to be wrong, and this is not the time to rehash vaccinations, but if true, it seems relevant to the strings attached to the funds.
Ideally id you happen to know one way or the other, plainly say so, or reference something reasonable, that this was a serious claim.
Your classic manager who feels they are so important that hey HAVE TO be involved in X,Y,Z but they are not a responsible enough person to actually do the job.
If you wanted a different agency, like one that prioritized "recovery after 6 months", well, it would help to inform the nation that FEMA is no longer the nationwide emergency management agency. It's up to the local and state governments.
My interpretation of such is that they're sick of voters who expect a double standard. Don't do something ''I'' don't like when it helps other people, but when ''I'' need help godspeed.
There are consequences to voters and representatives who no longer believe in our shared objective reality.
I don’t blame the little girls, but with freedom comes responsibility. Their parents were responsible for choosing the camp they went to. The camp owner and staff made the risk evaluations of allowing them to sleep in a flood plain during a storm. The local town voted for their representatives and those representatives rejected federal funds which would have given them a chance to survive without cell coverage.
Ultimately your parent comment wasn’t necessarily assigning individual blame. In a democratic republic, the voters / citizens / residents (in aggregate) are ultimately responsible for the actions that elected representatives take in their name.
Having said that, here's the really unhelpful part: I don't think this will work, either. I believe that the overwhelming majority of people vote the same every time, including choosing not to vote. The only thing that changes is a microscopic minority, and they choose randomly. I believe that if we re-ran the 2024 election again right now, the result would be identical.
I point that out only to say the my original comment is me being optimistic. I actually think it's even worse.
I come here for intellectual curiosity. I want to hear new ideas. You’re not saying anything new. You’re leaving the social media equivalent of dog turds on the sidewalk. Please be a better neighbor.
The (acting) head of FEMA, David Richardson [1], hasn’t visited the disaster area and apparently hasn’t made any public appearances for months [2].
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Richardson_(government_o...
2. https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/10/fema-leader-texas-f...
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C5C82CY7?pf_rd_r=R91A8JNKAJ387ZZ...
Federal disaster relief is now a gift to be given at the whim of the President. Usually, only red states get it. See the list of major disaster declarations here.[2] More details.[3]
[1] https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/white-house/3405810/...
[3] https://therevolvingdoorproject.org/trump-disaster-policy-tr...
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/11/us/politics/trump-fema-te...
Yeah, there's reasons for that:
> On July 5, as floodwaters were starting to recede, FEMA received 3,027 calls from disaster survivors and answered 3,018, or roughly 99.7 percent, the documents show. Contractors with four call center companies answered the vast majority of the calls.
> That evening, however, Ms. Noem did not renew the contracts with the four companies and hundreds of contractors were fired, according to the documents and the person briefed on the matter.
> The next day, July 6, FEMA received 2,363 calls and answered 846, or roughly 35.8 percent, according to the documents. And on Monday, July 7, the agency fielded 16,419 calls and answered 2,613, or around 15.9 percent, the documents show.
I'm fine with blaming Peter Thiel and Elon Musk personally.
It might be a bit of a silly point, but somehow it seems even worse to go to war for other people's slaves.
You're wrong that Texas hasn't voted Republican since the 60's: they've voted Republican since Reagan in 1981. And they voted Democrat long before the 60s when they were segregationist, before the Republicans became the racist party with the Southern Strategy.
Is this really a surprise to you because you are you a Russian troll who never learned about US history, or are you just too intellectually lazy to look it up in Wikipedia?
Solid Democratic South: Texas backed Democrats for president through the mid-1960s -- even as the party enforced segregationist policies at home—carrying LBJ with 63.32% in 1964.
1960s Democratic wins: John F. Kennedy won Texas in 1960 (50.52% - 48.52%) and Hubert Humphrey narrowly carried it in 1968 with 41.14%.
Early “swing” elections: Richard Nixon broke through in 1972 (66.20% for Nixon vs. 33.24% for McGovern), but Democrats reclaimed it for Jimmy Carter in 1976 (51.14%).
Reagan realignment: Beginning with Ronald Reagan’s win in 1980, Texas has voted Republican in every presidential contest since.
Statewide Democratic comebacks: Even after that, Texas elected Democrat Mark White governor in 1982 (53% - 46%) and Ann Richards in 1990 (49.5% - 46.9%).
U.S. Senate (Democratic representation)
Ralph Yarborough (D) served from 1957 - 1971, leading the liberal wing of the party in Washington
Lloyd Bentsen (D) won the Class 1 seat in 1970 (took office 1971) and was reelected in 1976, 1982, and 1988 -- he remains the last Democrat Texas voters sent to the Senate in a general election.
Bob Krueger (D) was appointed by Governor Ann Richards in January 1993 to fill Bentsen’s seat; he served until June 1993, when he lost the special election to Kay Bailey Hutchison (R).
Governor’s Mansion & Statewide Offices
Mark White (D) broke the GOP’s hold in 1982, defeating incumbent Bill Clements and serving as governor 1983 - 1987.
Ann Richards (D) won the 1990 gubernatorial race -- she was governor 1991 - 1995 and the last Democrat (and last woman) to hold that office.
Texas Legislature
Senate majority: Democrats held the State Senate until 1996 (75th Legislature); Republicans first took control in 1997.
House majority: Democrats controlled the Texas House through 2002; Republicans gained it in 2003 (78th Legislature).
And if tech companies turned Texas Red since the 80s, are you blaming Microsoft and Apple or IBM for it happening back then?
Do you really think if it weren’t for BigTech Red states like Texas would be a liberal utopia?
Yes, because I as Black person who grew up in the south, whose still living parents grew up in the segregated south, who lived in a county that was a “sun down town” as recently as the mid 80s (yes this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WErjPmFulQ0), whose six foot 2 step son got looked at suspiciously every time we walked out our house even though we made twice the median household income in the county know that America has always had a majority of people swayed by dog whistles from Willy Horton, to “Haitians eating pets”, “immigrants bringing crime and disease”, “the gays are trying to force your boys to wear dresses”, “Obama is a secret Muslim and really not an American citizen” etc.
Fox News is a reflection on a large part of America not the cause of it.
The issue with lack of flood preparation was not racism specifically. Nor were the FEMA contracts stopped because of racism. But it was very much MAGA. And it was exactly what big tech was trying to achieve.
The FEMA being destroyed is very much Musk doing. Open positions in NWS were literally open because Musk bought place in government so that he can slash them.
No he doesn't. He has never provided a straight answer to any question about policy ever. He just said whatever he thought the audience wanted to hear. His answer to the same question has never been the same.
It's just that 50% of americans have been captivated by fox/facebook/twitter, and they tell those americans what to believe, and they're telling to vote trump, nomatter what he says.
Literally everyone, his voters and his opposition, expected him to do pretty much what he is doing now. The only difference is that his voter thought only other people will be harmed, not themselves. They were looking forward having fun while libs and democrats and trans and whoever else they hate suffer.
You think racism, homohophis snd nationalism started with tech companies and Fox News? Even when Fox tried to tell the truth about the election and poll results, people just go to NewsMax and OANN.
How exactly do you think I should have cast my vote so as to not be blamed for Trump?
It was mainly prices, which historically has been a very common deciding factor. If people feel pain in their pocket book, they will give someone else a shot. They also remembered feeling better financially pre-covid
Conservatives consistently prefer the most offensive insulting person around. And calls on left to make it nicer just move overtone window to the right. Conservatives interpret it as a weaknees.
Plus, it causes forever shift where republicans are euphemismed around, sanewashed and consistentky made to look better. That is failing strategy.
Look man, I'm a libertarian. I get the frustration and I totally understood why someone would vote for Trump in 2016. But after seeing his first round of abject failure and wanton dividership and then voting for even more of that, you deserve every ton of criticism heaped on you. This was really the time to put country above partisan squabbling, and you failed horribly.