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Posted
1 hour ago, Brisketexan said:

Oh, and from a friend at one of the local churches, all 27 of the missing Mystic girls are confirmed dead.

That is real close to the worst case rumor mill number floating around on Friday morning, which made me sick to my stomach. It went away with some false hope during the day.  Makes me very pessimistic about the ongoing unknowns for the RV people.

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Posted
2 hours ago, fuggled said:

This story seems to cast a lot of doubt on the "there's nothing we could have done" narrative.  Glad the folks at this particular camp were on top of things.

Quick action by one Texas summer camp leads to timely evacuations ahead of deadly flood

 

I’ve been going to Mo Ranch since I was 8 - stayed in Guest Lodge and River Dorm (the evacuated lodgings closest to the river) multiple times. Mo is more corporate than the family-owned camps (I don’t mean that pejoratively) so they have a plan for everything and know how to execute it well. 
 

Having said that, I bet the folks that run the place take no comfort or pride in being featured like this, as their hearts are with their neighbors down the road.

I will be away from the state for a few weeks but damn, I wish I were down there helping. The need will still be there next month, and the month after and so on. 

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Posted
1 hour ago, Scheiss Meister said:

The assumption that there will be an honest and complete examination of these events is very optimistic, in my opinion.  I expect another "It could have been worse."

There is still a lot about the Uvalde incident that is being kept out of the public view by the courts. 

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Posted
3 minutes ago, Armybrat said:

Sorry, but I can’t figure out how to use the spoiler feature for that.

The Jitterbug phone app is missing some key features. 

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Posted

Watching a press conference from the WH at the car dealership waiting to get my car. 
 

The WH official position is that the NWS did its job. Per the WH the NWS provided early, timely and consistent warnings in advance of the catastrophe. they are not blaming the NWS which is something I have seen many people do online. A lot. Everyone knows my position that this was a local failure and a state failure and messed up 100 year old mentality whereby camps upriver were supposed to warn the camps downriver of impending doom, in a county who depends on these camps and dollars from them and tourists…unconscionable.
 

I’m not defending the WH I am saying that is what their official position is that the NWS did its job. just paraphrasing what I am hearing sitting in the dealership waiting room. 

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Posted (edited)
16 minutes ago, Armybrat said:

The Internet certainly brings out the gottdamned trolls & haters……

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

IMG_5924.png

They very literally turned down getting a flood alert system in place in 2015 because the funds would have come from the Obama administration. City of Kerrville leadership CHOSE to not have alert system. Below is the transcript from that meeting:

 

Mr. Hewitt: Sirens did not seem to get very much support.  The thought was that sirens are better for tourists than local residents.  The sirens would only be beneficial for someone that's not familiar with the area, and wouldn't know what to do.

....

COMMISSIONER MOSER: The cost of that whole thing is going to be like 976 thousand dollars.  That's a lot of money.  All of it, and the reason we're here today and moving so quickly is that there is a FEMA grant that's available until as long as we apply by January the 20th.

JUDGE POLLARD:  Which is when President Obama goes out of office.

(Laughter.)

JUDGE POLLARD:  Well, the reason I mention that is because he authorized this particular thing, and it's going to --

MS. KIRBY:  It's a coincidence.

COMMISSIONER MOSER:  Going on the record with that it's a coincidence.  And so there has to be a presidential declaration of disaster to be able to have these kinds of funds available.  So it goes away just so happens to be when he leaves office.

...

COMMISSIONER REEVES:  And I will say and, Sheriff, you can correct me if I'm off base on this, the camps have had a very good system of letting down river if there's a rise, they're phoning their competitors or colleagues down river and letting them know what happened.  It's informal as you said, but it's been a very good system to let them know over time.

 

 

more good links to the meeting minutes in the link below in the spoiler.

They also turned down an ARPA grant in 2021 because it came from the wrong color president and they were being crazy about COVID. We're all getting the Texas that we voted for.

And it is a Texas that doesn't give a shit about dead children.

Edited by Captainant
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Posted
Quote

But we call people, we called camps, they made the decision that they thought they could beat that ride, and then that no matter what we do and no matter what we install there's going to be loss of life. 

So fucked up. 

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Posted
2 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

 


I know it’s annoying. I know that message I posted is the same thing, over and over. Yet….its also true.
Shit, the metaphor works well in this thread. Sorry not sorry I keep shouting about the wall of water headed our way. Maybe if we’d fucking do something about it, and not double down on our current path, I wouldn’t have to say anything else.
But it genuinely pisses me off when everyone tries to sell the “this is Texas, we love and help each other!” lie when those same people celebrate tossing a huge percentage of this state’s population, the people who build your homes, prepare your food, to the ground in cuffs, shove them in camps, all that shit. I’d love it if we meant what we said and practiced what we preached. And I’m sorry if it upsets you to be reminded that we don’t. But I’ll never be silent in the face of this shit. It would be evil for me to do so.
Care for every human in this state as much as you care for each of those little girls, that’s all I ask. Yet, it’s clearly too much to ask.

 

Maybe you should do something about it instead of posting on a message board?

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Posted
30 minutes ago, Armybrat said:

The Internet certainly brings out the gottdamned trolls & haters……

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

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horrible people are found on both sides of the aisle. Remember when those evil Californians had those fires sent from God. Plenty of people online said so.

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Posted

I can't fucking believe that some people need to be reminded of this, but 27+ dead CHILDREN didn't vote -- or not vote -- for a god damned thing.

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Posted

Ways to help-

For the future, consider joining a Community Emergency Response Team (CERT). 

Links to Hays and Travis County CERTS:

https://www.hayscountycert.com/

https://oem.traviscountytx.gov/events/basic-cert-training-g-317-1

It will take some dedication to training to be qualified to get included in 'boots on the ground' type helping but it can be very rewarding and helpful.

For the now, look to the Guadalupe River Association, these folks will be working to clean and restore the river for months to come.

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Posted

If some of you can't handle being able to talk about whatever you want in appropriate threads then you can stop posting here. No one is deleting shit and no one is saying you can't talk about whatever you want, this isn't the thread for it it's not a difficult concept and it's one I'm tired of reiterating. 

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Posted
2 hours ago, dcbc said:

It's hard to keep up, but I think there still is a missing counselor, Katherine Ferruzo, age 19.  Chloe is the one from Kinkaid (headed to UT), who was confirmed dead.  Katherine, also was an incoming UT freshman, who graduated from Memorial.  They were counselors in the same cabin, it appears.

edit.  I added her name.  It's in the news at this point.

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14882191/photo-entire-cabin-Camp-Mystic-girls-counselors.html

That group picture of all the smiling little girls of Bubble Inn makes my heart hurt.  As a father of two girls, having daughters in that 5-8 yo age range is the best thing in life.  Old enough to be a bit independent but young enough that (most) aren’t a pain is the butt yet lol.  (Middle teens can be ROUGH).  
They’re sweet and happy and fun.  

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Posted
3 hours ago, Mittens said:

From the Austin Firefighters Association: 

  Reveal hidden contents

It brings the Austin Firefighters no pleasure to report to the community that the Austin Fire Chief DENIED the deployment of Austin firefighters to Kerrville until very late into the event (so today!), with the exception of only 3 AFD rescue swimmers who helped staff helo teams (which still were NOT deployed until the afternoon of the 4th).

The Austin Firefighter Special Operations teams are specially trained for Hill Country swift water rescue and are some of the best, if not the best, swift water boat teams in the State of Texas.

It is absolutely outrageous that the Austin Fire Chief, Joel G. Baker, would not allow highly trained firefighters from Austin to respond to Kerrville. Because of this egregious dereliction of duty, LIVES WERE VERY LIKELY LOST BECAUSE OF CHIEF BAKER’S DECISION!

Deployment orders came down from the State of Texas on July 2. We would've been pre-deployed before the waters even began to rise!

It is unforgivable that a fire chief would NOT allow his firefighters to answer the call to save lives. 

Why would Fire Chief Joel G. Baker do this, you may ask? It was a misguided attempt to save money. I say “misguided” because the fire department is fully reimbursed by the state to deploy. I explained the reimbursement process to Chief Baker last week, and he failed to understand this very simple concept.

We are disgusted with our fire chief. He needs to be held accountable and fired for his disgraceful dereliction of duty.

The Austin Firefighters are starting a vote of no confidence on Tuesday on the fire chief.

As disgusted as we are at our Austin Fire Department leadership, the Austin Firefighters Association made a decision to not air our dirty laundry while victims and bodies were still being recovered. But it's now July 7, and it's time that we hold accountable our disgraced fire chief, AND anybody else in his leadership circle who are responsible for this horrendous act.

The Austin Firefighters commit to being transparent to the community about this process to remove our fire chief and hold all of those accountable who were part of this atrocity.

The firefighters hope we have your support, because it's going to get ugly.

I can't possibly express to you how outraged and sickened the firefighters are that we were not allowed to do the job—the job that we have trained so hard and long to do—during the historic floods that just occurred in Kerrville. We could've made a difference, and we were forced to stand down and lives were lost.

The community deserves a fire chief who cares about the community as much as our firefighters, and that is simply not the case. Joel G. Baker must go!

Please support your Austin Firefighters by sharing this post.

Please check this page for updates

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/16xx8HhH3i/

 

 

2 hours ago, crash_davis said:

That seems like a damned if you do, damned if you don't. There was a threat of Austin flooding. If the water rescue teams were in Hunt/Kerrville, and Austin flooded needing water rescues, I'm sure people would've bitched that he sent AFD resources elsewhere.

Did Austin firefighters deploy to Liberty Hill and Georgetown? Because I know for a fact that Round Rock firefighters deployed to Liberty Hill and performed numerous water rescues and evacuations. 

Posted (edited)
3 hours ago, Mittens said:

From the Austin Firefighters Association: 

  Hide contents

It brings the Austin Firefighters no pleasure to report to the community that the Austin Fire Chief DENIED the deployment of Austin firefighters to Kerrville until very late into the event (so today!), with the exception of only 3 AFD rescue swimmers who helped staff helo teams (which still were NOT deployed until the afternoon of the 4th).

The Austin Firefighter Special Operations teams are specially trained for Hill Country swift water rescue and are some of the best, if not the best, swift water boat teams in the State of Texas.

It is absolutely outrageous that the Austin Fire Chief, Joel G. Baker, would not allow highly trained firefighters from Austin to respond to Kerrville. Because of this egregious dereliction of duty, LIVES WERE VERY LIKELY LOST BECAUSE OF CHIEF BAKER’S DECISION!

Deployment orders came down from the State of Texas on July 2. We would've been pre-deployed before the waters even began to rise!

It is unforgivable that a fire chief would NOT allow his firefighters to answer the call to save lives. 

Why would Fire Chief Joel G. Baker do this, you may ask? It was a misguided attempt to save money. I say “misguided” because the fire department is fully reimbursed by the state to deploy. I explained the reimbursement process to Chief Baker last week, and he failed to understand this very simple concept.

We are disgusted with our fire chief. He needs to be held accountable and fired for his disgraceful dereliction of duty.

The Austin Firefighters are starting a vote of no confidence on Tuesday on the fire chief.

As disgusted as we are at our Austin Fire Department leadership, the Austin Firefighters Association made a decision to not air our dirty laundry while victims and bodies were still being recovered. But it's now July 7, and it's time that we hold accountable our disgraced fire chief, AND anybody else in his leadership circle who are responsible for this horrendous act.

The Austin Firefighters commit to being transparent to the community about this process to remove our fire chief and hold all of those accountable who were part of this atrocity.

The firefighters hope we have your support, because it's going to get ugly.

I can't possibly express to you how outraged and sickened the firefighters are that we were not allowed to do the job—the job that we have trained so hard and long to do—during the historic floods that just occurred in Kerrville. We could've made a difference, and we were forced to stand down and lives were lost.

The community deserves a fire chief who cares about the community as much as our firefighters, and that is simply not the case. Joel G. Baker must go!

Please support your Austin Firefighters by sharing this post.

Please check this page for updates

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/16xx8HhH3i/

 

Timeline is interesting 

Edited by troph
Posted
49 minutes ago, Dbeasy said:

 

Did Austin firefighters deploy to Liberty Hill and Georgetown? Because I know for a fact that Round Rock firefighters deployed to Liberty Hill and performed numerous water rescues and evacuations. 

Comes down to mutual aid agreements , plus what you have going on in your district or municipality at the time.

Posted (edited)

DPS brisket coming along nicely.  Close to wrap and rest time--

IMG_7085.jpeg

Edited by Cajun
Just a little pebble of good into a Grand Canyon of sadness.
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Posted
1 hour ago, Lhorn said:

That group picture of all the smiling little girls of Bubble Inn makes my heart hurt.  As a father of two girls, having daughters in that 5-8 yo age range is the best thing in life.  Old enough to be a bit independent but young enough that (most) aren’t a pain is the butt yet lol.  (Middle teens can be ROUGH).  
They’re sweet and happy and fun.  

My daughter was Mystic camper and stayed in Bubble Inn one term. I just saw her group cabin picture this weekend.

My niece was a Mystic camper and UT grad. One of her roommates and good friends (also UT grad) who she lived with shortly after graduating, is the mother of one of the missing Mystic girls from San Antonio.

This shit hits way too close to home. 

For the poster asking about the location of the young girl’s cabins in the flats close to the river. They did that because of the closer proximity to all the facilities. The older campers were on Senior Hill. It’s a little tricky walking up and down to those cabins. More suited to older campers.

 I think the cabins in the flats are about 20 feet above the river. I don’t think the flood in 1987 reached those cabins. This one did. Just can’t wrap my head around it. So tragic.

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Posted
6 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

Mystic may have become a little more "Christy," but historically is right in line with Stewart and Rio Vista.  Historically, they're slightly more "traditional," horsey archery riflery camps, while your Longhorns and Champions are more aquatic.  I think Longhorn created "Ranch Branch" to try to attract those campers and now there's some third thing entirely.  

The friends of my kids who went to Mystic def weren’t bible thumper families and this is over the past 10 years to current (now counselor) fwiw. Pine Cove is the one that comes to mind for being churchy and it wasn’t terrible. one of my boys went there for a few years. Had no interest in being a counselor so stopped prior to CIT 1 year 

Posted

C/P from the help page wanted to drop it here too.

Following up a bit to what @West Kerr Horn noted above. 

Spoke with @InkaUtexas who was out there. In good news, the supplies and need for people is well met at this point. He sent me a pic which I will post below. Based on his information it sounds like there isn't a ton of structure nor infrastructure damage. There was a ton of resources from Federal, State and other broad local Texas assistance. 

There is not currently a need for people nor resources, again based on information from Inka while on site. This may change but its the current reality.

In emergency response there are 3 points as a volunteer.

1) Don't add to the issues

2) If you're not contributing you're in the way.

3) If you fall into area 1 or 2, leave. 

Sounds harsh, but its truth. Inka and his friend found themselves as #2 so they are choosing #3. 

I told him I would provide this update so I am. 

Here is 1 pic of all the water at a single location of which there were about 10. First responders had no place to store more goods. They legitimately had too much stuff.

signal-2025-07-07-14-03-50-111.thumb.jpg.9905601ff247382f0e594e0c7f0587c5.jpg

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Posted
2 hours ago, Nicole44 said:

The WH official position is that the NWS did its job. Per the WH the NWS provided early, timely and consistent warnings in advance of the catastrophe. they are not blaming the NWS which is something I have seen many people do online. A lot. Everyone knows my position that this was a local failure and a state failure and messed up 100 year old mentality whereby camps upriver were supposed to warn the camps downriver of impending doom, in a county who depends on these camps and dollars from them and tourists…unconscionable.
I’m not defending the WH I am saying that is what their official position is that the NWS did its job. just paraphrasing what I am hearing sitting in the dealership waiting room. 

Everybody knows the NWS did their job - their watches were out there on Thursday.  There were even friends we know who left Kerrville Thursday night and figured they would drive back to Kerrville Friday if things were fine, based on what they were hearing and being concerned about all of that moisture moving up (they have experience with river flooding in the past), and they said others left the area and went back to Austin/East based on traffic around them.  Unfortunately, prior to this weekend, based on public comments, because there's so many smaller floods or near-floods, the officials and businesses weren't going to treat every one of them as if it's a repeat of '87.

Because of the history and geography of that area, and because of what just happened, I would imagine that at this point going forward, that mentality of blowing off flood watches/warnings, and the old mentality of upper-river camps warning down-river camps will be thrown out the window.

Any camps in that area that are able to re-open, will not be insured unless they have some serious and verified warning systems in place going forward and some kind of night watch improvement, and the cabins will have to be on a higher elevation (and I really have my doubts about whether they could get any kind of insurance for anything close to the flood plain).  And I imagine the state will change up regulations or add regulations concerning this stuff. And I'd also imagine that it won't be just the camps, but that there will need to be local/county improvements to warning systems, for the insurance companies to sign off on anything.

But I have my doubts about how many of those camps will ever re-open.  Back in the 80s during the last bad flood, that coverage was pretty limited outside of the area/Texas - I only remember the 1987 flood because one of those who drowned was the kid of one of my mom's friends.  If you were not directly affected, after a few days, it drops out of the public consciousness. Fast forward to 2025 and a year or two from now, thanks to the internet, this stuff will still be fresh and easily accessed. 

Even if they satisfy the insurance companies and even if the local municipalities improve/add warning systems, and they meet whatever standards the state changes or adds, how many parents are going to be willing to risk it? Even 2-3 kids drowning would be enough for a lot of parents to bail on those camps, but 27?

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Posted
5 hours ago, AUS-97HORN said:

we lost rational Brisket a long time ago... the idiocy of the last 8ish years have broken him (and probably more than a few others). 

Sadly, irrational brisket ≠ incorrect brisket 

 

2 hours ago, Wilcox Cummingtonite said:

Maybe you should do something about it instead of posting on a message board?

Terrible candidate for new motto

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Posted
Trae Tha Truth (for those who don’t know he’s a famous rapper from Houston) is as real as they come. every disaster that takes place in Texas, he and his people are there with boots on the ground, doing anything they can to not only raise money and awareness, but to actually volunteer their time and energy to do anything they can to help. a true humanitarian. can’t say enough about this man. a lot of celebrities shill for money for their favorite causes, but nobody actually gets down to ground zero and volunteers like Trae and his people. rally thankful for him and all that he does.
 

I got my company to donate money from our regional grants fund to Angel by Nature, Trae’s 501©(3). He’s a real one
Posted
Did Austin firefighters deploy to Liberty Hill and Georgetown? Because I know for a fact that Round Rock firefighters deployed to Liberty Hill and performed numerous water rescues and evacuations. 

I saw a convoy racing North up mopac with a zodiac around 0800 saturday, presumably headed for liberty hill/lago vista
Posted
1 hour ago, Dbeasy said:

Did Austin firefighters deploy to Liberty Hill and Georgetown? Because I know for a fact that Round Rock firefighters deployed to Liberty Hill and performed numerous water rescues and evacuations. 

Probably/maybe? They did something like two dozen water rescues within Travis County (and maybe a few outside of TC), and it sounds like they were deployed where needed.  I know they didn't deploy to Kerrville, and the union is blasting the fire chief over that, but I think their reasoning was that they expected bad flooding within Austin/Travis County.

 

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