The public sentiment regarding the Texas floods reflects profound sorrow, frustration, and outrage, with many commenting on the tragic loss of lives, particularly of children, and criticizing government preparedness and response. Many express anger toward political figures, specifically Governor Greg Abbott, for their perceived insensitivity and failure to take accountability. There is a strong call for better infrastructure and proactive leadership to prevent such disasters in the future.

Texas Government

Governor Greg Abbott

National Weather Service

Much love to our Mexican brothers and sisters!

Cookie_Bell

And that’s while U.S. Marines are heading to LA to deport Mexicans.

Thank you, Mexico. We too are embarrassed by our president.

SofttBerry

Mexico: Sends assistance

California: Sends assistance

Washington DC:....

rbnlegend

We do not deserve their help, but obviously they are better people than we are.

eggs_erroneous

It's amazing to see the international help coming together in times of crisis. The teamwork here really shows how communities support one another.

Nice-Percentage2747

Hopefully Noem doesn’t have them kidnapped. 

Big hugs guys, TY

Wise_Ad_253

Muchas gracias a nuestros hermanos mexicanos! Still showing kindness and class even as our government spews hate towards you. 🇲🇽🇺🇸

GeminiIsMissing

I’m surprise ICE hasn’t detained them because they are showing everyone exactly how inept our government is.

kingnowhere

Never a second thought to jump in and help when they're needed.
Mexico doesn't get near enough credit for it's hard working, kind, and humble citizens.
The U.S. magats could learn a thing or two about real Christians from our Mexican brothers and sisters

lmitchell6

It’s incredibly sweet but honestly, why? I wouldn’t risk it for those assholes

GarbageWitch87

I am waiting for the headlines México rescue team Sent to alligator alcatraz, or hold hostage by ICE, and MAGA clapping.

Then for obvious reasons no one will ever send help to the USA.

Amvient

urbanek2525

Surprised the orange orangutan hasn’t sent ice for intimidation

DCJustSomeone

TrumpDumper

PlateOpinion3179

AutoDefenestrator273

Ill3galAlien

Suck_Boy_Tony

I wonder if those they rescue would complain that they spoke Spanish.

perkidddoh

Just waiting for ICE to show up in full military gear and ensure they all return to Mexico when they’re done with the rescue and clean up.

siromega37

Welcome to /r/MadeMeSmile. Please make sure you read our [rules here.](https://www.reddit.com/r/MadeMeSmile/about/rules/) We'd like to take this time to remind users that:

* We do not allow any type of jerk-like behavior, including but not limited to: personal attacks, hate speech, harassment, racism, sexism, or other jerk-like behavior (includes gatekeeping posts).

* Any sort of post showing a mug, a shirt, or a print is a scam. You will not receive anything except a headache and a stolen credit card.

- [More information regarding rule 1 as well as how mug/shirt/poster scammers operate can be found here.](https://www.reddit.com/r/mademesmile/wiki/rule1)


*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/MadeMeSmile) if you have any questions or concerns.*

AutoModerator


Friendly reminder that all **top level** comments must:  

1.  start with "answer: ", including the space after the colon (or "question: " if you have an on-topic follow up question to ask),

2.  attempt to answer the question, and   

3.  be unbiased

Please review Rule 4 and this post before making a top level comment:

http://redd.it/b1hct4/

Join the OOTL Discord for further discussion: https://discord.gg/ejDF4mdjnh


*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/OutOfTheLoop) if you have any questions or concerns.*

Answer: From a local. The Guadalupe River rose up to 30 ft in 45 minutes. That's 2-3 stories of water in less than an hour.

We had near constant rain for two days straight. The sudden rise happened during the dark (between 4 and 6 AM) when everyone, including the campers, were settled in and sleeping.

So it was a lot of rain in the middle of the night and the very early hours of the morning when people were asleep and couldn't evacuate.

HolyIsTheLord

Answer: These were flash floods, that also happened at like 4am. It’s also summer camp season so there was an influx of people not very familiar with the region/hazards at camp along the river. When it’s all said and done, a lot of heads are going to roll. The Guadalupe River has flash flood sensors and sirens all along it because of this exact risk, early reports indicate that the system failed, likely from poor maintenance. Additionally, these summer camps had cabins placed within the 500 year flood zone, they bear significant liability for how this tragedy continues to unfold.

Source: my family has a house on the Guadalupe that I’ve visited for over 30 years, its the second house we’ve had, because the first one got washed away in a flood.

BillyShears2015

Answer: Very soon after daylight on Friday, there was a news report with the top government official in Kerr County, a judge, whose name, as I recall, is John Kelly. His comment was that the County did not have a warning system.

Although Accuweather and the National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning around 1:00 a.m. , people were asleep and there was no siren or similar alert system.

The area is known for flash floods. The hills don't have a deep layer of soil to absorb heavy rainfall, so runoff is swift.  There have been suggestions that the amount of rainfall in that short a period was unexpected notwithstanding the flash flood warnings.

Th girls' camp which  has been hard hit, Mystic Camp, had a no-technology rule, so no one had cell phones or radios or sources by which they could have been warned, if there was a system to issue a warning.

As I write this ,Sunday July 6 around 7:45p.m. CDT, 80 people are known dead and around 11 or 12 from Mystic Camp are still missing. 

Pray for those still missing.

More rain is expected.

Update: An early warning siren system  had been voted down at the state level as being too expensive.

https://www.latintimes.com/flooded-texas-county-opposed-siren-alert-system-that-could-have-warned-residents-because-cost-586255

Bakkie

Answer: Texas soil was dry and compacted (and has a lot of clay). This means only a small amout of rain is readily absorbed into the ground the rest simply runs downhill.  

Downhill in Texas always leads to several major rivers. Flooding occurs when so much water is dropped from the sky onto ground that all leads to a few river systems. 

While a typical heavy rainstorm produces about .3 inches of rain (1cm) per hour, the recent tropical storm saturated thunderstorms literally dropped between 10 and 20 inches of rain (30cm -60cm) within a few hours.  This is as much as a year's worth of rain, in some cases, in just a few hours.  Imagine 12 inches (30cm) of rain over thousands of hectares all running off the land to the lowest spots.

That much water has to go somewhere, which is what causes a phenomenon called "flash floods."   Flash floods occur when the upstream rain water collects at a rate faster than the water is moving in the river.  This can cause the river water to rise at tremendous speeds.  Sometimes rising 30 or 40 feet (10-13 meters) within 30-40 minutes!  

In the Texas floods, they have time-lapse footage that shows the initial push of water in these flash floods caused water to rise 20 feet (7 meters) in just 3 minutes.  That's the height of a family home.  Then in the next hour or two, the water levels rose even higher to 30-40 feet (10-13 meters).

It's not just water: The initial push of water in a flash flood also includes a tremendous amount of debris (logs, bushes, trees, etc.) that have been lifted or uprooted from the ground upstream.  This first surge is moving at a rate of about 9 feet per second (3 meters per second), and the weight of the water and debris is significant enough to knock trees down, vehicles over, and sweep away any living thing in it's path.

These floods were especially tragic, because the water levels rose to heights that are expected to happen only 1% of the time in any given year (what is called a 100-year flood) This means that people haven't seen these levels in their lifetime.

Add to that the absolutely horrific timing of the floods during the night (4-5am), and it was absolute chaotic for people who were in campsites along rivers, in cabins in low areas, or even in houses beside flash flood areas. 

Entire homes were wiped off the earth.  Of particular sadness was a girls camp that was next to a river.  The lower-laying areas of the camp were completely washed away (with the young campers ages 8-18).

The whole situation is tragic.  There are individuals who would like to place blame on the National Weather Service, locals, or try to use this to further political purposes.  Which makes it even more sad.

Bottom line is, very few people are watching for weather alerts at 5am.  And nobody expected the rivers to rise 30 to 40 feet (10-13 meters) in a matter of minutes.

Lopsided-Photo-9927

Answer: we don't know yet. There are several factors. The amount of water that fell was more than predicted. It seems less was absorbed than is typical. The valley is a regular flood zone, and experienced a flood near this level just 90 years ago. Climate change is likely a factor, as we're seeing an increase in severe weather events. Trump's meddling with the staffing and budgets at NWS probably played into it. The Texas government is terrible with disaster assistance and response (I moved away after The Freeze). Local officials may have been slow to respond or didn't want to overreact to warnings and cause a panic. It was the early hours of the morning. We're in the tourism and recreation  season for that area. All sorts of variables. 

I don't think we'll ever have a clear answer. The Texas authorities abandoned us all to the elements for days after The Freeze, and nobody ever really faced any consequences. To get a straight answer, we'd be asking corrupt politicians to investigate themselves. It's like letting cops investigate police brutality. They'll never admit they did anything wrong.

Notorious2again

Answer: Many answers have addressed the facts of the flooding. It's important to understand the facts related to the warning systems and the ongoing blame game. Some people are quick to blame recent funding cuts, and while those cuts will have chilling effects on weather forecasting in the near future, they were only a minor influence here, if they mattered at all.

The local NWS office purposely had extra staff on hand because they were expecting a major event. Their messages and warnings were timely and appropriate given the information they had. By most accounts, it was the local officials who failed to act in a timely manner, with some reports claiming they waited hours to act after warnings. They have a long history of failing to act on the situation. This wasn't the first time a catastrophic flood has occurred in this area. Not nearly. There have been 10-15 major flood events in the area in the past 100 years.

The recommendation is to get wireless emergency alerts, but not everyone has cell phones or cell service in the affected area and the geolocation or whatever isn't always reliable, so a weather radio is good to have in that case, but many people don't even have those.

In the past, the county pondered installing a modern siren warning system several times. Sometimes when it was considered, the issue was that the people didn't want to pay for it. Other times like after an engineering study in 2016 concluded that their existing systems were inadequate, they just didn't care enough to pursue upgrades and decided it wasn't necessary. A county commissioner is even reported to have mentioned that he didn't feel like hearing the sirens going off in the middle of the night. Later, they turned down funding from the Federal Government because they hated the Biden administration. And as recently as this year, their State Reps voted down a bill that would've provided for modernizing the warning systems across the state.

toumei64

Answer: Trump severely cut funding to the agencies that track weather. Fewer weather balloons are being launched and forecasts are less accurate as a result. Thousands of people were laid off. When the cuts were announced in March, NOAA employees warned that the emergency weather alert system would be impacted.

From March:
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/as-noaa-braces-for-more-cuts-scientists-say-public-safety-is-at-risk

From now: 
https://www.nbcmiami.com/weather/hurricane-season/the-crippling-of-forecasting-john-morales/3651432/

lyrasorial

Answer: the AMOUNT of rainfall + period of time = devastating catastrophic flooding

A large part of the flood-vunerable area of Texas is very hard ground made of layers of various kinds of rock underneath a shallow layer of soil.  Flooding creeks and rivers from excessive rainwater is not uncommon.

  
What was uncommon in this catastrophic flood event was the \*amount\* of rain that fell in a very \*short period of time\* AND \*in the dark\*. 



Reports estimate the river rose between 25-30 feet in around 90 mins between 4 am - 6am. This created a powerful uncontrollable force of water roaring over river banks, collecting  trees rocks mud and general detritus as it went. At some of the camps like Camp Mystic the force of water swept out some of the cabins while everyone inside was asleep.

bubbles_says

Little short on details. Did he get in the water? Was he in a chopper? Did he direct evacuations? 165 people is a lot

CarpetFair2101

Scott Ruskan went in and saved as many people as he could during his very first rescue mission. He didn't hesitate!

MrsCCRobinson96

He didn’t do this alone. Glad to see but it’s a coordinated effort.

RedditForMeNotYou

CraigTennant1962

He didn’t choose the Coast Guard Rescue Swimmer Life. The Coast Guard Rescue Swimmer Life chose him. What a motherfuckin G!

TrippingDaisy187

There have been an awful lot of large scale weather disasters in my life that didn't have a single Michael Bay hero singled out to be part of the action narrative.  Somebody is grief grifting.  Imagine that.

kyleh0

Yep nothing to see here with the colossal government fuck-up, here's a hero to worship

Vladimir_Pooptin

Pressingt0uch

Idiots making this tragedy political. Shame on all of you.

OkForever9487

[deleted]

Im afraid r/New Jersey is a tad harsh on this guy.

I think he is a hero.

Dead children equates to football. Got it

barefootincozumel

Why did bro start talking about football holy shit😭

LoonieBoy11

Color_of_Time

That football comparison is insulting and dead wrong. In football, a bad play means you lose a game but you get another chance. When government cuts funding and slashes safety programs, people die and they’re gone forever. And families are left shattered, robbed of any chance to say goodbye or find justice.

The governor conveniently ignores that his own party made cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which oversees the National Weather Service (NWS), the agency responsible for warning people before deadly storms.

With Medicaid cuts coming, things will only get worse. Less healthcare means more preventable deaths. This isn’t leadership. It’s reckless neglect that’s costing lives and a betrayal of everyone who counts on those in power to keep them safe.

Agitated-Artichoke89

kobie173

Sooooo essentially what I’m hearing is that criticism (or post-game analysis) is somehow bad form? 

Someone should inform this ladder-pulling fuckwit that all championship teams analyze their mistakes and learn from them, and part of that is calling out the parties responsible.

Speaking as a pissed off Texan:

 * Kerr county fucking refused FEDERAL FUNDING to add the flood sirens because it was during Biden’s office, so they’re partly to blame

 * The DOGE cuts removed a NOAA head forecaster who had been around during the 1998 floods in Texas and would have been able to see this coming. They also removed other forecasters, making the job harder

 * Texas authorities had been aware of the flood warnings but largely dismissed it because they expected the low pressure system to push back on the high pressure system, thus moving the storm. They didn’t remain vigilant even though there were flash flood watches in effect. Instead, they went to bed. An hour later, the warnings came and there was very little time.

So basically, it was either (a) to own the libs, (b) to line the pockets of the rich, (c) pure hubris and laziness from leadership, or (d) a combination of two or more of the previous stated causes.

Real men take responsibility for their own actions and shortcomings, you little hot wheel gremlin (Greg Abbott not the OP)

esadatari

But do winning football teams believe in science

anywhoImgoingtobed

This isn’t a game you monster, these are actual lives. His football analogy is offensive as fuck.

extra_eye

What in the fuck… football &gt; citizen’s safety

The majority of Texas likes him? A governor that deflects and uses football as a scapegoat for over 100 preventable deaths? The state that decided not to spend on safety measures? That’s the solution to win?

So infuriating. The nerve of his fucking tone.

livelaughoral

![gif](giphy|pPhyAv5t9V8djyRFJH|downsized)

DG04511

When it’s their fault, THATS when they don’t want to blame anyone.

Turbulent_Boss_8596

I'm in utter shock that this guy is still Governor of tx..f-ckin moron.  Please people get out and vote next election and get him out!

karmasabitchdont4get

[Gov. Greg Abbott and other Republicans blamed green energy for Texas’ power woes. But the state runs on fossil fuels.](https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02/17/abbott-republicans-green-energy/)

pandaslovetigers

Greenbeanicus

designedbyeric

Okay but at the end of the game the other team doesn’t drown in a flash flood. So…..

RiverHarris

OpLeeftijd

Football ain’t life or death Governor…

Dependent-Ad-8042

"Don't work about it man, we got this" is one hell of a way to talk about your failure to protect those children who died.

Frozen_Apple8194

Shawn_The_Sheep777

It isn’t political to say holy fucking shit what a bad speech that was

AustnWins

In those towns they care about not dying in floods prolly

ForsakenRacism

And he's a big trump supporter saying that kind of . . . aw,  never mind - folks like that never see the irony or the hypocrisy of their words. 

![gif](giphy|3o7qE2HzB4rOFQr4zK)

Hot4Bot

Plastic_Fan_1938

Abbott- a Trump arse kisser who doesn’t believe in climate change, is against renewable energy and supported the removal of DEI policies in his state government though he is handicapped.

Evolvingman0

Dang I don't know what spins faster his wheels or his mouth.

TheGuyUrSisterLikes

What?! I don’t understand what he’s talking about, football? We have over 100 dead and still more than that missing. People are homeless and he’s talking about football?! This is the reason I have voted against him every single time. Disgusting!

Bexarnaked

If gov hot wheels shits in the woods and no one is there to wipe his ass, does Texas still like football?

Illustrious_Entry413

That was a truly pathetic attempt by Abbott to avoid blaming Trump, himself, and every Republican directly responsible for this after Trump screwed NOAA and Abbott and Texas Republicans apparently failed to fund any kind of decent alert system. They should never be allowed to refer to themselves as the Party of Personal Responsibility ®️ ever again.

AtreiyaN7

Well the missed touchdown here killed a whole bunch of people.
You can bet your half time oranges if Biden had pulled the funding Texas would be more interested in ass kicking than ball kicking.

Puzzleheaded_Two7358

PatientTechnician765

‘So, it’s like we lost a lot of footballs in this tragedy. The really nice ones. Like the ones that they use during the state championships. Okay, maybe some Nerf ones too, but mostly higher quality footballs.’

ASecularBuddhist

That’s an interesting way of saying that this isn’t his fault…..

Learning-20

LOL. I’m pretty sure every football team has time after each game where they go over what they did wrong and what they did right and how to be better. This is what winning teams do. 

It doesn’t seem like his team is doing this at all.

EnvironmentalLime464

All of these types look at everything through the binary or winning and losing. It is so strange how incapable they are of maturing past that way of thinking/existing. 

Life isn't a fucking football game, bro.

younggun1234

QuirkyEgg6105

lamsar503

People don't usually die during football, Abbott.

Training-Plant-6876

Kind of seems like he's calling the parents losers

DrMerman

......football?!  You pull out a football reference?!




It just rings hollow for me.

Traditional-Dingo604

Interesting-Listen28

These mothers lost their children, and he calls them “losers”? Are you fucking joking??

Mandi3B0nes

Trump and his childfucker friends are responsible

marcpolo94

Same flooding happened in 1987 apparently and they didn't learn from that so seriously Abbott, who's to blame?

praguer56

Iata_deal4sea

bukezilla

I feel like I’m 12 and back at the dinner table with my dad as he incoherently and ineffectually attempts to teach life lessons.

Notjewel2

Pizza_YumYum

Correct and you weren't on the winning team so you talk about what went wrong and how to become a winner.  In this case, winning is not letting hundreds of people die under your watch because you didn't want to use federal funds to install a warning system in “Flood Alley”.  You knew historic chidlrend camps were on the river and still thought, you know what, those Billionaires need a tax break.  I can't think of anywhere in our State or country where their money could be used to help better the country that made them so wealthy and their lives so great.

MMShaggy

So he’s calling Trump a loser since he always blames other people? Or when it’s GOPs fault it’s loser to blame anybody?

Bitter-Whole-7290

"Winners don't point fingers" he says while literally pointing his finger. What an absolute idiot

the_hucumber

bestinthenorthwest

People don't  die when football teams makes mistakes...

Advanced_Zucchini_45

You hear that y'all? If you get your life taken from you in a brutal flood, just brush it off! It's just like college football! 😍😍

Naive-Mouse-5462

Anyone remember when the energy grid shut down and bankrupted the rest of the middle-class? This dude got a Lotta death on his shoulders.

sondubio

He and Dan Patrick have disaster uniforms. There are so many fucking disasters in Texas that they have special clothes with silly embroidered patches to signal that they are responsible for nothing, nothing.

Venusberg-239

If poor children must die then let them and decrease the surplus population!  The Republicans aren’t even pretending to give a shit about their voters anymore.  They’ve dropped the act of not being Victorian rich people with monocles and top hats closing down orphanages.

Tom_Bombadil01

I wanted to downvote this so bad, but I know it's not the uploaders fault and he's just sharing what a jackass this guy is. The more people who see this disgusting display will know more about his character. But it was hard not to, especially since lives could have been saved INCLUDING children.

CivilAirline

This is the governor of Texas, the elected leader of Texas since 2015. He was the attorney general for Texas for 12 years before that. This is who he is, he's told you who he is before, and he's telling you who he is now.

Ozymannoches

Devastating floods in Texas have resulted in at least 120 deaths, with more than 160 people still missing, raising questions about local preparedness.

Texas Floods and Rescue Efforts

Why This Matters

Public Sentiment Summary

Highlighted Comments

Parties Involved

What the people want