Camp Mystic Shouldn’t Have Been Mystery?

Letter to Ephesians: Lost in the horror over a death toll of 80 in Central Texas is not only Nat’l Weather Service having timely issued dire flash flood warnings, but the loss of 10 souls in nearly the same flood plain in 1987 thanks to sudden flooding there. Did ANYONE learn THE lesson after all? 

As James Woods has reminded the today’s critics of the NWS, especially in the Camp Mystic tragedy, “it [DID] issue a flood watch on Thursday afternoon and escalated warnings overnight as the storm intensified, including a flash flood emergency by 4 a.m. Friday for Central Texas. The unprecedented rainfall overwhelmed forecasts and infrastructure, not a failure of the weather service to warn people ...” Well, that’s Mr. Wood’s take and certainly almost the whole story. But, what’s also important to remember is that decades earlier but still fresh in folks’ memory here should have been a similar if not as complete a tragedy happening nearby.

Of course, the most recent flood at the 50-yr-old Camp Mystic was not “normal” in that, even after serious if not dire public warnings a full day in advance, the river rose at one point 28 feet in 45 minutes. Yet, it’s a fact that the nearby Guadalupe River flooded 12 times since 1978 and Camp Mystic bedded its kids just a few feet from the river. Again, not that long ago, 10 kids attending another nearby summer camp lost their lives in a “lesser” flash flood. It’s too early to be pointing fingers perhaps. But surely across America there are scores of camps similarly sited on rivers known to be susceptible to flash flooding and triggering tragic loss of life ... 

Davd Soul