Wednesday, July 09, 2025

Abbott: Buck Stops with You, Not Football Fans


The death toll in the July 4th floods came from a failed warning system.  People in harms way did not know in time to leave the banks of the Guadalupe River or they failed to act on any warnings.  Texas Governor Greg Abbott compared people asking questions about the disaster response to disgruntled football fans after a team loss.  Abbott may want to pick a phone and call his Florida counterpart.


Is a weather disaster a play, a set of downs, a quarter, or a whole game?  Coaches make adjustments along the way.  What adjustments did the Governor's office make as the July 4th flood disaster unfolded.

The game was not televised and there were no people in the stands of Governor Abbott's "football game."  The public only knows what Coach Abbott and his team told us.  

Four years ago the Governor sang a different tune after hundreds of Texans died in a different weather disaster.


Today, many are angry for the same reasons, a system broke.  The public deserves answers not a coach dodging out the door to avoid questions.  There is only one time to give answers, that is the present.  

Abbott does not have to do it all.  He has a team of people capable of and charged with that very duty.  A basic in disaster preparedness is how did we do?  What went well?  What needs to be improved or changed to work better next time?  Get 'er done.

Update 7-10-25:  CNN reported:
Homeland Security Chief Kristi Noem didn’t authorize FEMA’s deployment of Urban Search and Rescue teams until Monday, more than 72 hours after the flooding began, multiple sources told CNN.
The Independent reported:
As floodwaters in Texas rose in the early morning of July 4, a local firefighter petitioned for an emergency alert to quickly be sent out...  at 4:22am, a fireman with the Ingram Volunteer Fire Department reportedly called into emergency dispatch to warn that the Guadalupe River appeared to be rapidly overshooting its banks.

The earliest CodeRED alerts appear to have reached local residents about an hour later, according to multiple local media outlets, while some reported not getting their first CodeRED alert until after 10am.
The coaches clearly failed.  

Update 7-11-25:  "Needs approval" likely resulted in more lives lost.  Less pre-positioned resources from FEMA and greater time lag in getting out critical emergency warnings.



At what point will the public learn the local response from disaster leaders?

Update 7-13-25:  Congressman Reuben Gallego said Trump II was interested in accountability.  Sorry, that does not fly, especially after he called that reporter "evil" for asking about lack of or too late warnings from local officials..  People reported:
Kerr County officials did not use the Integrated Public Alert & Warning System (IPAWS) — a notification tool that uses vibrations and emits a loud alert noise — even after a National Weather Service (NWS) meteorologist warned them about the severity of the floods.
Kerr County officials did use the CodeRED system to issue warnings but many residents did not receive those or they came too late.  Local Kerr County officials are yet to release any information about their actions as the deadly flooding developed.  

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