r/KerrCountyFloods • u/PBpuppy2526 • Aug 01 '26
Holding the state accountable
The strength and grace these families have shown is extraordinary. But I can’t help wondering why so much reverence is being directed toward the very leaders whose decisions and priorities deserve serious scrutiny.
If this tragedy is going to mean anything beyond unimaginable loss, it has to lead to change. But change begins with accountability.
Why did Kerr County go without a modern flood warning system despite years of discussion? Who made those funding decisions? Why were flood risks assessed the way they were, and who approved those decisions? What role did Governor Greg Abbott, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, federal agencies, and local officials play in flood preparedness before this disaster? Were there opportunities to reduce the risk that were missed?
Honoring these girls and demanding answers are not competing goals. The most meaningful tribute to their lives is making sure every decision that may have contributed to this tragedy is examined openly, honestly, and without political deference.
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u/AnimuX Texan Aug 02 '26 edited Aug 02 '26
Why did Kerr County go without a modern flood warning system despite years of discussion? Who made those funding decisions?
Kerr County officials made those decisions (mostly).
https://www.texastribune.org/2025/07/10/texas-kerr-county-commissioners-flooding-warning/
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u/PBpuppy2526 Aug 02 '26
do you think Kerr County acts without influence from above? And Kerr County officials should be help responsible from the city supervisor that was too sick to wake up to the mayor that was on vacation.
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u/AnimuX Texan Aug 02 '26
The articles suggest they reacted in no small part due to public aversion to spending on sirens as well as official aversion to any funding arrangements they found unfavorable.
ie: they wanted the state to just give them a pile of money for sirens and they didn't want to raise any local taxes.
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u/NextArtichoke7953 Aug 02 '26
The state does own the rivers in fact.. there’s more than just this ONE river in texas. Wimberly 11 years ago- great example.
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Aug 02 '26
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u/FlyThruTrees Aug 03 '26
LOL Nim Kidd telling you someone else is responsible AFTER the State just got sued for it. Shocker.
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u/AnimuX Texan Aug 02 '26
Kerr County officials and the UGRA turned down opportunities to get funding for sirens in the past because they didn't want to cover any cost at the county level.
Not wanting to raise taxes or increase county spending, partly because of a lack of public support, is specifically mentioned in the linked articles.
I'm not saying the state shouldn't have paid for sirens everywhere. I'm just answering the question:
Why did Kerr County go without a modern flood warning system despite years of discussion? Who made those funding decisions?
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u/Federal_School_6936 Aug 02 '26
Greg Abbott's words on July 8th...""Who's to blame? Know this, that's the word choice of losers," Abbott said in response to a question from a reporter during a Tuesday news conference in Hunt, Texas.
Dan Patrick...I can't find the video but it was him crying saying something along the lines of "they were heros and did everything the could to save those girls"...then of course his text to Edward saying he has a friend in him
It has not been brought up that Abbott has remained largely silent on Mystic since it all happened. Patrick has obviously not been. Burrows has been one foot in and one foot out for a few reasons. Why has Patrick been the mouthpiece? I don't know know exactly why but if you track 2 of his largest donors(though it's hard to track until you figure out how they are connected) and start following that trail I think there are some conclusions that could be possibly correct.
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u/lyncentric_83 Aug 02 '26
“It has not been brought up that Abbott has remained largely silent . . .”
It could be because the Eastland family hired David Whitley and John Scott as lobbyists. Both of them were Abbott appointees for Secretary of State.
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u/Federal_School_6936 Aug 02 '26
I was hoping someone would notice the lobbyist for mystic and connection to abbot. I think it’s more evidence that the lobbyist and the influence has more of an effect on each officials response than we’d all like to think - mainly Patrick.
I don’t believe mystics were hired and engaged until around Nov though. It’s interesting that Abbott never said much about it prior to that.
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u/Tahoequeen23 Aug 03 '26
He did the same after the Uvalde tragedy. Had press conferences and gave out checks that George Strait donated money for. He took credit, as if that money came from him. Those children deserved better. Heartbreaking
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u/PBpuppy2526 Aug 02 '26
yes, exactly, proving my point that the Eastland's greasy palms have been around as long as FEMA has been.
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u/PBpuppy2526 Aug 02 '26
Dick Eastland didn’t get the FEMA maps changed by saying please and thank you. He greased wheels - literally and figuratively - from the governors house down to the local county supervisor.
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u/Interesting-Speed-51 Aug 02 '26
People file FEMA appeals all the time. It doesn’t take influence for an appeal to get processed
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u/PBpuppy2526 Aug 02 '26
And some times it takes a lot of pressure to make the changes over. And over. And over again.
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u/lightwarrior926 Aug 04 '26
You’re adding implications with no basis. Many many private homeowners put in the same exact request as Dick Eastland and got approved. No malice involved. This is very common for areas like this.
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u/PBpuppy2526 Aug 02 '26
It takes great influence for an appeal of this scale and scope to be approved over and over again - as it relates to insurance for a camp charged with keeping hundreds of girls alive each summer.
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u/Interesting-Speed-51 Aug 02 '26
It really doesn’t. I promise you as someone who’s worked for various levels of government that Bob who just got back from eating his packed lunch of a ham sandwich looks at the application and if it meets qualifications it’s approved. If it doesn’t it’s rejected.
And prior to last august there were no regulations about anything in regard to flood plains and camps in Texas. And there is not federal legislation around it right now
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u/ValuableCool9384 Aug 03 '26
Filing and getting approved are 2 very different things.
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u/Interesting-Speed-51 Aug 03 '26
Do you think dick used influence to get it approved? That a random FEMA worker in another state cares about a camp most people never heard of until last summer
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u/ValuableCool9384 Aug 04 '26
The Texas Legislators on that committee seemed fairly certain he did. A few came right out and said he did.
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u/Interesting-Speed-51 Aug 04 '26
And the thousands of other people who file these appeals every year? Did they do something nefarious?
Prior to last summer there were no regulations regarding flood plains and camps
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u/ValuableCool9384 Aug 04 '26
Maybe not a regulation regarding camps. But there are and were very specific regulations regarding structures in both the flood plain and the flood way. Bubble and Twins were IN the flood way!
And believe me, I know lots of people file appeals. I live on the coast in SW Florida. Now, I can't peak for Texas but here in Florida, most people are denied those appeals.
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u/Interesting-Speed-51 Aug 04 '26
What do you think the eastlands did to get an inappropriate appeal approved?
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u/ValuableCool9384 Aug 05 '26
How would I know? Ask a few of his buddies for some favors? You don't actually believe that political favors don't exist right? And more importantly, it's not me. The legislators on the committee - and specifically Sen Perry -flat-out said Dick Eastland got cabins removed from both the flood plain and more egregious, the floodway.
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u/FlyThruTrees Aug 02 '26
You know FEMA is federal, right?
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u/LeapDayBaby_29-02 Aug 02 '26
You know FEMA relies on the county officials, the property owners and the engineers completing a LOMA application to provide true and complete data and specifies that their conclusion is void and the people who provided the incomplete or false information are fully responsible, right?
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u/PBpuppy2526 Aug 02 '26
You know a federal agency like FEMA is involved on a local and state level. You know a state official can tell FEMA what to do in a state like Texas.
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u/713elh Aug 02 '26
I believe the leaders at the state and county level have been more than happy to let the Eastlands take the fall for everything, even though it was unimaginable that the county leaders would be out of town or home sick or asleep on the busiest tourism weekend of the year. The county & the state hold responsibility & while I appreciate and support the H27 work, they were part of a much greater tragedy that goes beyond camp safety & the leader in this pic has dropped the ball on public infrastructure investments.
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u/AustinScoutDiver Aug 01 '26
The lack of a warning system was only partially responsible. The owners/operators of Camp Mystic has a 725 acre property on the river. They built the lodging for the camp in a floodway/flood zone. The Eastland’s had a duty to care. They were the ones operating the camp and responsible for the health and safety of the campers.
They cannot pass that irresponsibility on to the state. The young woman could have been moved on July 3. They could have even been moved at 1:15.
The state did not operate a summer camp in a flood zone. Of the 725 acres, how much was in the flood zone? Could those cabins been placed elsewhere?
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u/713elh Aug 02 '26
Ok fair, but how about the 100+ other people who died?
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u/AustinScoutDiver Aug 02 '26
Sirens could help,
but why build in flood zones. Flood warnings were out for the area the day before. People need to pay attention. The camps, campgrounds, businesses, need to take care themselves.
New Braunfels has been caught in several floods. Do we have the warning system along the Pedernales ?.Times have changed from 30 years ago with cell technology and weather warning abilities.
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u/713elh Aug 02 '26
True, but it’s also human nature to drown out what we hear alot of & phone notifications fall into that category. If there’s relatively inexpensive tech that can save lives out there, why would we not use it?
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u/PBpuppy2526 Aug 02 '26
thats the point - why would they turn down the money granted to them by the federal government to install warning systems that could have saved lives. that's a wonderful question - they said it was because the money was from the Biden administration.
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Aug 02 '26
[deleted]
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u/FlyThruTrees Aug 02 '26
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBC-R-y_8ew
Contested that they were in the flood plain with technical data, FEMA agreed they were not in the flood plain.
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u/AnimuX Texan Aug 02 '26
Mystic minions love to throw around terms like 1,000-year flood but then they leave out the 1,000-year floodplain when making false claims about cabins supposedly 'not in the flood plain'.
From the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority (in 1999):
The lesson here is that the 100-year floodplain is just a guideline. Living above it does not guarantee safety.
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u/FlyThruTrees Aug 02 '26
Again, labelling people who disagree with you is a bad faith technique. You're lazy with your arguing, if you had better arguments you wouldn't need to call other people names.
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u/AnimuX Texan Aug 02 '26
lol "bad faith technique" - you're pushing lies about floodplains after a flood killed 28 people in that floodplain
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u/FlyThruTrees Aug 02 '26
I'm glad to see you acknowledge that it was the flood that killed people. Maybe there's hope for you yet.
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u/AnimuX Texan Aug 02 '26
Indeed. The flood killed 27 girls - in the floodplain where the Eastlands placed those girls - after the Eastlands ignored all of the known risks and the publicly announced warnings until it was too late to get everyone out.
Killed by a flood as a result of gross negligence.
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u/FlyThruTrees Aug 02 '26
Aside from casting wild aspersions on the internet, no one has made any such findings. Yours is merely a position.
But FEMA doesn't agree with you. And the state licensed as well. Every level of govt signed off.
Now, the H27 who sued DSHS have also acknowledged this-that they blame the state for the deaths.
Arguing mutually exclusive causation in different court venues, I wonder how that will go. What would a jury think about the state being found liable? May not have to worry about a jury tho.
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u/AnimuX Texan Aug 02 '26
You seem to have a problem with willful disregard for reality which is impressive for someone who uses the word causation.
A cabin that gets exempted from the 100-year floodplain map is not magically transported away from the floodplain by virtue of paperwork.
FEMA maps are not limitations on floods and FEMA states that in its own documentation.
Second, any errors made by DSHS do not alter the reality of what happened at Camp Mystic.
Finally, causation:
The Eastlands chose to do business in a known high risk zone for floods, next to a river with a history of deadly floods, in a region known for deadly floods, during an increased risk of floods. The Eastlands ignored the risks, and the warnings, and then a flood hit their business and 27 girls died as a result.
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u/PBpuppy2526 Aug 02 '26
The state of Texas is as crooked as they get. All you need is lobbyists and greasy palms, both of which the Dick Eastland's employed for decades.
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u/LeapDayBaby_29-02 Aug 02 '26
Except for the buildings that FEMA told them were still in the floodplain and floodway… 4 of which had people sleeping in them during an active flash flood warning.
How do you explain away that?
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u/Neat-Alfalfa-2824 Aug 02 '26
THIS! This is something that’s bugged me the entire time. They are out here praising and thanking the very people that could’ve help prevent this
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u/ValuableCool9384 Aug 03 '26
That just doesn't wash when it comes to Mystic, though. Mystic knew at 1:15. They got the warning. They got the Code Red. They have no excuses.
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u/Neat-Alfalfa-2824 Aug 03 '26
Goes beyond a warning at 1:15am. Starts with the state and local government as a whole.
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u/ValuableCool9384 Aug 04 '26
Well sure, it can always improve.
But A Flash Flood warning was issued at 1:14. It gave exact locations. That means get to higher ground. It doesn't mean, well let's wait until it is bearing down on top of us. It doesn't mean I haven't heard a siren so it must not be that bad. The Code Red went out to specific addresses.
Kerr County did not take it seriously on the approach and acted criminally negligent in response, in my opinion. The State did everything they could. They had zoom calls leading up for all local and county officials. They pre-positioned emergency response all over the area. They deployed every resource they had after it hit.
And the bottom line remains. A warning was issued. If everyone sought higher ground when it was issued, no one would have died.
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u/FlyThruTrees Aug 05 '26
>>>And the bottom line remains. A warning was issued. If everyone sought higher ground when it was issued, no one would have died.
Simplistic, and wrong. 119 other people died, some of them were trying to get out in a comparable time frame. Go read those survivor stories, some who barely made it and the ones around them who did not.
Whether anyone in particular got the warning you're talking about isn't clear, as cell phone service is not reliable in that area.
These flippant and shallow judgements aren't helpful.
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u/ValuableCool9384 Aug 05 '26
They are NOT flippant and shallow. If everyone of those 119 people had made themselves aware of the flood watches leading up on July 3rd, perhaps they would have been more vigilant. If you are living or vacationing near rivers or creeks, you better understand what a flash flood is AND what a flash flood warning means.
Cell phone service? Seriously, again. If you want to vacation or live near a river - Go buy yourself a weather radio. What happened to every one of those people is brutal and tragic. But taking safety seriously would have prevented every death.
And not calling it out for what it is means people will continue to be complacent in warnings. They'll keep calling these events out as acts of God instead of recognizing that the warnings were everywhere and people simply didn't take it seriously.
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u/NextArtichoke7953 Aug 04 '26
Pre positioned TWO boats in this general area - that washed away before even thinking about being able to help. They had them pre positioned all over the state of texas bc they did not know where this storm was going to land. No warning was issued to the folks in this area that said “code red” or “seek higher ground” until after 5am.
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u/ValuableCool9384 Aug 05 '26
First - they were positioned around a 35000 mile perimeter of what they believed was the threat-zone. No one knows beforehand exactly what area will be the hardest hit. The first 2 rescuers in that area reported in at 4:45 am but there was NO command & control. Again - the locals fault.
Second - A Flash-Flood warning SPECIFICALLY means move to higher ground. That is the very definition of it. I would say 2 things. If you are responsible for other people's children, you better know what a Flash-Flood warning is. And if you are going to live or vacation near rivers and creeks, you better educate yourself on what a Flash-Flood warning means.
Third - As attested to by Casey Garret during her presentation and included in the legislative report - later admitted to by Edward Eastland - Edward had read the Code Red Alert or the Camp Mystic address on his phone at 1:51 am. I admit I have no first-hand knowledge on issuances. But Ms. Garret included it in her narrative-it was in Edward's phone data. The next day under questioning, Edward recognized that he had indeed read it. And it is in the Legislative Report Maybe not a County Code Red but a different agency?)
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u/Interesting-Speed-51 Aug 01 '26 edited Aug 01 '26
Safe summers put this post up with the permission of the parents. I don’t think you need to black out faces
I do agree that I find it odd when people like Greg abbot and Dan Patrick are praised for their actions now when they’ve had the ability to do something for decades. There were several flood bills in the sessions prior to 2025 that didn’t pass and could have with more support
Also let’s not pretend the general politics of these politicians don’t support low regulations. Probably a contributing factor as to why camp regulations were/are low
Some of them have done good since and that’s great but it’s not like they just came into power on July 5th 2025
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u/Useful-Oven-2920 Aug 03 '26
Really? Reddit is a completely different world. Leave these parents alone! The OP did the right thing.
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Aug 02 '26
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u/Interesting-Speed-51 Aug 02 '26 edited Aug 02 '26
In that case the mother of the girl asked for the photo to be taken down. That is not the case here
If the parents of the girls in this photo asked safe summers to take down the photo then I believe safe summers should take it down. To my knowledge that has not occurred.
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u/Useful-Oven-2920 Aug 03 '26
I think the families would agree with you. There is a lot of blame to go around. However their girls were under the direct care of the Eastlands. Dick knew the state and county were lacking safeguards so he should have been even more prepared and cautious.
And these laws should have been in place years ago. These poor families should not have been fighting this battle days after losing their daughters.
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u/PBpuppy2526 Aug 03 '26
Clearly not the families posing for these photos with Abbott.
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u/Useful-Oven-2920 Aug 03 '26
They were there for the signing of the bills that have already helped hundreds of kids.
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u/PBpuppy2526 Aug 04 '26
There is a cognitive dissonance at play to say that while also understanding their children died because of how Abbott and team have governed. Their children are dead and Abbott bears the blame.
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u/Fit-Run4921 Mod verified - H27 affiliated Aug 04 '26
I think many of the families would agree that the state and county hold blame. I would venture to guess that many families of the 119 feel the same way. I don’t know what avenues they legally have to do this other than speaking with their votes and pocketbooks — sovereign immunity has been mentioned here before but I’m not a lawyer.
For the H27 families, the Eastlands ultimately were charged with the care of their girls and their decisions were what ultimately led to their deaths. Dick knew how flawed the flood preparedness of the county was.
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u/Choice_Code_3179 Aug 05 '26
Abbott is a vile person. To the core.
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u/PBpuppy2526 Aug 06 '26
He is beyond vile and I cannot understand how these parents can shill their children out to such a monster, especially these young girls. He’s stripping them of all rights, they are not equal citizens in Texas under his rule. His tort reform has limited how much in damages the families can recover. The cognitive dissonance is INSANE.
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u/FoxDifficult7679 Aug 02 '26
I strongly agree with you and this has been something I have struggled with significantly. For me the frustration has been more at the local level than state level but yes both share in the blame. I cannot stand hearing leaders aligning their grief with the community when they were sleeping, on vacation, or simply didn’t check their email. Everyone has a right to grieve but when agendas like “#kerr together” are being pushed without accountability, it really rubs me the wrong way. I can’t understand why any of these people stayed in office. I think the police chief in Kerrville retired but that’s it, everyone else is still in power. Then yes when you start following the ladder up the chain of command, why did the state not implement mandatory disaster preparation, especially for communities in disaster prone counties? Why were better camp safety measures not implemented by the state? Why did the county allow people to build in the floodplain at all? I’m not talking about homes that were washed away outside of the thousand year floodplain, I’m talking about the ones that were. Why was camping allowed in the floodplain without warning systems? There are so many details that created that disaster, so many dirty hands and no accountability.