Well, I suppose there are no Black people or trans people or lesbian fire chiefs in Texas, because... if there were any we'd know about them by now as the right would be blaming them for the flood.
@futurebird I did see, but didn't read, a story being shared about blaming a 'DEI hire' fire chief for those summer camp deaths.

@FeralRobots

Well. I probably spoke too soon then.

@futurebird
I don't know how much traction it got. I think at least a lot of Texans know you can't first respond your way out of a flash flood. Also Abbot's 'teamwork' bullshit is meant to cover his ass, but it does provide at least some cover down the food chain.

@FeralRobots @futurebird The Texas Department of Emergency Management has a daily weather call. They knew rains were going to be very heavy three days before the flooding. They communicated that to localities in a timely manner - what the localities did with that warning is on them.

There are a lot of questions that should be asked of Kerr County leadership over the past 20 years for their decisions to not implement an effective flood warning system and their response to TDEM's flood warning ("Let's just sit on this money because spending it would make Biden look good")

"Nobody could have predicted..." is bullshit. The responsible state organization predicted it and informed the counties giving them plenty of time to respond. Abbott is in full CYA mode running cover for Kerr County officials more interested in partisanship and power than running an effective government or saving Texans' lives.

@arclight @FeralRobots @futurebird
Can't speak about Kerr County, but the mayor of Kerrville was asked if he was invited on that call or on that call and he answered "no, I was not" to both.

@Okanogen @FeralRobots @futurebird It is reasonable to ask which officials knew what when and what they did with that information.

Also spending decisions for flood warning systems, especially when federal money was available. Did they take the opportunities they had to protect Texans and if not, why not?

@arclight @Okanogen @FeralRobots

Real leadership is going after the problem with no regard for the impact on your political future. Just focusing on WHY and what could be changed.

I don't like to assume that people don't care, but when the puffery comes first? I start to wonder.

@futurebird @arclight @FeralRobots
Well, Kerr County spent years refusing to spend money sent to them by the Biden administration for flood warnings and communications.
This thread is disturbing.
https://www.reddit.com/r/texas/comments/1ltkzgh/we_have_floods_all_the_time_and_small_town/

@Okanogen @futurebird @arclight @FeralRobots
It is hard to overstate how completely deranged some of these people sound. I'm only loosely paraphrasing here:

"It's a trap! If we take this free $5.1m it'll turn us trans and make us hate immigrants less, plus it's an insult to our Great and Glorious Leader Trump. Send it back!"

Commissioners explain it really *is* free money, no trap, and add, "And if we send it back it'll be reallocated to NY, NJ, or CA and we can't have that!"