Inspired by some tech bro saying their algorithm found this writing so awful it couldn't process it. I decided to have a read. It's wonderful. Well written and interesting.

What's more. It made me think about door knobs and handles. Everywhere I've ever lived has had handles. To the point I've always thought lever style door handles were the norm. Door knobs are rare. So rare, that at a friend's house recently. I couldn't work out how to open the front door...

https://sightlessscribbles.com/writing/nonfiction/20250626/

More notable reporting on the flood tragedy in Texas, this time in Wired. (Thanks to @macosken for pointing me there.) Wired spoke to meteorologists Chris Vagasky and Matt Lanza.

Wired reports:

Meteorologists say that the NWS did send out adequate warnings as it got updated information. By Thursday afternoon, it had issued a flood watch for the area, and a flash flood warning was in effect by 1am Friday. The agency had issued a flash flood emergency alert by 4:30am.

“The Weather Service was on the ball,” Vagasky says. “They were getting the message out.”

But as local outlet KXAN first reported, it appears that the first flood warnings posted from safety officials to the public were sent out on Facebook at 5am, hours after the NWS issued its warning.

“Clearly there was a breakdown between when the warning was issued and how people got it, and I think that’s really what has to be talked about,” Lanza says.

https://www.wired.com/story/meteorologists-say-the-national-weather-service-did-its-job-in-texas/ or https://archive.vn/jSGWZ

#Texas #flood #TXwx #NWS

Timelapse view of the July 2025 flash flood that swelled the Guadalupe River

This timelapse shows the Guadalupe River during the July 4th, 2025 flash flood that caused immense damage and many fatalities, including at Camp Mystic. 

https://www.nwprogressive.org/microblog/2025/07/timelapse-view-of-the-july-2025-flash-flood-that-swelled-the-guadalupe-river/

#DisasterRecovery #EmergencyPreparedness

‘We’ve been ghosted by FEMA’: Officials across country say they can’t get answers on critical funding

"As hurricane season bears down, a new layer of uncertainty is spreading through the disaster response system: a wall of silence from the Federal Emergency Management Agency that’s leaving officials from across the country scrambling for answers," CNN reports.

https://www.nwprogressive.org/microblog/2025/07/weve-been-ghosted-by-fema-officials-across-country-say-they-cant-get-answers-on-critical-funding/

#DisasterRecovery #EmergencyPreparedness