A flash flood in Texas has become a political issue the same way hurricanes sometimes do. (2 Viewers)

[SamAndreas]

The flood in Texas was almost as bad as the Big Thompson flood was in Colorado back in 1976. Both were caused by about 10 to 11 inches of rain. The death toll in Texas is around 60 people now, in Colorado 76 there were 144 deaths, which is gross.

The New York Times published this and that makes it an official political issue. Oddly enough they lifted the paywall at least for me, you might be able to click and read it as well:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/05/us/politics/texas-floods-warnings-vacancies.html

The premises is that Trump caused vacancies at the weather forecast office such that those poor folks didn't get a warning, as thus they didn't seek higher ground, as thus they died.

The question is it trumps fault

 

[Optimus Prime]

The reason for the extreme loss of life in this flood is that you have Republican control at all 3 levels of government in this area. When that's the case, ignorance and incompetency is what truly reign. Republican's do not believe in a competent, functioning government. They believe in and effectuate a dysfunctional government so that they can profit off of it and have they draconian controls over people they dislike. These are the results that the people of that area largely voted for. It's truly sad, but until people stop voting Republican, we're going to keep getting these tragedies all over the country.

A Texas pediatrician was just fired for saying just that
========

A pediatrician for a chain of clinics affiliated with a prominent Houston hospital system is “no longer employed” there, according to officials, after a social media account associated with her published a post wishing voters in a Donald Trump-supporting county of Texas “get what they voted for” amid flash flooding that killed more than 100 people, including many children.

“We were made aware of a social media comment from one of our physicians,” read a statement from Blue Fish Pediatrics circulated late Sunday. “The individual is no longer employed by Blue Fish Pediatrics.”

The statement also said: “We strongly condemn the comments that were made in that post. That post does not reflect the values, standards or mission of Blue Fish Pediatrics. We do not support or condone any statement that politicizes tragedy, diminishes human dignity, or fails to clearly uphold compassion for every child and family, regardless of background or beliefs.”

Blue Fish Pediatrics’ statement neither named the physician in question nor specified whether she had resigned or was dismissed. But multiple publicly accessible social media posts identified her as Dr Christina Propst.

A Guardian source familiar with the situation confirmed the accuracy of the posts naming Propst. And, at the time it issued the statement, Blue Fish Pediatrics had recently unpublished Propst’s biographical page from its website.……

In the post that preceded the end of her time at Blue Fish Pediatrics, Propst alluded to how Kerr county had – like Texas as a whole – voted in favor of Trump as he defeated former vice-president Kamala Harris in November’s White House election.

Trump’s administration has since eliminated mentions of the ongoing climate crisis and its consequences, one of which is downpours like the one that devastated Kerr becoming more common.

He has also mused about “phasing out” the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema), in part so that the president’s office could be in charge of distributing disaster relief funds and ultimately “give out less money”.

“May all visitors, children, non-Maga voters and pets be safe and dry,” said the post, which invoked an acronym for Trump’s “Make America great again” slogan. “Kerr county Maga voted to gut Fema. They deny climate change. May they get what they voted for.”

The post concluded with the phrase: “Bless their hearts,” which in the US south is often used as a condescending insult.…….

Texas pediatrician ‘no longer employed’ after post about pro-Trump flood victims

Physician made a post wishing that Maga supporters in Kerr county ‘get what they voted for’ amid flash flooding

www.theguardian.com

 

[coldseat]

A Texas pediatrician was just fired for saying just that
========

A pediatrician for a chain of clinics affiliated with a prominent Houston hospital system is “no longer employed” there, according to officials, after a social media account associated with her published a post wishing voters in a Donald Trump-supporting county of Texas “get what they voted for” amid flash flooding that killed more than 100 people, including many children.

“We were made aware of a social media comment from one of our physicians,” read a statement from Blue Fish Pediatrics circulated late Sunday. “The individual is no longer employed by Blue Fish Pediatrics.”

The statement also said: “We strongly condemn the comments that were made in that post. That post does not reflect the values, standards or mission of Blue Fish Pediatrics. We do not support or condone any statement that politicizes tragedy, diminishes human dignity, or fails to clearly uphold compassion for every child and family, regardless of background or beliefs.”

Blue Fish Pediatrics’ statement neither named the physician in question nor specified whether she had resigned or was dismissed. But multiple publicly accessible social media posts identified her as Dr Christina Propst.

A Guardian source familiar with the situation confirmed the accuracy of the posts naming Propst. And, at the time it issued the statement, Blue Fish Pediatrics had recently unpublished Propst’s biographical page from its website.……

In the post that preceded the end of her time at Blue Fish Pediatrics, Propst alluded to how Kerr county had – like Texas as a whole – voted in favor of Trump as he defeated former vice-president Kamala Harris in November’s White House election.

Trump’s administration has since eliminated mentions of the ongoing climate crisis and its consequences, one of which is downpours like the one that devastated Kerr becoming more common.

He has also mused about “phasing out” the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema), in part so that the president’s office could be in charge of distributing disaster relief funds and ultimately “give out less money”.

“May all visitors, children, non-Maga voters and pets be safe and dry,” said the post, which invoked an acronym for Trump’s “Make America great again” slogan. “Kerr county Maga voted to gut Fema. They deny climate change. May they get what they voted for.”

The post concluded with the phrase: “Bless their hearts,” which in the US south is often used as a condescending insult.…….

Texas pediatrician ‘no longer employed’ after post about pro-Trump flood victims

Physician made a post wishing that Maga supporters in Kerr county ‘get what they voted for’ amid flash flooding

www.theguardian.com

They can't really afford to lose pediatricians in this area either. Maybe that company should be more concerned with the local, state and federal government that's currently gutting Medicaid and health care than with the pediatrician speaking the truth about the government. But it doesn't surprise me at all. Canceling people for unpopular speech against Republicans is very popular here in Texas.

 

[SamAndreas]

Chip Roy doing Chip Roy things…

'You need fewer bureaucrats': Chip Roy uses TX flood as excuse to cut government

Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) argued that the government should be cut in response to the deadly flooding in Texas over the weekend.In a Sunday interview on Fox News, host Lisa Boothe asked Roy if there was "blame to be assigned" for the deaths of more than 50 people."Yeah, I mean, in classic Washington...

www.rawstory.com

Chip roy reminds me of a neighbor I had on the flank ot St. Mary's peak in the Bitterroots of Montana. His cabin was even more remote than mine by a hundred yards further up the road.

The way I met my new neighbor was when on our second day, I heard a commotion out in my yard and stepped out to see what it was. My neighbor was chasing my dog around out cabin, he was wildly waving a bowie knife as he ran after my brown hound dog Charlie.

Well, the moment he saw me standing on the porch he skidded to a stop, put away his knife away and then came up to talk to me. He said I should not judge him based upon today, that he was having a bad day, his back hurt he said. That he was only chasing my dog because he was worried that my dog might bite his daughter on her face. Then he turned and went on home.

I didn't say "you were running pretty darned fast for someone with a bad back," no I bit my tongue to not say that at that point in time.

I did as he asked, I didn't judge him over that day, and it turned out well, over time we did find a way to get along. When we moved away they him and his family were sad because they had come to regard us, and we regard them as friends in up the hills.

 

[SamAndreas]

They can't really afford to lose pediatricians in this area either. Maybe that company should be more concerned with the local, state and federal government that's currently gutting Medicaid and health care than with the pediatrician speaking the truth about the government. But it doesn't surprise me at all. Canceling people for unpopular speech against Republicans is very popular here in Texas.

No, if she actually said that, and if that statement is out on social media, she should have been fired on the spot, as did happen here.

She not only lost her job, she made it such that she needs, and the community there needs, that she pack up and move away from there. I would suggest that she move to the Beverly Hills of California. That's a good place for displaced hillbillies to go.

 

[coldseat]

No, if she actually said that, and if that statement is out on social media, she should have been fired on the spot, as did happen here.

She not only lost her job, she made it such that she needs, and the community there needs, that she pack up and move away from there. I would suggest that she move to the Beverly Hills of California. That's a good place for displaced hillbillies to go.

Why? Trump just said that he hates Democrat voters (half the country) and he's president. And he justifies it with lies and propaganda. Why should she be held to a higher standard than him for telling the truth? Do you have any idea what the elected officials in that area have said about Democrats and liberals like her in the past/present? Or what those Republicans voters have said? I do. But her, reacting in anger and despair, is the one that needs to be fired and run out of town? She's angry at the people who make these tragedies much more likely. So am I.

 

[SamAndreas]

Why? Trump just said that he hates Democrat voters (half the country) and he's president. And he justifies it with lies and propaganda. Why should she be held to a higher standard than him for telling the truth? Do you have any idea what the elected officials in that area have said about Democrats and liberals like her in the past/present? Or what those Republicans voters have said? I do. But her, reacting in anger and despair, is the one that needs to be fired and run out of town? She's angry at the people who make these tragedies much more likely. So am I.

She broke the code of the hills she lives in. She wished death and misfortune on her neighbors, and I don't care that those neighbors voted for Trump, that's also a part of the code of the hills. One does not ask or comment on who someone votes for, period.

I don't care, and her neighbors in the hill there don't care. A vote for Trump does not excuse her behavior. She's sure in for a shunning, and deserves every bit of it if she stays there.

Jed Clampett broke the code of the hills, and right away his kin folks told him to move out of there. He sold his swamp to and oil company for crying out loud, what did he expect them to think after he did that.

 

[MT15]

Why exactly so many people drowned in the terrible Independence Day floods that swept through Texas’s Hill Country will probably have multiple explanations that take a while to obtain.

But it’s 2025, and people want answers immediately, and lots of people seized on stories blaming the National Weather Service (NWS).

There were two opposing reasons to blame this vital government service.

For local and state authorities, blaming a branch of the federal government was a way of avoiding culpability themselves.

And for a whole lot of people who deplore the Trump/Doge cuts to federal services, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Weather Service, the idea that the NWS failed served to underscore how destructive those cuts are.

Many of them found confirmation in a New York Times story that ran with the sub-headline: Some experts say staff shortages might have complicated forecasters’ ability to coordinate responses with local emergency management officials.

Might have is not did. Complicated is not failed.

It’s a speculative piece easily mistaken for a report, and its opening sentence is: “Crucial positions at the local offices of the National Weather Service were unfilled as severe rainfall inundated parts of Central Texas on Friday morning, prompting some experts to question whether staffing shortages made it harder for the forecasting agency to coordinate with local emergency managers as floodwaters rose.”

A casual reader could come away thinking that staffing shortages had had consequences. But if you give the airily innuendo-packed sentence more attention, you might want to ask who exactly the anonymous experts were and whether there’s an answer to their questions.

Did it actually make it harder, and did they actually manage to do this thing even though it was harder, or not? Did they coordinate with local emergency managers?

The piece continues: “The staffing shortages suggested a separate problem, those former officials said,” and “suggested” sounds like we’re getting an interpretation of what these anonymous sources think might have happened or been likely to happen, rather than what actually did.

Suggestions are not facts. Likelihoods are not actualities. Eventually we get to a named source: “A spokeswoman for the National Weather Service, Erica Grow Cei, did not answer questions from The New York Times about the Texas vacancies, including how long those positions had been open and whether those vacancies had contributed to the damage caused by the flooding.”

In other words, there’s no answer to the suggestions and questions and intimations.

Nevertheless, a lot of readers gathered the impression that this was not speculation aired by unnamed experts but confirmation that the NWS had failed.

One prominent public figure with three quarters of a million BlueSky followers shared the New York Times piece with this note: “The United States government is no longer able to protect us from real hazards, such as flash floods, because it’s shifting funds to fake hazards, such as a non-existent immigrant crime wave.”………

Did National Weather Service cuts lead to the Texas flood disaster? We don’t know | Rebecca Solnit

We all need to be careful about how we get information and reach conclusions – especially now

www.theguardian.com

So, if people came away with the views this op-ed says they did - then they lack reading comprehension. The article was clear that the unattributed statements came from former officials. This op-ed criticizing the NYT article also makes it seem that there were no named sources - and that just isn’t true. They quote a local official by name and the following 2 paragraphs quote someone familiar with the staffing and what those vacant positions would normally do:

“The National Weather Service’s San Angelo office, which is responsible for some of the areas hit hardest by Friday’s flooding, was missing a senior hydrologist, staff forecaster and meteorologist in charge, according to Tom Fahy, the legislative director for the National Weather Service Employees Organization, the union that represents Weather Service workers.

The Weather Service’s nearby San Antonio office, which covers other areas hit by the floods, also had significant vacancies, including a warning coordination meteorologist and science officer, Mr. Fahy said. Staff members in those positions are meant to work with local emergency managers to plan for floods, including when and how to warn local residents and help them evacuate.”

That’s not speculation - those are verified vacancies with direct responsibilities to “work with local emergency managers to plan for floods, including when and how to warn local residents and help them evacuate.”

She has valid points, but she overstates the ambiguity and speculation of the article, IMO.

 

[Optimus Prime]

Why? Trump just said that he hates Democrat voters (half the country) and he's president. And he justifies it with lies and propaganda. Why should she be held to a higher standard than him for telling the truth? Do you have any idea what the elected officials in that area have said about Democrats and liberals like her in the past/present? Or what those Republicans voters have said? I do. But her, reacting in anger and despair, is the one that needs to be fired and run out of town? She's angry at the people who make these tragedies much more likely. So am I.

Or any of the other doctors, nurses and employees of this practice have said/posted?

Because I'm sure someone is searching

And when something racist, xenophobic, anti gay/trans is found (because of course it will be) and is brought to the public's attention we'll see how true this statement is

“We strongly condemn the comments that were made in that post. That post does not reflect the values, standards or mission of Blue Fish Pediatrics. We do not support or condone any statement that politicizes tragedy, diminishes human dignity, or fails to clearly uphold compassion for every child and family, regardless of background or beliefs.”

 

[SamAndreas]

Based upon my reading, perhaps changes at the weather forecast office which happened, did make some small difference as to what happened on the ground later.

However to be blunt, the weather forcast they got did warn them hours before the flood. I personally think what the local Texas authorities failed to do after there were more than ten years of warning in the form of past floods which also took lives along that river is much more of a factor of this happening. In the past a bunch of kids were drown in a school bus along that river, so on and so forth. They never forced the camps to move back away from that river as they should have ordered them to do.

Those local Texas authorities had several hours of warring and they did next to nothing, nor did they force the camp owners to do anything over years and years having knowing about that in the floodplain problem. So that's where my finger is pointing right now.

Oh' my pinky is pointing toward the feds a bit, but that's my smallest finger. My big finger points toward the Texas government, especially their local government.

 

[coldseat]

She broke the code of the hills she lives in. She wished death and misfortune on her neighbors, and I don't care that those neighbors voted for Trump, that's also a part of the code of the hills. One does not ask or comment on who someone votes for, period.

I don't care, and her neighbors in the hill there don't care. A vote for Trump does not excuse her behavior. She's sure in for a shunning, and deserves every bit of it if she stays there.

Jed Clampett broke the code of the hills, and right away his kin folks told him to move out of there. He sold his swamp to and oil company for crying out loud, what did he expect them to think after he did that.

Maybe the hills here are different than where you live. Those people comment a lot on who people vote for and who they hate. And they make their comments very public for all to hear.

Look, I understand that she went too far. And you are correct that those comments are justification for firing her. I'm not really upset with her company. But kind of like when mass shootings occur, it makes me very angry with Republican and Republican voters because they directly vote for and support laws and policies that makes these catastrophic events worse. My well of sympathy for MAGA voters has run dry, not only because they refuse to face facts and act rationally, but because those choice continue to effect the rest of us at larger and on more devastating scales. All they while they showcase their hate for everybody the disagree with or consider less than.

 

[SFIDC3]

Chip roy reminds me of a neighbor I had on the flank ot St. Mary's peak in the Bitterroots of Montana. His cabin was even more remote than mine by a hundred yards further up the road.

Not far from where we stay and fish just outside of Darby.....the banana belt....

Gorgeous country.....

 

[SamAndreas]

Maybe the hills here are different than where you live. Those people comment a lot on who people vote for and who they hate. And they make their comments very public for all to hear.

Look, I understand that she went too far. And you are correct that those comments are justification for firing her. I'm not really upset with her company. But kind of like when mass shootings occur, it makes me very angry with Republican and Republican voters because they directly vote for and support laws and policies that makes these catastrophic events worse. My well of sympathy for MAGA voters has run dry, not only because they refuse to face facts and act rationally, but because those choice continue to effect the rest of us at larger and on more devastating scales. All they while they showcase their hate for everybody they disagree with or consider less than.

I hear you coldseat and I feel much the same way.

Did you know that spell checker thingy tried to change your name in my reply to "cold sweat"?

 

[SamAndreas]

Not far from where we stay and fish just outside of Darby.....the banana belt....

Gorgeous country.....

Yes it is. Darby is about an hour drive south of Stevensville which is adjacent to Saint Mary's peak where I was. Darby was where Hoyt Axton lived before he died of old age.

 

[MT15]

Evidently Cruz was once again on vacation as tragedy struck TX. The Onion is a national treasure.

 

[faceman]

Yes it is. Darby is about an hour drive south of Stevensville which is adjacent to Saint Mary's peak where I was. Darby was where Hoyt Axton lived before he died of old age.

Totally off topic,but Hoyt Axton died at the age of 61 from a heart attack. I don't consider 61 being old.

 

[SamAndreas]

Totally off topic,but Hoyt Axton died at the age of 61 from a heart attack. I don't consider 61 being old.

Psalm 90:10, attributed to Moses in biblical tradition, which states: “The days of our years are threescore years and ten; And if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, Yet is their strength labour and sorrow; For it is soon cut off, and we fly away”

I thought 61 was old age back when I was 40. And that is about how old as I was at that time.

 

[SamAndreas]

Oh deer, look at this headline:

Texas flood death toll tops 100 and more than 160 people are missing, Gov. Abbott says​

100 dead now, another 160 dead when they either find their bodies or declare them dead in court later. I see the possibility of the number 260 dead.

I would be surprised if many of that 160 turns up later, alive. A few maybe.

With this this bad news added to the already declared death toll of over 100, this flood tops by almost 2 times the Big Thompson flood of 1976 where a full gross of people died, 144 of them.

https://www.npr.org/2025/07/08/nx-s1-5460898/texas-floods-updates

 

[fooferdoggie]

if abbot and Christy were next to the river when it flooded their suckage up to trump would have sucked the river dry.