July 7, 2025 • 16 mins
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You know, it really is sick and twisted to see
what some of the folks are saying blaming President Trump
for storms in Texas and the flooding. I saw even
Rosio O'Donnell mentioned this, or she's a celebrity. I've seen
people all over action Twitter, and a lot of things
that we're hearing their saying have been debunked by now
(00:21):
here's some of it.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
And what a horror story in Texas, the flash floods
in Texas, the Guadalupe River, fifty one missing, fifty one dead,
more missing children at a camp. And you know, when
the president guts all of the early warning systems and
the weathering forecast abilities of the government, these are the
(00:47):
results that we're going to start to see.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
She's absolutely wrong on a number of levels.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Some of this have already broken down for you this morning,
the AP reporting that there were extra staffed at the
National Weather Service, as is the custom there in that
area over the weekend, wanting signs and signals and sirens
and all that flood warnings and watches and all that
went out. So I wanted to do two things because
(01:15):
number one, it's not just the left. I'm seeing some
of this and folks on the right too. I wanted
to give you a chance to ask questions but also
hear the truth about what actually happened from somebody I trust.
I've got my own gut instinct and discernment on this,
but I thought, why not bring in the expert of
the experts, meteorologists, Bill Stephan, somebody who I have trusted
(01:38):
and we all have for many years. Bill, appreciate you
being here with us today.
Speaker 4 (01:42):
Good morning, Yeah, good morning everybody. This was a horrible
situation obviously, and we're kind of immune to that here
in West Michigan because we live in an area that
really doesn't get a lot of disasters. You know, it's flat,
so we don't get a lot of flash flooding here
like they do in Texas where they have the hill
country and the ground bakes out in the summer sun
and you really get a lot of water getting into
(02:04):
the streams very quickly. We don't get earthquakes, we don't
get volcanoes here in West Michigan. About the only disaster
we hit for so many years was the Detroit Lyons.
But the disaster down in Texas is really something It's
related to a tropical storm as many of our strong
floods are here in the US. This was tropical Storm Berry,
(02:25):
which made landfall down near Tampico, Mexico, and moisture from
net came up into Texas.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
All right, So let me wait a minute, Bill, let
me let me pause you for a second, because what
you're saying is very important. I didn't even hear this
or no this when I first started hearing the details
about what happened with the flooding there. But there was
an actually there was a tropical storm named Berry. It
hit in the like in an area there in Mexico,
and then that moisture made its way up into that
(02:52):
area in Texas.
Speaker 4 (02:53):
Right, And this is nothing unusual. This happens. I mean,
the classic example this Hurricane Katrina. Back in two thousand
and size. There were eight and thirty six fatalities with
Hurricane Katrina in the New Orleans area and most of
those were caused by flooding and not the strong wind.
(03:14):
So keep that in mind. This is not something that
hasn't occurred before. And of course we had all the
flooding in western North Carolina a couple of years ago
from Hurricane Helene. So that's something that we've had. But
I want to give you a little timeline of what
went on in Kerr County down there with the National
Weather Service. First of all, a flash flood watch was
issued for Kerr County shortly after midnight. One of the
(03:38):
real tragedies is that this has happened at night and
a lot of people went to bed, and you know,
we're not aware of what was being issued. But the
flashblood wash called for isolated rainfall amounts over ten inches
and that's an exact quote. And then a flash flood
warning was issued about an hour later as the heavy
(03:58):
rains commenced, and that flash flood warning said, quote life
threatening flash flooding of creeks, streams, and rivers is likely.
A flash flood emergency was then issued at five thirty
four for Kerr County and the Guadalupe River. The National
Weather Service responsible for this was in Austin and San Antonio.
(04:21):
Normally they would have two meteorologists on duty on a
typical night. They had five on duty that night, so
they were not understaffed. The five were there all night.
It was planned. It was extra staffing that they had
called in and they had noted that this event was
similar to events that occurred on the Guadalupe River in
(04:43):
nineteen ninety eight, nineteen seventy eight, nineteen thirty five, in
nineteen twenty one, and again this was a moisture coming
up from Tropical Storm Berry, which is pretty much nothing
tropical storm when it comes to wind. The course had
that heavy tropical moisture that came northward up into Texas.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Well, let me ask you, because this is some of
the things that I'm saying for and I think some
of these questions people can ask. Now some of the
things I'm saying on the left, they're very just just
just really sick what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (05:17):
But some of the questions are wrong. I mean, Rossie
o'donald is not a meteorologist, doesn't know what she's talking about.
I mean, the plane is simply put. I mean that's
the facts. Yeah, And there's a number of different things
we're going to have to look at here. You know.
First of all, is it a problem with the high
number of false alarms? You know, and this is true
(05:37):
with tornadoes as well. When we have you know, umpty
and tornado warnings being issued and no tornadoes happening, then
people get lulled into a sense of complacency and they
might not react when we have a more serious situation.
So we need to make sure that our warnings are
tailored for area, for times when there really is a
(05:57):
significant threat.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
That is something I think that folks are going to
we really should at some point talk about, you know,
But I'm just saying there are people we played a
report this morning from his nation as that continue to
talk about the search and rescue efforts that are underway.
There there are still people that are hoping and praying
they're going to find their loved ones alive somewhere, and
this is just still have So that's you know, we'll
(06:20):
do that, I'm sure at a time down the road,
and that'll be fair to do too. But one of
the questions that I do want to ask Bill Stefan's
here with us right now, as a meteorologie, there are
people in the right they're asking and I think their
right to be concerned to ask questions about a lot
of this, whether there's weather modification or experimentation, cloud seating,
(06:41):
those sorts of things. Is it possible that any of
that had anything to do with exacerbating this or what
happened as.
Speaker 4 (06:48):
You watching north. I think you can look the past events,
like I mentioned the events of nineteen ninety eight, seventy eight,
thirty five, and twenty one, it saysn't that's something that
hasn't happened before. I think one thing we need to
look at is making sure that a camp or something
like that has a no weather radio or cell phones
programs so that if there is a flash flood warning
of this type that's issued by the National Weather Service,
(07:11):
that they are able to be awakened in during the
night and then take action and move. You know. It's
it's not all that it's not impossible to take people
at you know, at at twelve forty one when the
watch was issued, or at you know, five point thirty
four when the flash flood emergency was issued. Then moved
people the higher ground. Very often when we have tsunamis
(07:35):
on the oceans, it usually isn't too far that people
have to move in order to be on higher ground
and say from the tsunamis. So people need to hear
that alarm on their no weather radio or their cell
phone and those are allowed. I don't know if you haven't,
if you've heard it, oh yeah, you know. Ale phone
(07:56):
tornado warning that's going to wake up.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
We've got an We've got to your point that, you know,
because cell phones can go down at times in different
times of weather. But we've got one of those no
weather radios in the studio and every week they test
it and it goes off and it goes right, and
it's usually right in the middle of I'm recording something,
I'm talking to somebody and I say, hey, it's okay,
we're not being rated.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
That's just the weather tests.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
So but but that's a whole other situation that I
think people have gotten away from that. Those are those
are important to have. The probably don't need it nine
times out of ten, but the one time you do
what it really comes in handy.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
Right, And we need we need to look at where
we put you know, sleeping quarters at camps like this
for instance. You know, maybe we need to move them
to higher ground and not hit them down closer to
the water. Maybe maybe maybe there's no way to do that,
but maybe maybe that's the problem too, that we need
to do that. And then people need to have a plan.
(08:53):
You know, if if all of a sudden you're asleep
and all of a sudden you hear the tornado siren
going off. You need to be able to to in
a minute or two take action that will improve the
safety and maybe save your life.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
Bill Steffan with us right now, maneologists too.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
We've trusted for years, and I thought Bill as a
you know, a legend in West Michigan, and nobody better
probably to really walk us through and describe what happened,
you know, this weekend and give folks an opportunity to
hear it. So from what I'm what I'm hearing you
saying is that this has happened before that would lead
you to believe that there wasn't anything fishy in this
(09:32):
particular situation. Then that doesn't mean we might not find
out something later. But at this this sort of thing,
jumping the conclusions doesn't do anybody good at this point,
because this is something that's happened before.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
Right, And keep keep in mind that the Weather Service
office down there again had extra staffing. They normally have
two people on duty and they had five that night
to deal with the flooding isent. So it's not like
they were this was unexpected. They expected a significant flood
in the Guadalupe. For now, the Weather Service doesn't know
where everybody's sleeping. They don't know where every you know,
(10:04):
a boy scout or girl Scout camp is and where
everybody might be. You know, it might be that we
need to uh to uh, you know, have a bake
sale or a car wash or something like that and
and raise some money for an extra siren in places
where people are going to be susceptible to something like this.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Bill Stephan with this right now? Hey what about you
know they so many people just jumped to politicize this
in one of the comments was even trying trying to
tie it to the the Big Beautiful Bill President Trump
signed into law this this weekend. What about what we've
heard about cuts to the National Weather Service or no,
(10:42):
As you mentioned, there were extra people on staff. But
are you concerned about any of those places receiving cuts
in the future that that that that maybe I either
uh these reports would get would be be an issue
or or the accuracy.
Speaker 4 (11:00):
Well, I haven't read the Big Beautiful Bill, and I
would I mention some of the people that voted on
it didn't read it either or didn't read all of it.
But I'm not really up on what what specifics were
cut related to the Department of Commerce at the National
Weather Service. I doubt that they would severely reduce staffing
to anybody this important scene. And we don't know what
(11:22):
where the cuts are. Are the cuts to you know,
you know critical you know, forecasters, or are the cuts
to people that are just taking you know, PowerPoint presentations
to the Roady Rotary Club or something like that. You know,
I don't I don't know where they're they're at.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Well, and to your point, Bill, I don't think I
don't think there's any actual cuts in this bill. I
think these are things that people have said previously executive orders,
and they've sort of made this this fear mongering pitch
that you know, all these areas that people are going
to be they're going to die because of cuts to
different areas. And I just I just wanted your personal opinion.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
Yeah, one more thing I might want to add it is,
I'm sure some of your listeners will remember the big
flood of twenty thirteen on the Grand River and Grand Rapids.
That was a twenty five year flood. So every twenty
five years we should see a flood similar to that,
and that is part of nature. Now we have paved
over a portion of West Michigan. And that means that
(12:21):
some extra water gets into the rivers that might not
have been in the rivers, you know back you know,
in the eighteen hundreds or something like that. But you know,
we're we're susceptible to flooding here in West Michigan. Two
and one person that I really credit is Dwight Eisenhower
who developed the Interstate Highway system and insisted that the
(12:43):
bridges over rivers with the Interstate Highway system the well
above the one hundred year floods. If you look in
Grand Rapids, if we had a flood similar to nineteen
oh three, nineteen oh four, or nineteen forty seven forty eight,
we would lose most of the bridges in town. They
would be flooded and impassable, like the Fulton Street Bridge
and the six Street bridge and all that. When when
(13:06):
we have of an an interstate highway system, you know,
the bridges for the interstates, if you look at one
ninety six downtown or ninety six up you know in
Comstock Park up here, those bridges are way high above
the river. And no matter what type of flood the
Grand River would have, we would still be able to
(13:27):
cross the river at those two locations. You wouldn't be
able to take the Fulton Street bridge, but you would
be able to take I ninety six and I ninety
six across Grand Rampids here and Eisenhower, by the way,
also insisted that there would be a median in the
highway system so that we could land a helicopter there
with supplies in case there is a flood or a
(13:49):
tornado or something like that. It's you know, searchers, you know,
emergency personnel could could be plucked down in a specific
area very quickly. So hats off to him for doing that.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
I got to tell you, it really is interesting to
get the latest on this, and Bill, we may have
you back on as things come out to talk more
about this. But obviously answering these questions, I think people
really enjoy being able to hear that perspective. And we've
gotten away from so much, so much happening on social
media and people that just don't know commenting on these things.
(14:25):
And then you've got, I think, in the various part
where people are trying to use every little piece of
news and including tragedies unfortunately in this case, to benefit
themselves in their political clauses and whatnot.
Speaker 4 (14:38):
In the narratives right, infinite fortune, situation and those type
of things happen. I mean, we do get volcanos, flood tsunamis,
earthquakes as part of nature. And keep in mind in
this event again, we had a flash flood watch at
twelve forty one, We had a flash flood warning at
one fourteen. After they had a flash flood emergency was
issued at five point thirty four and the National the
(15:00):
Service hit three extra people on staff that night that
we're dealing with the flood. So that those are the facts.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
Yeah, and by the way, undisputable. You even got the
AP coming out with these pieces of information. So need
to know this stuff so that you can have these
conversations and thank you Bill for again the details today.
So folks just wrapping it up may want to get
you one of those emergency weather radios to have. Make
(15:28):
sure your cell phone in case of emergency, you're all
charged up and ready to go. But those those radios
are going to wake up even in the middle of
the night or early morning hours like they had experienced.
There built great information and have a plan.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
You know, in the event that a happens what is
your response. You know, if we have a tornado warning
and it's three o'clock in the morning and you wake up,
you know, make sure you've got a safer place that
you can run too quickly.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
By the way, I got a special, just special guest
here on the chat says hi to you.
Speaker 3 (15:59):
Someone named Marie. I think you'll recognize there.
Speaker 4 (16:03):
Yeah, wow, number two.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
Well appreciate you.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
Thank you so much, Bill, Thank you for taking the time,
and thank you for your service all through the years
here in West Michigan.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
We really do.
Speaker 4 (16:12):
Yeah, long time. Great to see everybody.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
Great to see you this weekend too.
Speaker 4 (16:17):
There you go.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
Always a pleasure, Bill stefan uh Man.
Speaker 4 (16:22):
What a
You know, it really is sick and twisted to see
what some of the folks are saying blaming President Trump
for storms in Texas and the flooding. I saw even
Rosio O'Donnell mentioned this, or she's a celebrity. I've seen
people all over action Twitter, and a lot of things
that we're hearing their saying have been debunked by now
(00:21):
here's some of it.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
And what a horror story in Texas, the flash floods
in Texas, the Guadalupe River, fifty one missing, fifty one dead,
more missing children at a camp. And you know, when
the president guts all of the early warning systems and
the weathering forecast abilities of the government, these are the
(00:47):
results that we're going to start to see.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
She's absolutely wrong on a number of levels.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Some of this have already broken down for you this morning,
the AP reporting that there were extra staffed at the
National Weather Service, as is the custom there in that
area over the weekend, wanting signs and signals and sirens
and all that flood warnings and watches and all that
went out. So I wanted to do two things because
(01:15):
number one, it's not just the left. I'm seeing some
of this and folks on the right too. I wanted
to give you a chance to ask questions but also
hear the truth about what actually happened from somebody I trust.
I've got my own gut instinct and discernment on this,
but I thought, why not bring in the expert of
the experts, meteorologists, Bill Stephan, somebody who I have trusted
(01:38):
and we all have for many years. Bill, appreciate you
being here with us today.
Speaker 4 (01:42):
Good morning, Yeah, good morning everybody. This was a horrible
situation obviously, and we're kind of immune to that here
in West Michigan because we live in an area that
really doesn't get a lot of disasters. You know, it's flat,
so we don't get a lot of flash flooding here
like they do in Texas where they have the hill
country and the ground bakes out in the summer sun
and you really get a lot of water getting into
(02:04):
the streams very quickly. We don't get earthquakes, we don't
get volcanoes here in West Michigan. About the only disaster
we hit for so many years was the Detroit Lyons.
But the disaster down in Texas is really something It's
related to a tropical storm as many of our strong
floods are here in the US. This was tropical Storm Berry,
(02:25):
which made landfall down near Tampico, Mexico, and moisture from
net came up into Texas.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
All right, So let me wait a minute, Bill, let
me let me pause you for a second, because what
you're saying is very important. I didn't even hear this
or no this when I first started hearing the details
about what happened with the flooding there. But there was
an actually there was a tropical storm named Berry. It
hit in the like in an area there in Mexico,
and then that moisture made its way up into that
(02:52):
area in Texas.
Speaker 4 (02:53):
Right, And this is nothing unusual. This happens. I mean,
the classic example this Hurricane Katrina. Back in two thousand
and size. There were eight and thirty six fatalities with
Hurricane Katrina in the New Orleans area and most of
those were caused by flooding and not the strong wind.
(03:14):
So keep that in mind. This is not something that
hasn't occurred before. And of course we had all the
flooding in western North Carolina a couple of years ago
from Hurricane Helene. So that's something that we've had. But
I want to give you a little timeline of what
went on in Kerr County down there with the National
Weather Service. First of all, a flash flood watch was
issued for Kerr County shortly after midnight. One of the
(03:38):
real tragedies is that this has happened at night and
a lot of people went to bed, and you know,
we're not aware of what was being issued. But the
flashblood wash called for isolated rainfall amounts over ten inches
and that's an exact quote. And then a flash flood
warning was issued about an hour later as the heavy
(03:58):
rains commenced, and that flash flood warning said, quote life
threatening flash flooding of creeks, streams, and rivers is likely.
A flash flood emergency was then issued at five thirty
four for Kerr County and the Guadalupe River. The National
Weather Service responsible for this was in Austin and San Antonio.
(04:21):
Normally they would have two meteorologists on duty on a
typical night. They had five on duty that night, so
they were not understaffed. The five were there all night.
It was planned. It was extra staffing that they had
called in and they had noted that this event was
similar to events that occurred on the Guadalupe River in
(04:43):
nineteen ninety eight, nineteen seventy eight, nineteen thirty five, in
nineteen twenty one, and again this was a moisture coming
up from Tropical Storm Berry, which is pretty much nothing
tropical storm when it comes to wind. The course had
that heavy tropical moisture that came northward up into Texas.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Well, let me ask you, because this is some of
the things that I'm saying for and I think some
of these questions people can ask. Now some of the
things I'm saying on the left, they're very just just
just really sick what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (05:17):
But some of the questions are wrong. I mean, Rossie
o'donald is not a meteorologist, doesn't know what she's talking about.
I mean, the plane is simply put. I mean that's
the facts. Yeah, And there's a number of different things
we're going to have to look at here. You know.
First of all, is it a problem with the high
number of false alarms? You know, and this is true
(05:37):
with tornadoes as well. When we have you know, umpty
and tornado warnings being issued and no tornadoes happening, then
people get lulled into a sense of complacency and they
might not react when we have a more serious situation.
So we need to make sure that our warnings are
tailored for area, for times when there really is a
(05:57):
significant threat.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
That is something I think that folks are going to
we really should at some point talk about, you know,
But I'm just saying there are people we played a
report this morning from his nation as that continue to
talk about the search and rescue efforts that are underway.
There there are still people that are hoping and praying
they're going to find their loved ones alive somewhere, and
this is just still have So that's you know, we'll
(06:20):
do that, I'm sure at a time down the road,
and that'll be fair to do too. But one of
the questions that I do want to ask Bill Stefan's
here with us right now, as a meteorologie, there are
people in the right they're asking and I think their
right to be concerned to ask questions about a lot
of this, whether there's weather modification or experimentation, cloud seating,
(06:41):
those sorts of things. Is it possible that any of
that had anything to do with exacerbating this or what
happened as.
Speaker 4 (06:48):
You watching north. I think you can look the past events,
like I mentioned the events of nineteen ninety eight, seventy eight,
thirty five, and twenty one, it saysn't that's something that
hasn't happened before. I think one thing we need to
look at is making sure that a camp or something
like that has a no weather radio or cell phones
programs so that if there is a flash flood warning
of this type that's issued by the National Weather Service,
(07:11):
that they are able to be awakened in during the
night and then take action and move. You know. It's
it's not all that it's not impossible to take people
at you know, at at twelve forty one when the
watch was issued, or at you know, five point thirty
four when the flash flood emergency was issued. Then moved
people the higher ground. Very often when we have tsunamis
(07:35):
on the oceans, it usually isn't too far that people
have to move in order to be on higher ground
and say from the tsunamis. So people need to hear
that alarm on their no weather radio or their cell
phone and those are allowed. I don't know if you haven't,
if you've heard it, oh yeah, you know. Ale phone
(07:56):
tornado warning that's going to wake up.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
We've got an We've got to your point that, you know,
because cell phones can go down at times in different
times of weather. But we've got one of those no
weather radios in the studio and every week they test
it and it goes off and it goes right, and
it's usually right in the middle of I'm recording something,
I'm talking to somebody and I say, hey, it's okay,
we're not being rated.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
That's just the weather tests.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
So but but that's a whole other situation that I
think people have gotten away from that. Those are those
are important to have. The probably don't need it nine
times out of ten, but the one time you do
what it really comes in handy.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
Right, And we need we need to look at where
we put you know, sleeping quarters at camps like this
for instance. You know, maybe we need to move them
to higher ground and not hit them down closer to
the water. Maybe maybe maybe there's no way to do that,
but maybe maybe that's the problem too, that we need
to do that. And then people need to have a plan.
(08:53):
You know, if if all of a sudden you're asleep
and all of a sudden you hear the tornado siren
going off. You need to be able to to in
a minute or two take action that will improve the
safety and maybe save your life.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
Bill Steffan with us right now, maneologists too.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
We've trusted for years, and I thought Bill as a
you know, a legend in West Michigan, and nobody better
probably to really walk us through and describe what happened,
you know, this weekend and give folks an opportunity to
hear it. So from what I'm what I'm hearing you
saying is that this has happened before that would lead
you to believe that there wasn't anything fishy in this
(09:32):
particular situation. Then that doesn't mean we might not find
out something later. But at this this sort of thing,
jumping the conclusions doesn't do anybody good at this point,
because this is something that's happened before.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
Right, And keep keep in mind that the Weather Service
office down there again had extra staffing. They normally have
two people on duty and they had five that night
to deal with the flooding isent. So it's not like
they were this was unexpected. They expected a significant flood
in the Guadalupe. For now, the Weather Service doesn't know
where everybody's sleeping. They don't know where every you know,
(10:04):
a boy scout or girl Scout camp is and where
everybody might be. You know, it might be that we
need to uh to uh, you know, have a bake
sale or a car wash or something like that and
and raise some money for an extra siren in places
where people are going to be susceptible to something like this.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Bill Stephan with this right now? Hey what about you
know they so many people just jumped to politicize this
in one of the comments was even trying trying to
tie it to the the Big Beautiful Bill President Trump
signed into law this this weekend. What about what we've
heard about cuts to the National Weather Service or no,
(10:42):
As you mentioned, there were extra people on staff. But
are you concerned about any of those places receiving cuts
in the future that that that that maybe I either
uh these reports would get would be be an issue
or or the accuracy.
Speaker 4 (11:00):
Well, I haven't read the Big Beautiful Bill, and I
would I mention some of the people that voted on
it didn't read it either or didn't read all of it.
But I'm not really up on what what specifics were
cut related to the Department of Commerce at the National
Weather Service. I doubt that they would severely reduce staffing
to anybody this important scene. And we don't know what
(11:22):
where the cuts are. Are the cuts to you know,
you know critical you know, forecasters, or are the cuts
to people that are just taking you know, PowerPoint presentations
to the Roady Rotary Club or something like that. You know,
I don't I don't know where they're they're at.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Well, and to your point, Bill, I don't think I
don't think there's any actual cuts in this bill. I
think these are things that people have said previously executive orders,
and they've sort of made this this fear mongering pitch
that you know, all these areas that people are going
to be they're going to die because of cuts to
different areas. And I just I just wanted your personal opinion.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
Yeah, one more thing I might want to add it is,
I'm sure some of your listeners will remember the big
flood of twenty thirteen on the Grand River and Grand Rapids.
That was a twenty five year flood. So every twenty
five years we should see a flood similar to that,
and that is part of nature. Now we have paved
over a portion of West Michigan. And that means that
(12:21):
some extra water gets into the rivers that might not
have been in the rivers, you know back you know,
in the eighteen hundreds or something like that. But you know,
we're we're susceptible to flooding here in West Michigan. Two
and one person that I really credit is Dwight Eisenhower
who developed the Interstate Highway system and insisted that the
(12:43):
bridges over rivers with the Interstate Highway system the well
above the one hundred year floods. If you look in
Grand Rapids, if we had a flood similar to nineteen
oh three, nineteen oh four, or nineteen forty seven forty eight,
we would lose most of the bridges in town. They
would be flooded and impassable, like the Fulton Street Bridge
and the six Street bridge and all that. When when
(13:06):
we have of an an interstate highway system, you know,
the bridges for the interstates, if you look at one
ninety six downtown or ninety six up you know in
Comstock Park up here, those bridges are way high above
the river. And no matter what type of flood the
Grand River would have, we would still be able to
(13:27):
cross the river at those two locations. You wouldn't be
able to take the Fulton Street bridge, but you would
be able to take I ninety six and I ninety
six across Grand Rampids here and Eisenhower, by the way,
also insisted that there would be a median in the
highway system so that we could land a helicopter there
with supplies in case there is a flood or a
(13:49):
tornado or something like that. It's you know, searchers, you know,
emergency personnel could could be plucked down in a specific
area very quickly. So hats off to him for doing that.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
I got to tell you, it really is interesting to
get the latest on this, and Bill, we may have
you back on as things come out to talk more
about this. But obviously answering these questions, I think people
really enjoy being able to hear that perspective. And we've
gotten away from so much, so much happening on social
media and people that just don't know commenting on these things.
(14:25):
And then you've got, I think, in the various part
where people are trying to use every little piece of
news and including tragedies unfortunately in this case, to benefit
themselves in their political clauses and whatnot.
Speaker 4 (14:38):
In the narratives right, infinite fortune, situation and those type
of things happen. I mean, we do get volcanos, flood tsunamis,
earthquakes as part of nature. And keep in mind in
this event again, we had a flash flood watch at
twelve forty one, We had a flash flood warning at
one fourteen. After they had a flash flood emergency was
issued at five point thirty four and the National the
(15:00):
Service hit three extra people on staff that night that
we're dealing with the flood. So that those are the facts.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
Yeah, and by the way, undisputable. You even got the
AP coming out with these pieces of information. So need
to know this stuff so that you can have these
conversations and thank you Bill for again the details today.
So folks just wrapping it up may want to get
you one of those emergency weather radios to have. Make
(15:28):
sure your cell phone in case of emergency, you're all
charged up and ready to go. But those those radios
are going to wake up even in the middle of
the night or early morning hours like they had experienced.
There built great information and have a plan.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
You know, in the event that a happens what is
your response. You know, if we have a tornado warning
and it's three o'clock in the morning and you wake up,
you know, make sure you've got a safer place that
you can run too quickly.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
By the way, I got a special, just special guest
here on the chat says hi to you.
Speaker 3 (15:59):
Someone named Marie. I think you'll recognize there.
Speaker 4 (16:03):
Yeah, wow, number two.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
Well appreciate you.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
Thank you so much, Bill, Thank you for taking the time,
and thank you for your service all through the years
here in West Michigan.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
We really do.
Speaker 4 (16:12):
Yeah, long time. Great to see everybody.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
Great to see you this weekend too.
Speaker 4 (16:17):
There you go.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
Always a pleasure, Bill stefan uh Man.
Speaker 4 (16:22):
What a
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