Larry Mendte goes over the biggest news stories of the day including the Big Beautiful Bill being signed into law, and ceasefire talks continuing between Israel and Hamas. Jim Ryan speaks with Larry about the deadly floods in Texas as the death tolls increase and searching is still underway. Rebecca Blake and Bryce Hallett talk about their show ‘Rolling Thunder’ that they are bringing to the United States following success in Australia.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
So did you hear ray stage of just a second ago?
Listen to this. So today thunderstorms possible, Tonight thunderstorms possible,
Tuesday thunderstorms possible, Wednesday thunderstorms possible, Thursday thunderstorms possible, Friday
thunderstorms possible. Showers and thunderstorms possible every single day, and
a lot of that's because of the humidity. So it's
gonna be it's gonna be a strange week. It's gonna
(00:23):
be sticky, and then we might have some severe thunderstorms
every once in a while. But I've looked ahead because
I thought to myself, what could possibly be a good sign,
what could possibly be good in this focusing? No, no, no,
locus would be a bad sign. That's exactly the opposite.
(00:45):
But Saturday and Sunday it seems like it's gonna be
cloudy with no rain.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Okay, so that's good.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Yeah, and eighty degrees okay, so that's not too bad.
I mean, after the week, we're going to be through
with it. But you know, it's way ahead, he extended forecaster.
No good whatsoever, especially when it goes by a past
a couple of days. But for right now, there's hope
that We're after you get through, after you suffer through
this week, you're going to have a decent weekend in
(01:15):
the Big Three. Today, just a horrific story death and
destruction in central Texas in the wake of a once
in a century flood. People have die, kids have died.
We're still finding people out here. We have to rebuild
because what else do we have about here?
Speaker 3 (01:34):
We have nothing.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Literally, Yeah, they're still searching for bodies. They're saying, now, well,
there's reports of eighty two. Now I just started to
report of eighty it's several are missing, including twelve children,
because it was campsites all along the river in central Florida.
Jim Ryan is in Texas covering the flooding. We'll talk
with him at nine oh five. Well, the Big Beautiful
(01:57):
Bill is now law, and after all the fear mongering
by the Democrats, the Big Beautiful Bill will be the
law of the land and we'll see its benefits.
Speaker 4 (02:07):
On this vote, the Yaser two hundred and fifteen, the
Naser two hundred fourteen, With one answering present, the bill
is passed.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Yeah, and then they started channing USA. Now after getting
this bill passed, Donald Trump said he will do everything
he can to prevent Zorin Mamdani from becoming Mayor of
New York City.
Speaker 5 (02:34):
As President of the United States, I'm proclaiming here and
now that America is never going to be Communist in
any way shape form, and that includes New York City.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
In Israel, there is great hope now for a ceasefire
with a moss that would release ten living hostages and
the bodies of eighteen others, and maybe afterwards real peace talks.
Speaker 6 (03:01):
Assist fire means choosing life. Assist fire means choosing life.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Oh, I thought he had more to say. I I
thought it was like Hakeem Jeffries, it was just gonna
be a long pause, and that he was gonna continue.
We have Jordana Miller coming up at six point thirty
five to explain what's going on right now because Hamas
has accepted the ceasefire and Benjamin nettan Yahoo is the
one that is stalling on it. We'll find out exactly
(03:29):
what's going up going on with Jordana in just about
a half an hour. And at the Coney Island Hot
Dog eating Contest, everything Old is New Again.
Speaker 5 (03:40):
Champion of the World, Joey Chestnut.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Joey Chestnuts down seventy hot dogs in ten minutes, but
that is short of his record of seventy six enough
to win. However, the Mustard Yellow Belt for the records
seventeenth time unbelievable. You can go to the iHeart Radio
app and leave us to talk back about any of
the things we're going to talk about today. And while
(04:08):
you're there on the free iHeartRadio app, be sure to
set a preset for seven to ten wor well. The
story of the day is out of Texas and the
flood that hit there. And I know if you're a
parent and you've sent your kids to camp, and if
your parent, chances are you sent your kids to some camp,
(04:31):
you can internalize this immediately. You think to yourself and
you worry, right when there are a certain age, especially,
you worry it they're gonna be okay. You want to
go visit the camp. You know you shouldn't. You try
to call all the time just to make sure everything's
all right. You worry, worry, worry, worry, and you trust
(04:51):
and you trust that they're going to be fine. And
to get the phone call and to hear that of flood,
the torrential rain hit in the middle of the night
and we can't find your son and daughter is maybe
the most terrific thing I could ever think happening to
(05:12):
a parent, because the idea that you left them off
at camp and you thought it was a wonderful thing,
and then they're just gone and you didn't get to
say goodbye, You didn't get to see them. The last
thing you remember is hugging them as they wanted to camp,
and then worrying, and then the worst happens.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
I'm gonna cry because it's horrible.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
I'm standing ten minutes from where.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
We were twenty four hours ago with the kids swimming,
having fun, and it's gone. It's all gone.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Kids didn't have a chance. When you look at some
of these campsites. Now you're gonna hear about campsites at
the river, but there were several campsites, some of them
are up higher. I'm sure the ones that got by
the river felt lucky. Oh my, get right by the river.
We get to govern the river all the time. But
it turns out that the kids that were up higher
were a little luckier.
Speaker 7 (06:08):
Our entire focus at this time is on the search
and reunification efforts for those remained unaccounted for. That is
where our energy, our resources, and our attention are directed.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Yeah, it's a massive search right now up and down
the river. And there's gonna be more rain today. That's
the horrible part of all of this. We'll get into
what happened in the second, but right now, I mean
the media, of course didn't back off, and we'll get
into that in a second. They were horrific. We're gonna
have to deal with this now with the national media
(06:42):
for a while, they've been horrific on every single story thing.
They can't not infuse politics on it, they can't not
infuse their hatred of trumpet Trump. Even in the worst moments,
they have to jump in and because they can't help themselves,
it's just a needy reaction. This is Trump's fault. Wait
do you hear Wait? Do I get to that part?
(07:04):
It's unbelievable. In the meantime, you have people suffering, you
have people hoping that their child is still alive, knowing
that there's a slim chance of that, and then you
have Greg Abbot, who's done a wonderful job in a tragedy, and.
Speaker 8 (07:19):
It was nothing short of horrific to see what those
young children went through, and we will remain one hundred
percent dedicated searching for every single one of the children.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Greg abb At, the governor, and Donald Trump has signed
an emergency order with what amounts to unlimited funding to
help Texas to rebuild and help them in their search
and rescue efforts. We're also hearing from some of the
children that survived.
Speaker 6 (07:50):
The flood started getting bigger and it was going up
to we have bunk beds in our cabins, and it
was going up to the top bunk and we had
one choice, and we had to swim out of our cabins.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Right. He was in along with his brother, who you're
gonna hear from in a second. They were in a
cabin a little bit higher. So, so if you think
about it, there's it's the river, and then you have
some campsites that are right next to the river and
they're they're just gone. They're destroyed. People that went back
and to look at it said there's nothing there. But
(08:24):
then you can go up. There's an elevated ground and
that's where these two boys were.
Speaker 6 (08:30):
Yeah, and some cabins like flooded flooded away, but nobody died, No.
Speaker 9 (08:36):
One died, you're thankful for that.
Speaker 6 (08:38):
Or on the way here we saw all of like
the other camps destroyed like oblorated.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
All right, now, let's get to the media in this.
All you should be doing when you cover this, and
I've covered so many too many tragedies in my life,
massive tragedies in my life, and all you should be
doing in this is talking about the recovery, the recovery,
the victims, the families of the victims. That's all you
(09:07):
should be concerned about at this moment. The media jumped
immediately to well, it's the Trump cuts, the federal budget cuts.
They didn't have a warning, and Homeland Security came out
immediately and said, the media is purposely lying about this.
We sent out a warning twelve hours before the flood,
(09:30):
and then we had alerts every half hour, and a
lot of the people that survived were because of those alerts,
because volunteer firefighters went through the area with a siren
and a loudspeaker telling people to get out of the area.
They did have a siren system that was not installed.
(09:54):
That was a state siren system, and one of the
reasons they didn't have the funding to put it together
because of the State Senate. This has nothing to do
with budget cuts in Washington. Both the National Weather Service
and Homeland Security has said that nothing to do with it.
They had all the alerts out, but the media couldn't
(10:17):
help itself and understand, until the midterms, we're gonna have
to deal with this almost every single day. Shame on them.
We'll have the latest coming up with Jim Ryan in
about two hours. The Dali Lama celebrated his birthday and
that gives me an excuse to play one of the
greatest movie clips of all times. Stay with us. We
(10:39):
have Jim Ryan in Texas covering the flood coming up
in just a couple of minutes. And the Big Beautiful
Bill is now law, and after all the fear mongering,
we're starting to understand all of the good things it's
going to do, including keeping the border the most secure
it's been in history.
Speaker 4 (10:59):
This vote the ASER two hundred and fifteen, the NASER
two hundred fourteen, with one answering present, the bill is passed.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
So Donald Trump has a whole lot going on right now.
Right he has the Big Beautiful Bill that he's signed.
He's working on a cease fire deal between Hamas and Israel.
He's still dealing with Ukraine, and he's dealing with the tariffs.
A lot going on, but somehow he still finds the
time to slam Zorin Mamdani.
Speaker 5 (11:36):
As President of the United States, I'm proclaiming here and
now that America is never going to be Communist in
any way shape form, and that includes New York City.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
And now, without any further ado, let's get to ABC
News correspondent Jim Ryan, who is in Kurveville, Texas. Jim,
why don't we just start with you giving us the
latest from there. No, Jim, go ahead, We got them, Hi, Jim,
(12:12):
I think we're having a little bit of a problem
for some reason. Jim Ryan has been covering and doing
an amazing job over the last couple of days. Dozens
of parents who sent their kids to summer camps along
the scenic Guadalupe River in the Texas Hill Country are
now having to plan funerals for those same children. It
(12:34):
is just a devastating scene from there, and everything we
hear from there is is just horrible. The search continues
right now, and we have Jim Ryan back. Jim, go ahead.
I was just saying, if you can just give us
the very latest.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Yeah, Larry, we know that at least eighty people were
killed in these flash flood events. Here. Eleven girls from
one day camp are still missing, but the number missing
we really don't know at all there because, I mean,
those girls were registered to be a part of this
summer camp. The camp missed it, but we have no
idea how many people might have been just camping alongside
the Guadalupe River in rbs or intents. And we're fast
(13:14):
asleep at three point thirty four o'clock Friday morning, when
the water rose up ten twelve inches in just a
couple of hours time at the deluge was just incredible,
and the debt count is almost unprecedented here.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
I know, people are going back to the scene of
the camp site and they're saying, nothing's there. I mean,
it's nothing like at least it used to be. And
many of the even the cabins, are now missing. Is
that the case it is?
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Yeah? The governor yesterday toured that area and the few
buildings that are still standing are water logged. They were
up to their rafters in floodwaters just a few days ago.
Just very little left. I mean, those girls, they're counselors.
The buildings were just washed into the river and carried away.
We've heard of people who were recovered, who were rescued,
(14:07):
a couple of young girls, sisters who were found miles
and miles downstream, clinging to a tree, and certainly the
four hundred search and rescue folks out of the field
today are hoping for more stories like that of people
still alive waiting for rescue.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
The federal government's been hit with some criticism for not
giving enough of a warning. And I know the National
Weather Service has put out a list of all the
warnings they gave and all the alerts they put out
up to twelve hours before. But even if that's the case,
something did go wrong, is it too early to talk
about that? What happened? Why wasn't there enough of a warning?
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Well, I mean even a couple of days before this
event on Wednesday that we're talking about the possibility of
flash flooding. But Larry, this is known as flash flood Alley.
It's also known as the Texas Hill Country. And that's
relevant because you have this topography here, bone dry. We've
had a drought here, so the water that falls onto
the ground simply washes into the creeks and streams that
(15:11):
feed into the Guadalupe River, And so we had moisture
coming up from the Gulf, from the Pacific, from the
South Plains, all converging right over those tributaries into the Guadaloupe.
And again this happened at about three thirty or four
o'clock in the morning, So even if people had had warnings,
or if warnings had been issued, people might not have
heard them at all.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Right, I understand that there were some sirens that were
supposed to be put in in the area and the
funding didn't come through. It just wasn't finished. Have you
heard anything about that.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Yeah, I mean the warning systems that are out there
are fairly low tech, you know. But what's more, consider this,
there's seven hundred some odd girls were at this camp Mystic.
They had been there for a few days. We're spending
a month altogether there. But cell phones aren't allowed there,
So how we're you know, the councilors were able to
keep to get warnings by their cell phones, but the
(16:03):
kids were not because cell phones aren't allowed there. That's
just part of how they do things. So just one,
you know, one part after another fell into place to
create this cataclysmic situation.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
Jim, it seems like an unusual area. Maybe you can
paint a picture for us of what was there, what's
been destroyed. And I mean, it's certainly not a metropolis
in that area. But are there people that live there?
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Sure? Oh, absolutely, Kerbil where I'm right now, and Guadalupe
runs right through the middle of town. Twenty five thousand
people live here. Not too far to the east of here,
city of Austin is there. This is known generally as
the Hill Country. It's a large area in the middle
of the state, kind of brushy and you know, rocky hills.
(16:53):
And to the north you have the Dallas Fort Worth
and then to the south and southwest Houston and then Mexico.
So but it's a scenic part of the state. Lots
to do out here. Campgrounds again, right around the Guadalupe
You've got twenty different campgrounds. That's sort of what you
find here is people just coming here to relax.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
And it's interesting. There were several different camps. You said,
there's twenty different campgrounds, and some of them got hit
harder than others. Some of them were just destroyed decimated.
Were they the ones that are right on the banks.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Yes, the ones that are the closest to the river
are the ones that sustain the most damage. So we
have a damaged footprint here that's extremely long. It goes
twenty twenty five miles or so, but it's very narrow
as well. And whatever was closest to the river was
the stuff that was pulled into the river and washed downstream.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
Yeah. I've heard some of the people that have gone
to the sites and have talked about it, especially people
that are trying to return to the area that had
to evacuate, And as they come back, they keep wondering,
will this be able to be rebuilt, Is there an
effort to rebuild it just like it was, or will
there will be something new put in to prevent this
(18:08):
from happening in the future.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Well, I think it'll will stay as much the same
as as people can keep it. But you know, in
looking at the massive trees that were just forests worth
of trees that were just toppled over and dragged downstream,
I mean, it's not going to look the same forever,
I assume, but and recovery and cleanup will take months,
if not years. Larry, Yeah, I just.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
To leave this on kind of a positive note or
an upnote in such a horrible story. I know there's
been some amazing stories of survival. Have you heard a
couple that you can share with us.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
A couple of young girls, preteen girls, sisters who are
at one of these camps. They realized that the flooding
was happening. They got caught up in the flood waters,
but managed to float downstream. They were found twenty miles
away from the point at which they went into the water.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
Wow, what that's Thank you for that, Jim Ryan, ABC
News correspondent in Kerrville, Texas. Thanks a lot, Jim, that
was great. I appreciate it. By the way, you can
contribute to help the people in the area. All donations
to Community Foundation dot net will go directly to trusted
local organizations to provide food, shelter, healthcare, and of course hope. Natalie,
(19:26):
I know that you're a parent, and the first thing
I thought of when I heard of this was all
the times I sent my kids to camp, All the
times I sent my kids to some place where they're
going to be there for a week, and you know
you want to go and visit them, You want to
get in touch with them. You want to do anything
because you're worried about them. And I can't imagine getting
(19:49):
this kind of phone.
Speaker 9 (19:50):
Call and now hearing that they weren't allowed cell phones,
which I'm sure is a standard in a lot of camps.
Especially these children are very young. To think that you
had no way of reaching them at that point, right,
it's even worse and more horrifying.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
Well, not only that, I mean what Jim was alluding
to was the fact that nobody got warning notifications because
nobody had and how did the counselors not Now I guess,
I guess this hit it four in the morning, but
apparently there were alerts throughout the night. There's somebody. Look,
I don't want to blame anybody, certainly in something as
horrible as this, I don't want to blame anybody, But wow,
(20:27):
a lot of questions to be answered. It was one
of the most complex, extraordinary, and controversial times in American history,
the Vietnam War, and was it was littered with protest
people sacrificing their lives and just some compelling stories as well. Also,
I should point out that during that time was some
(20:49):
great music, great production that is about to open on
Broadway calling Rolling Thunder, and we are here with us
as the writer, Bryce Hallett and Rebecca Blake, the producer,
And why don't we start with you, Brace, since you
wrote this, tell us what people when they go to
(21:10):
this would expect off Broadway.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
Well, as you mentioned, it's definitely the songs of that era,
and you often hear that catchphrase, you know, the songs
or art that defined a generation. But if there was
ever a phrase that can actually describe that prodigious output
of songwriting in that late sixties and early seventies, it's
this song, this show, and so it embraces like a
(21:33):
huge catalog of songs from Paul Simon to you know, ROBERTA.
Flack and on it goes step Steppenwolf and so. And
then you sort of marry that to the words and
the intimate stories of based on many, many interviews I
did with veterans and their family members, and so that
adds to this intimate sort of aspect of this epic,
(21:56):
as you say, complex picture of war. So it's a
very dynamic experience.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
Yeah, it's you said compelling, and that's absolutely the case.
And the fact Rebecca, that these are personal stories you know,
this isn't just from somebody's imagination. This is what really happened.
Makes it even more fascinating and makes it even more compelling.
Speaker 10 (22:22):
Look in Australia, we had veterans that would come and
see this show again and again. They contributed to the show,
not only with stories but with photography. We had like
the Groupie veterans that just were so honored that we
were even doing this show. And to bring it here
to New York is a dream of mine. We've been
(22:43):
touring it in Australia for ten years now. We've readapted
the script for the American audiences and it is compelling.
It has heart, it has many many aspects to the show.
And this amazing music in and out of the story.
So and all the songs have strategically been placed.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
Yeah, I'm listening to them. I've listened to some of
the music, and I saw some of the music you're
you're going to put in there. I mean, it's a
great album if you were able to get all of
that on an album. I mean, it's the soundtrack of
many of our lives.
Speaker 10 (23:19):
I know, and during this tumultuous period, the best music
came out of this time. You know, these songwriters were
writing these songs that are still played today, so younger
generations know this music. So I would just love as
many Americans to see this show. I mean, we used
to get comments you've got to take this to America.
(23:41):
You've got to let the US see this. And it's
your music.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
Yeah, you know, yeah, our music. You're absolutely right, But
it's the best of that music. And then when you
go down the list of what is in there, it's incredible.
I love that you have bridge over troubled waters and
I'm sure we got to get out of this place.
That's that's that's exactly the story for a lot of
people that were there. I'm interested brace about an Australian
(24:08):
writing this story because this is such an American experience.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
Because of my background and my background as a journalist.
You know, it's sort of that, you know, as a
matter of earning the trust of many veterans and talking
to their families, and that took a while and over
many many drinks in many cases, and so that yeah,
so it was sort of yeah, you were sort of
earning their trust and getting into the interior of their lives.
(24:35):
And you know, several people I interviewed were like American
Marines and gis and so, you know, we have in
Australia quite a world view of events, and you know,
we were part of the Vietnam War. So it's you know,
to actually adapt the work wasn't as difficult as you
imagine because and dramatically, it's set in nineteen sixty eight,
(24:57):
which is you know, is considered one of the worst
years in the twentieth century, the termoil for assassinations of
Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy and so to have
that dramatic arc in the show, as much as all
of this great music, that does make for a pretty
powerful experience.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
Yeah, Rebecca walk us through it. Like when people go
to see this, what are they going to see?
Speaker 10 (25:21):
Well, most of the comments are it's so insightful. We
had no idea. It's just so much more than a
jukebox musical. It's a love story. It's joyous and uplifting.
It's not you know, oh my god, we don't need
to see another story about war right now when everything's
happening in this timeframe. But it's a show where people
(25:45):
come in, they're dancing, they're singing the songs it's a
journey of three boys lives through letters because back then
that was the only way to communicate back home, so
that the writing is a big aspect. We cover protests, combat,
(26:07):
history schools were coming in Australia because of the history.
We cover. It was the first televised war, the assassination
of Martin Luther King and as Bryce said, you know
Robert Kennedy, it was a powerful time. So we cover
all that and we keep saying it's this, you know,
(26:29):
killing me softly helped me make it through the night.
These ballads that Cassidy Pope who won the Voice, she
was the winner of the Voice. She is one of
our leads, and it's just brings tears to your eyes
and then you know everyone's I don't know. Veterans come
and they thank me, they hug me after the show,
(26:50):
they say thank you so much. And I think, what
makes this so different from anything else running at the moment.
It has purpose. We have part with American Legion. A
percentage of our merchandise is going back to American Legion.
And veterans come, they bring their grandchildren, and they bring
(27:11):
their brothers, their sisters, and they keep reappearing every night
and I go, oh my god, you're back again. We
just can't get enough of this show. It encapsulates so much,
so it's very hard for me to sit here and
describe it because you know, it's a journey and it's
in the late sixties, and it covers a lot of history.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
And I can't imagine brace that you took all of
what she was just talking about. It's a manse, it's
years and years and years of experiences and got this
into a yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
But you know, to reawaken the pulse of that generation
in the sixties and to make it feel so current
as well, so it's not this nostalgia piece. It actually
talks to young people, It talks to people of every
age and ultimately at affirms peace and it's a real
sense of anti war protests through the show, which just
seems a natural fit. So what's going on in the
(28:03):
world today.
Speaker 10 (28:05):
And we're only here for such a short time, so
you know, we're closing September seven, so we don't have time.
And it is a word of mouth because once it
hits people will be talking about it. We're in you know,
we have the first preview this Thursday. We open the
twenty fourth of July. But we're not here for a
(28:25):
long time. So if I would just say to those
New Yorkers, come and have a great night, you'll come
out of the theater singing and it'll be insightful. It's
an era we don't want to forget.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
No, it sounds compelling, and it sounds amazing, the music,
especially you were talking about. I don't know the rest
of it yet until I see it, but the music
is amazing. If you want to get tickets, you go
to Rolling Thunder us dot com. That's Rolling Thunder us
dot com again. Preview start July tenth. It opens on
the twenty fourth. Bryce Hall, writer, Rebecca Blake, producer, Thanks
(29:02):
so much for being here. Can't wait to see it.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
Thanks, thank you, Thanks I much
So did you hear ray stage of just a second ago?
Listen to this. So today thunderstorms possible, Tonight thunderstorms possible,
Tuesday thunderstorms possible, Wednesday thunderstorms possible, Thursday thunderstorms possible, Friday
thunderstorms possible. Showers and thunderstorms possible every single day, and
a lot of that's because of the humidity. So it's
gonna be it's gonna be a strange week. It's gonna
(00:23):
be sticky, and then we might have some severe thunderstorms
every once in a while. But I've looked ahead because
I thought to myself, what could possibly be a good sign,
what could possibly be good in this focusing? No, no, no,
locus would be a bad sign. That's exactly the opposite.
(00:45):
But Saturday and Sunday it seems like it's gonna be
cloudy with no rain.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Okay, so that's good.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Yeah, and eighty degrees okay, so that's not too bad.
I mean, after the week, we're going to be through
with it. But you know, it's way ahead, he extended forecaster.
No good whatsoever, especially when it goes by a past
a couple of days. But for right now, there's hope
that We're after you get through, after you suffer through
this week, you're going to have a decent weekend in
(01:15):
the Big Three. Today, just a horrific story death and
destruction in central Texas in the wake of a once
in a century flood. People have die, kids have died.
We're still finding people out here. We have to rebuild
because what else do we have about here?
Speaker 3 (01:34):
We have nothing.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Literally, Yeah, they're still searching for bodies. They're saying, now, well,
there's reports of eighty two. Now I just started to
report of eighty it's several are missing, including twelve children,
because it was campsites all along the river in central Florida.
Jim Ryan is in Texas covering the flooding. We'll talk
with him at nine oh five. Well, the Big Beautiful
(01:57):
Bill is now law, and after all the fear mongering
by the Democrats, the Big Beautiful Bill will be the
law of the land and we'll see its benefits.
Speaker 4 (02:07):
On this vote, the Yaser two hundred and fifteen, the
Naser two hundred fourteen, With one answering present, the bill
is passed.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Yeah, and then they started channing USA. Now after getting
this bill passed, Donald Trump said he will do everything
he can to prevent Zorin Mamdani from becoming Mayor of
New York City.
Speaker 5 (02:34):
As President of the United States, I'm proclaiming here and
now that America is never going to be Communist in
any way shape form, and that includes New York City.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
In Israel, there is great hope now for a ceasefire
with a moss that would release ten living hostages and
the bodies of eighteen others, and maybe afterwards real peace talks.
Speaker 6 (03:01):
Assist fire means choosing life. Assist fire means choosing life.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Oh, I thought he had more to say. I I
thought it was like Hakeem Jeffries, it was just gonna
be a long pause, and that he was gonna continue.
We have Jordana Miller coming up at six point thirty
five to explain what's going on right now because Hamas
has accepted the ceasefire and Benjamin nettan Yahoo is the
one that is stalling on it. We'll find out exactly
(03:29):
what's going up going on with Jordana in just about
a half an hour. And at the Coney Island Hot
Dog eating Contest, everything Old is New Again.
Speaker 5 (03:40):
Champion of the World, Joey Chestnut.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Joey Chestnuts down seventy hot dogs in ten minutes, but
that is short of his record of seventy six enough
to win. However, the Mustard Yellow Belt for the records
seventeenth time unbelievable. You can go to the iHeart Radio
app and leave us to talk back about any of
the things we're going to talk about today. And while
(04:08):
you're there on the free iHeartRadio app, be sure to
set a preset for seven to ten wor well. The
story of the day is out of Texas and the
flood that hit there. And I know if you're a
parent and you've sent your kids to camp, and if
your parent, chances are you sent your kids to some camp,
(04:31):
you can internalize this immediately. You think to yourself and
you worry, right when there are a certain age, especially,
you worry it they're gonna be okay. You want to
go visit the camp. You know you shouldn't. You try
to call all the time just to make sure everything's
all right. You worry, worry, worry, worry, and you trust
(04:51):
and you trust that they're going to be fine. And
to get the phone call and to hear that of flood,
the torrential rain hit in the middle of the night
and we can't find your son and daughter is maybe
the most terrific thing I could ever think happening to
(05:12):
a parent, because the idea that you left them off
at camp and you thought it was a wonderful thing,
and then they're just gone and you didn't get to
say goodbye, You didn't get to see them. The last
thing you remember is hugging them as they wanted to camp,
and then worrying, and then the worst happens.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
I'm gonna cry because it's horrible.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
I'm standing ten minutes from where.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
We were twenty four hours ago with the kids swimming,
having fun, and it's gone. It's all gone.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Kids didn't have a chance. When you look at some
of these campsites. Now you're gonna hear about campsites at
the river, but there were several campsites, some of them
are up higher. I'm sure the ones that got by
the river felt lucky. Oh my, get right by the river.
We get to govern the river all the time. But
it turns out that the kids that were up higher
were a little luckier.
Speaker 7 (06:08):
Our entire focus at this time is on the search
and reunification efforts for those remained unaccounted for. That is
where our energy, our resources, and our attention are directed.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Yeah, it's a massive search right now up and down
the river. And there's gonna be more rain today. That's
the horrible part of all of this. We'll get into
what happened in the second, but right now, I mean
the media, of course didn't back off, and we'll get
into that in a second. They were horrific. We're gonna
have to deal with this now with the national media
(06:42):
for a while, they've been horrific on every single story thing.
They can't not infuse politics on it, they can't not
infuse their hatred of trumpet Trump. Even in the worst moments,
they have to jump in and because they can't help themselves,
it's just a needy reaction. This is Trump's fault. Wait
do you hear Wait? Do I get to that part?
(07:04):
It's unbelievable. In the meantime, you have people suffering, you
have people hoping that their child is still alive, knowing
that there's a slim chance of that, and then you
have Greg Abbot, who's done a wonderful job in a tragedy, and.
Speaker 8 (07:19):
It was nothing short of horrific to see what those
young children went through, and we will remain one hundred
percent dedicated searching for every single one of the children.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Greg abb At, the governor, and Donald Trump has signed
an emergency order with what amounts to unlimited funding to
help Texas to rebuild and help them in their search
and rescue efforts. We're also hearing from some of the
children that survived.
Speaker 6 (07:50):
The flood started getting bigger and it was going up
to we have bunk beds in our cabins, and it
was going up to the top bunk and we had
one choice, and we had to swim out of our cabins.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Right. He was in along with his brother, who you're
gonna hear from in a second. They were in a
cabin a little bit higher. So, so if you think
about it, there's it's the river, and then you have
some campsites that are right next to the river and
they're they're just gone. They're destroyed. People that went back
and to look at it said there's nothing there. But
(08:24):
then you can go up. There's an elevated ground and
that's where these two boys were.
Speaker 6 (08:30):
Yeah, and some cabins like flooded flooded away, but nobody died, No.
Speaker 9 (08:36):
One died, you're thankful for that.
Speaker 6 (08:38):
Or on the way here we saw all of like
the other camps destroyed like oblorated.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
All right, now, let's get to the media in this.
All you should be doing when you cover this, and
I've covered so many too many tragedies in my life,
massive tragedies in my life, and all you should be
doing in this is talking about the recovery, the recovery,
the victims, the families of the victims. That's all you
(09:07):
should be concerned about at this moment. The media jumped
immediately to well, it's the Trump cuts, the federal budget cuts.
They didn't have a warning, and Homeland Security came out
immediately and said, the media is purposely lying about this.
We sent out a warning twelve hours before the flood,
(09:30):
and then we had alerts every half hour, and a
lot of the people that survived were because of those alerts,
because volunteer firefighters went through the area with a siren
and a loudspeaker telling people to get out of the area.
They did have a siren system that was not installed.
(09:54):
That was a state siren system, and one of the
reasons they didn't have the funding to put it together
because of the State Senate. This has nothing to do
with budget cuts in Washington. Both the National Weather Service
and Homeland Security has said that nothing to do with it.
They had all the alerts out, but the media couldn't
(10:17):
help itself and understand, until the midterms, we're gonna have
to deal with this almost every single day. Shame on them.
We'll have the latest coming up with Jim Ryan in
about two hours. The Dali Lama celebrated his birthday and
that gives me an excuse to play one of the
greatest movie clips of all times. Stay with us. We
(10:39):
have Jim Ryan in Texas covering the flood coming up
in just a couple of minutes. And the Big Beautiful
Bill is now law, and after all the fear mongering,
we're starting to understand all of the good things it's
going to do, including keeping the border the most secure
it's been in history.
Speaker 4 (10:59):
This vote the ASER two hundred and fifteen, the NASER
two hundred fourteen, with one answering present, the bill is passed.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
So Donald Trump has a whole lot going on right now.
Right he has the Big Beautiful Bill that he's signed.
He's working on a cease fire deal between Hamas and Israel.
He's still dealing with Ukraine, and he's dealing with the tariffs.
A lot going on, but somehow he still finds the
time to slam Zorin Mamdani.
Speaker 5 (11:36):
As President of the United States, I'm proclaiming here and
now that America is never going to be Communist in
any way shape form, and that includes New York City.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
And now, without any further ado, let's get to ABC
News correspondent Jim Ryan, who is in Kurveville, Texas. Jim,
why don't we just start with you giving us the
latest from there. No, Jim, go ahead, We got them, Hi, Jim,
(12:12):
I think we're having a little bit of a problem
for some reason. Jim Ryan has been covering and doing
an amazing job over the last couple of days. Dozens
of parents who sent their kids to summer camps along
the scenic Guadalupe River in the Texas Hill Country are
now having to plan funerals for those same children. It
(12:34):
is just a devastating scene from there, and everything we
hear from there is is just horrible. The search continues
right now, and we have Jim Ryan back. Jim, go ahead.
I was just saying, if you can just give us
the very latest.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Yeah, Larry, we know that at least eighty people were
killed in these flash flood events. Here. Eleven girls from
one day camp are still missing, but the number missing
we really don't know at all there because, I mean,
those girls were registered to be a part of this
summer camp. The camp missed it, but we have no
idea how many people might have been just camping alongside
the Guadalupe River in rbs or intents. And we're fast
(13:14):
asleep at three point thirty four o'clock Friday morning, when
the water rose up ten twelve inches in just a
couple of hours time at the deluge was just incredible,
and the debt count is almost unprecedented here.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
I know, people are going back to the scene of
the camp site and they're saying, nothing's there. I mean,
it's nothing like at least it used to be. And
many of the even the cabins, are now missing. Is
that the case it is?
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Yeah? The governor yesterday toured that area and the few
buildings that are still standing are water logged. They were
up to their rafters in floodwaters just a few days ago.
Just very little left. I mean, those girls, they're counselors.
The buildings were just washed into the river and carried away.
We've heard of people who were recovered, who were rescued,
(14:07):
a couple of young girls, sisters who were found miles
and miles downstream, clinging to a tree, and certainly the
four hundred search and rescue folks out of the field
today are hoping for more stories like that of people
still alive waiting for rescue.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
The federal government's been hit with some criticism for not
giving enough of a warning. And I know the National
Weather Service has put out a list of all the
warnings they gave and all the alerts they put out
up to twelve hours before. But even if that's the case,
something did go wrong, is it too early to talk
about that? What happened? Why wasn't there enough of a warning?
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Well, I mean even a couple of days before this
event on Wednesday that we're talking about the possibility of
flash flooding. But Larry, this is known as flash flood Alley.
It's also known as the Texas Hill Country. And that's
relevant because you have this topography here, bone dry. We've
had a drought here, so the water that falls onto
the ground simply washes into the creeks and streams that
(15:11):
feed into the Guadalupe River, And so we had moisture
coming up from the Gulf, from the Pacific, from the
South Plains, all converging right over those tributaries into the Guadaloupe.
And again this happened at about three thirty or four
o'clock in the morning, So even if people had had warnings,
or if warnings had been issued, people might not have
heard them at all.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Right, I understand that there were some sirens that were
supposed to be put in in the area and the
funding didn't come through. It just wasn't finished. Have you
heard anything about that.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Yeah, I mean the warning systems that are out there
are fairly low tech, you know. But what's more, consider this,
there's seven hundred some odd girls were at this camp Mystic.
They had been there for a few days. We're spending
a month altogether there. But cell phones aren't allowed there,
So how we're you know, the councilors were able to
keep to get warnings by their cell phones, but the
(16:03):
kids were not because cell phones aren't allowed there. That's
just part of how they do things. So just one,
you know, one part after another fell into place to
create this cataclysmic situation.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
Jim, it seems like an unusual area. Maybe you can
paint a picture for us of what was there, what's
been destroyed. And I mean, it's certainly not a metropolis
in that area. But are there people that live there?
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Sure? Oh, absolutely, Kerbil where I'm right now, and Guadalupe
runs right through the middle of town. Twenty five thousand
people live here. Not too far to the east of here,
city of Austin is there. This is known generally as
the Hill Country. It's a large area in the middle
of the state, kind of brushy and you know, rocky hills.
(16:53):
And to the north you have the Dallas Fort Worth
and then to the south and southwest Houston and then Mexico.
So but it's a scenic part of the state. Lots
to do out here. Campgrounds again, right around the Guadalupe
You've got twenty different campgrounds. That's sort of what you
find here is people just coming here to relax.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
And it's interesting. There were several different camps. You said,
there's twenty different campgrounds, and some of them got hit
harder than others. Some of them were just destroyed decimated.
Were they the ones that are right on the banks.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Yes, the ones that are the closest to the river
are the ones that sustain the most damage. So we
have a damaged footprint here that's extremely long. It goes
twenty twenty five miles or so, but it's very narrow
as well. And whatever was closest to the river was
the stuff that was pulled into the river and washed downstream.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
Yeah. I've heard some of the people that have gone
to the sites and have talked about it, especially people
that are trying to return to the area that had
to evacuate, And as they come back, they keep wondering,
will this be able to be rebuilt, Is there an
effort to rebuild it just like it was, or will
there will be something new put in to prevent this
(18:08):
from happening in the future.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Well, I think it'll will stay as much the same
as as people can keep it. But you know, in
looking at the massive trees that were just forests worth
of trees that were just toppled over and dragged downstream,
I mean, it's not going to look the same forever,
I assume, but and recovery and cleanup will take months,
if not years. Larry, Yeah, I just.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
To leave this on kind of a positive note or
an upnote in such a horrible story. I know there's
been some amazing stories of survival. Have you heard a
couple that you can share with us.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
A couple of young girls, preteen girls, sisters who are
at one of these camps. They realized that the flooding
was happening. They got caught up in the flood waters,
but managed to float downstream. They were found twenty miles
away from the point at which they went into the water.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
Wow, what that's Thank you for that, Jim Ryan, ABC
News correspondent in Kerrville, Texas. Thanks a lot, Jim, that
was great. I appreciate it. By the way, you can
contribute to help the people in the area. All donations
to Community Foundation dot net will go directly to trusted
local organizations to provide food, shelter, healthcare, and of course hope. Natalie,
(19:26):
I know that you're a parent, and the first thing
I thought of when I heard of this was all
the times I sent my kids to camp, All the
times I sent my kids to some place where they're
going to be there for a week, and you know
you want to go and visit them, You want to
get in touch with them. You want to do anything
because you're worried about them. And I can't imagine getting
(19:49):
this kind of phone.
Speaker 9 (19:50):
Call and now hearing that they weren't allowed cell phones,
which I'm sure is a standard in a lot of camps.
Especially these children are very young. To think that you
had no way of reaching them at that point, right,
it's even worse and more horrifying.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
Well, not only that, I mean what Jim was alluding
to was the fact that nobody got warning notifications because
nobody had and how did the counselors not Now I guess,
I guess this hit it four in the morning, but
apparently there were alerts throughout the night. There's somebody. Look,
I don't want to blame anybody, certainly in something as
horrible as this, I don't want to blame anybody, But wow,
(20:27):
a lot of questions to be answered. It was one
of the most complex, extraordinary, and controversial times in American history,
the Vietnam War, and was it was littered with protest
people sacrificing their lives and just some compelling stories as well. Also,
I should point out that during that time was some
(20:49):
great music, great production that is about to open on
Broadway calling Rolling Thunder, and we are here with us
as the writer, Bryce Hallett and Rebecca Blake, the producer,
And why don't we start with you, Brace, since you
wrote this, tell us what people when they go to
(21:10):
this would expect off Broadway.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
Well, as you mentioned, it's definitely the songs of that era,
and you often hear that catchphrase, you know, the songs
or art that defined a generation. But if there was
ever a phrase that can actually describe that prodigious output
of songwriting in that late sixties and early seventies, it's
this song, this show, and so it embraces like a
(21:33):
huge catalog of songs from Paul Simon to you know, ROBERTA.
Flack and on it goes step Steppenwolf and so. And
then you sort of marry that to the words and
the intimate stories of based on many, many interviews I
did with veterans and their family members, and so that
adds to this intimate sort of aspect of this epic,
(21:56):
as you say, complex picture of war. So it's a
very dynamic experience.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
Yeah, it's you said compelling, and that's absolutely the case.
And the fact Rebecca, that these are personal stories you know,
this isn't just from somebody's imagination. This is what really happened.
Makes it even more fascinating and makes it even more compelling.
Speaker 10 (22:22):
Look in Australia, we had veterans that would come and
see this show again and again. They contributed to the show,
not only with stories but with photography. We had like
the Groupie veterans that just were so honored that we
were even doing this show. And to bring it here
to New York is a dream of mine. We've been
(22:43):
touring it in Australia for ten years now. We've readapted
the script for the American audiences and it is compelling.
It has heart, it has many many aspects to the show.
And this amazing music in and out of the story.
So and all the songs have strategically been placed.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
Yeah, I'm listening to them. I've listened to some of
the music, and I saw some of the music you're
you're going to put in there. I mean, it's a
great album if you were able to get all of
that on an album. I mean, it's the soundtrack of
many of our lives.
Speaker 10 (23:19):
I know, and during this tumultuous period, the best music
came out of this time. You know, these songwriters were
writing these songs that are still played today, so younger
generations know this music. So I would just love as
many Americans to see this show. I mean, we used
to get comments you've got to take this to America.
(23:41):
You've got to let the US see this. And it's
your music.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
Yeah, you know, yeah, our music. You're absolutely right, But
it's the best of that music. And then when you
go down the list of what is in there, it's incredible.
I love that you have bridge over troubled waters and
I'm sure we got to get out of this place.
That's that's that's exactly the story for a lot of
people that were there. I'm interested brace about an Australian
(24:08):
writing this story because this is such an American experience.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
Because of my background and my background as a journalist.
You know, it's sort of that, you know, as a
matter of earning the trust of many veterans and talking
to their families, and that took a while and over
many many drinks in many cases, and so that yeah,
so it was sort of yeah, you were sort of
earning their trust and getting into the interior of their lives.
(24:35):
And you know, several people I interviewed were like American
Marines and gis and so, you know, we have in
Australia quite a world view of events, and you know,
we were part of the Vietnam War. So it's you know,
to actually adapt the work wasn't as difficult as you
imagine because and dramatically, it's set in nineteen sixty eight,
(24:57):
which is you know, is considered one of the worst
years in the twentieth century, the termoil for assassinations of
Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy and so to have
that dramatic arc in the show, as much as all
of this great music, that does make for a pretty
powerful experience.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
Yeah, Rebecca walk us through it. Like when people go
to see this, what are they going to see?
Speaker 10 (25:21):
Well, most of the comments are it's so insightful. We
had no idea. It's just so much more than a
jukebox musical. It's a love story. It's joyous and uplifting.
It's not you know, oh my god, we don't need
to see another story about war right now when everything's
happening in this timeframe. But it's a show where people
(25:45):
come in, they're dancing, they're singing the songs it's a
journey of three boys lives through letters because back then
that was the only way to communicate back home, so
that the writing is a big aspect. We cover protests, combat,
(26:07):
history schools were coming in Australia because of the history.
We cover. It was the first televised war, the assassination
of Martin Luther King and as Bryce said, you know
Robert Kennedy, it was a powerful time. So we cover
all that and we keep saying it's this, you know,
(26:29):
killing me softly helped me make it through the night.
These ballads that Cassidy Pope who won the Voice, she
was the winner of the Voice. She is one of
our leads, and it's just brings tears to your eyes
and then you know everyone's I don't know. Veterans come
and they thank me, they hug me after the show,
(26:50):
they say thank you so much. And I think, what
makes this so different from anything else running at the moment.
It has purpose. We have part with American Legion. A
percentage of our merchandise is going back to American Legion.
And veterans come, they bring their grandchildren, and they bring
(27:11):
their brothers, their sisters, and they keep reappearing every night
and I go, oh my god, you're back again. We
just can't get enough of this show. It encapsulates so much,
so it's very hard for me to sit here and
describe it because you know, it's a journey and it's
in the late sixties, and it covers a lot of history.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
And I can't imagine brace that you took all of
what she was just talking about. It's a manse, it's
years and years and years of experiences and got this
into a yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
But you know, to reawaken the pulse of that generation
in the sixties and to make it feel so current
as well, so it's not this nostalgia piece. It actually
talks to young people, It talks to people of every
age and ultimately at affirms peace and it's a real
sense of anti war protests through the show, which just
seems a natural fit. So what's going on in the
(28:03):
world today.
Speaker 10 (28:05):
And we're only here for such a short time, so
you know, we're closing September seven, so we don't have time.
And it is a word of mouth because once it
hits people will be talking about it. We're in you know,
we have the first preview this Thursday. We open the
twenty fourth of July. But we're not here for a
(28:25):
long time. So if I would just say to those
New Yorkers, come and have a great night, you'll come
out of the theater singing and it'll be insightful. It's
an era we don't want to forget.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
No, it sounds compelling, and it sounds amazing, the music,
especially you were talking about. I don't know the rest
of it yet until I see it, but the music
is amazing. If you want to get tickets, you go
to Rolling Thunder us dot com. That's Rolling Thunder us
dot com again. Preview start July tenth. It opens on
the twenty fourth. Bryce Hall, writer, Rebecca Blake, producer, Thanks
(29:02):
so much for being here. Can't wait to see it.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
Thanks, thank you, Thanks I much
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