7-7-25 - 7am - Flooding History in Texas and Camp Mystic

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, Mike, isn't it kind of expected that every time
there is a natural disaster that a Republican will be
blamed if they are in office. I mean that started
with your boss, didn't it.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Yep, certainly did twenty years ago. This year ver Ver.

Speaker 3 (00:25):
National Public Radio in central Texas, the death toll in
the flash flooding Friday has risen to at least thirty two,
including fourteen children. I mean, while Cruz continued to search
for more than two dozen children missing from a summer camp.
If you're Serio Martinez Beltron has more.

Speaker 4 (00:42):
I'm outside Camp Mystic in Kerville, Texas, which was have
you already get by Friday's flash floods? Parts of it
were washed away and the area around this place is
completely destroyed.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
It's pretty incredible, Hugh.

Speaker 4 (00:56):
Streets are down, cars are stuck on them. They're also
huge boulders in the middle of the road.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
All of this.

Speaker 4 (01:04):
Show how violent the waters of the wall Lupe River
where and the certain rescue efforts are ongoing. Serio Martinez
peletran NPR News, Kerrville, Texas.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
Why did I play that, Because here's a reporter talking
about something that if for the for those of us
who've lived in the mountains for any length of time.
We've seen boulders be moved, just not even flash floods,
just heavy rainfall. Why do you think we have barriers

(01:41):
all along the interstate? How many times do we hear
that Glenwood Canyon on I seventy, either east or westbound
out near Glenwood Springs. They didn't get shut down because well,
we've got boulders out, you know, damage the highway, so
I gotta show down. Or for that matter, you live

(02:03):
out on the plane somewhere, you know, I have a
text message from someone I think it was yeah, goven
number fifty five sixty six. In my hometown in Nebraska.
I've seen the bridge in the town and wash out
three times in the area, flood probably a dozen times
from ice jams during spring thaws. It's mother nature, it's

(02:23):
what occurs. Don't get sucked into that somehow this is
either climate change or it's Trump's fault. It's well, it's
it's our It is our fault. It is our fault
because we keep pro creating, and we and we keep

(02:46):
living and moving into areas that are prone to disasters,
and we have the historical knowledge but nobody pays any
attention to it. We don't know our history, we don't understand.
One of the things I did Saturday, which again I
would encourage you to do, is too. I decided that

(03:11):
one thing I wanted to do was I've not read
any really you know, I've read lots of biographies about
George Washington or Benjamin you know, the autobiography of Benjamin
Franklin a great book, but I've never really read any
of the good books on the American Revolutionary War. So
I decided I had I had. I've got two books

(03:34):
that I took with me, and I'm trying to decide
which one to start with. I one, it's a new
autobiography of William F. Buckley. Or I went back to
a book that's been out for ten years, maybe maybe
longer by Rick Atkinson, called The British Are Coming. It's
part of a three part trilogy. He's written two of

(03:56):
the three. I think the third book may become I
think he's probably planning have the third book come out
on the two hundred and fiftieth birthday next year of
the country. So I started reading it and I was
I was absolutely amazed at someone who loves history and

(04:16):
someone who studies history. I was amazed that somehow I
had skipped over this book because I'd gone searching for
who's written one of the best, you know, histories of
the Revolutionary War that was you know. They give me
some details that maybe I've missed before. And I've started.
I started the book on I don't know, maybe Friday
or Saturday sometime, and I'm I'm slogging my way through it.

(04:40):
But holy cow, does it does it remind you of
you know? You you know, I've gotten up to because I
didn't read anything yesterday. I was too busy doing other stuff.
But I've gotten I've gotten up to the shot heard
around the world, conquered in Lexington and Paul revered and
Dawes making their rides. But the detail that this historian

(05:05):
puts in there just brings it to life. And as
I'm reading it, and of course I'm enjoying it, I'm
I'm you know, I'm absorbed in it, and i'm you know,
because I've been to these places and I can I
can visualize, the visualize what it looks like. I'm thinking
that I'm probably not the only idiot, but I'm probably

(05:26):
one of very few idiots that are actually going back
and reading a book that's, you know, ten, fifteen, maybe
twenty years old. I don't have to go look at
the publishing date, but I'm reliving this and so it
helps me for every time someone talks about a second
American Revolution, I'm back at the start of the First

(05:52):
American Revolution and reading about exactly what those colonists went through.
And when we talk about how they you know, they
pledge their their their lives and their fortunes and everything,
that's a trite phrase. I mean, yes, they did that,
but until you read about what that meant, you don't

(06:15):
really comprehend it. And this is while I've read these
histories before, it's reminding me again about what they sacrificed,
what they did, and the odds that they were facing,
and yet they persevered. How many rug rats and I'm

(06:37):
talking about up to twenty five years old, really understand
the American Revolution. If they don't understand the American Revolution,
it well, let me let me rephrase this. If they
don't understand the history of the floods in along the Guadaloupe,

(07:01):
how in the hell do you expect them to understand
the American Revolution, the point being that we don't know
our history, we are therefore doomed to repeat it. We
are doomed to make the same mistakes and not to
learn from that history. And so we get bombarded as
we are today about all of this again a tragedy,

(07:25):
a human tragedy, just as there will be other human
tragedies today. This is the focal point of the cabal,
and they're going to use it to try to convince
you that Trump's at fault. Republicans are at fault because
we pass the you know, the ob cubed and because
we well we're just we're off of human beings and

(07:48):
we don't care. I care deeply, as I said, I
can imagine one of my grandchildren he's swept away in
a flood. That's why I spend the time going through
the history to arm you. So we got to nineteen
thirty six, Well, let's get to nineteen fifty two again,

(08:13):
the Gua Guadalupe River basin including Sageine, significant flooding. But
the damages again in nineteen fifty two, neither the death
told nor the damages are very well documented. Bill. We
fast forward from fifty two to seventy two, again the
Guadalupe River basin. Same thing happened again. And then a

(08:34):
year later in nineteen seventy three, again exact same thing happened.
Then you go from seventy three to August of nineteen
seventy eight. This was Tropical Storm Amelia. August one through four,
nineteen seventy eight. Again Medina and guadalu Guadalupe River basins
including Kerr, Kendall, and Bandera Counties, torrential rainfall, horrible jamage

(09:00):
was extensive. Homes, infrastructure, campgrounds all heavily impacted. Eight people
drown near center Point again part of this story. Twenty
five others died in kirk, Kendall and Bendera counties. Thirty
three deaths nineteen seventy eight. It's not that long ago.

(09:22):
The only person that I've seen so far reporting it
is Janis Dean, and I think that's because Fox feels
an obligation to give at least some historical data. I mean,
after all, they've got a full time meteorologist, and so
you know, maybe she's trying to balance out the overwrought,

(09:42):
over emotional coverage that they're trying to draw the rest
of the country in so that the rest of the
country can then start pointing fingers and start blaming. But
let's think about the guy that said, I've been here,
I've lived here for two decads, and this I've never
seen anything like this in my life. Okay, So that

(10:05):
means if I take you at literally two decades, that
means you moved there in two thousand and five, well
eighteen years earlier. Almost another two decades before that, you
had the floods of nineteen eighty seven again occurring around
the same time July sixteenth through July seventeenth, again the

(10:28):
Guadalupe River near Comfort, Cerville, and Hunt again three of
the exact same places of this one. Up to eleven
excuse me, up to eleven and a half inches of
rain fell west of Hunt that caused a massive flood wave,
a flash flood. The river at Comfort rose twenty nine feet,

(10:48):
cresting at thirty one and a half feet. That is
the ninth highest on record. Hundreds were evacuated, infrastructure, homes,
roads heavily damaged. It was more severe than the previous
blood that I told you about. In nineteen seventy eight,
ten teenagers drowned when a bus and a van from
a church camp at pop A Gold Ranch were swept

(11:11):
away by the flood waters near comfort. Thirty three other
people were injured. That was nineteen eighty seven. Two years later,
exact date unknown, but the Guadalupe River basin again major
flooding reported, but no specific I couldn't find specific details
on the damages or the death toll nineteen ninety one.

(11:32):
So we've gone from nineteen eighty nine to two years
later that one hundred year flood to John Corney, Oh,
one hundred year of flood. You know, the sidebar real quickly.
The other thing that really bugs me about the reporting
is I don't now. I know there was a congressman
who had two children at one of these camps. Those

(11:56):
children were saved, so of course all the news meeting,
all the microphones flocked to that congressman. But all I've
heard from is Chip Roy and John Cornyan and every
federal politician. Why do I give her rats? Ask what John?

(12:17):
This may be a little personal because I just don't
particularly care for John Cornyan, but why why do I
care what a congressman has to say about a local disaster?
Now I know it's making national news, but again, why
why it's it's something about our it's part of our.

(12:39):
It's been built into us, it's been fed to us.
It's it's kind of like the the m R n
A vaccines we've we've got we kind of got this
vaccination that's had this unintended effect. This the side effect
that we that we refuse to acknowledge that every time
something bad happens, we look, Oh, what's the government having

(13:01):
to say? You know what I'd be interested in, Now
maybe this is just me, but I'd be interested in
knowing what are the county commissioners doing, what's the what
are what are the local mayors doing, What's what's the
local weather people talking about? What's what's the Salvation Army doing,

(13:21):
what's Samaritans Perst doing? What's what's that whatever the outfit
is that Glenn Beck has, what what?

Speaker 3 (13:27):
What?

Speaker 2 (13:27):
What are they doing? What are the charitable organizations doing
to help? I kind of you know what, what's the
QUANDUS Club doing? What are the people who own the
camps to run the camps? What are they doing? Guess
what I do not care one twit about is what
a freaking United States senator or a United States congressman

(13:50):
has to say, but we've been so trained to think
that they are the center of the universe. They're not.
And I don't care about I'm sure they cared. I'm
sure they want to be seen hugging a parent, hugging
you all a child, and doing whatever. But I do
not care. Good grief nineteen ninety one jumped to nineteen

(14:16):
ninety seven again, same area, Same thing happened nineteen ninety eight,
again Guadalupe, including Curville in the downstream areas. The flood
exceeded a five hundred year flood level in some areas,
breaking all the previous records. The damages were extensive. It

(14:36):
effected homes, infrastructures, agriculture, although I can't find exact monetary
damages or the number of deaths. But again, just a
year later, in October of nineteen ninety eight, there was
October as opposed to summertime. July two thousand and two,
Kerrville Centerpoint comfort the same ground zero as this desire. Yes,

(15:00):
Kerrville had nineteen inches of rain, forty to fifty inches
reported in some areas. He had widespread damage to homes, roads, businesses.
It was one of the wettest months on record. For Kerrville.
No specific fatalities were reported. Wonder why again it was July.

(15:25):
Maybe they maybe they paid attention to the warnings. I
don't know. Twenty ten. Again the Guadalupee River twenty fifteen.
May one in May, one in October Guadalupe River, same area,
this time including Wemberley plus the others. This twenty fifteen

(15:46):
flood was catastrophic, significant property damage along the Guadaloupe and
the Blanco rivers. Thirteen people died in the Wimberley flood
who not all were directly along the Guadalupe. Twenty eighteen. Again,
the same thing. Twenty twenty. Again, the same thing. Twenty

(16:06):
twenty one. Again, the same thing July fourth. Now we're
yep today, same location, Kirk County, Kerrville, and Hunt. Impacts
in Travis, Burnett, Kendall, tom Green, and Williamson Counties twelve
to twelve to fifteen inches of rain. Guadaloope River rose

(16:28):
to twenty seven feet and under two hours, destroyed homes, vehicles, infrastructure,
including bridges and campgrounds. Camp Misstic that's the Girls Summer Camp.
Severely damaged cabins were washed away. Eight hundred and fifty
rescues were conducted as probably higher now since I looked
this up yesterday, damages are likely in the millions of
the exact figures are pending. The death toll at least

(16:49):
eighty two confirmed that bebe changed since I did this
last night, including sixty eight in Kirk County, forty adults,
twenty eight children six and Travis County. Four in County,
two in Kendall County, one in tom Green County, one
in Williamson County. At least ten cambers and one councilor
from Camp Missing still remain missing, and the death toll

(17:09):
may continue increase. So where are we. We've got at
least twenty two documented significant flood events on the Guadaloupe
between eighteen seventy five and twenty twenty five. On average,
a major flood has occurred every roughly roughly speaking, every
sixty every six to seven years over the past one

(17:31):
hundred and fifty years.

Speaker 3 (17:32):
Now.

Speaker 2 (17:32):
They've been clustered sometimes in the nineteen seventies and nineteen nineties.
Nine events have occurred in the last thirty years since
nineteen ninety five, and the death toll were you know,
so all told, probably one hundred and fifty seven deaths
or more damage. Obviously significant, particularly when you consider over

(17:56):
that full time period. Colt. Why but because it's in
rocky terrain, it absorbs very little water. You have rapid
runoff and people don't pay any attention. And then they
go build camp State. Huh. And then they don't have
cell company, but they don't let them use their cell phone.

Speaker 1 (18:17):
Wow, Michael, did you just refer to a five hundred.

Speaker 2 (18:21):
Year flood record?

Speaker 1 (18:24):
Who recorded that first flood?

Speaker 2 (18:26):
Cortes? Yeah? Is it a quartel? Oh? Maybe it's the Incas.
I don't know, but somebody did. So I want to
shift gears a little bit, but I want to move

(18:46):
it into a political context for a moment before I
before I do, ask yourself, what do you know about
Camp Mystic? I honestly didn't know anything about Camp Mystic.

(19:07):
I don't recall that I ever. I just don't recall
anything about it. Our son, our daughter chose not to.
Our son went to a camp that was fairly exclusive.
I mean, you had to apply to get in. You

(19:28):
didn't get in, you know, the first the first try.
There were no racial barriers, but it was predominantly white.
And I think that's because of the expense, and of
course this is also you know, I see his ages

(19:48):
this thirty some years ago or two. In fact, it
was such an exclusive camp that Cam and I couldn't
afford to pay for it, but her parents wanted their
first grad they wanted him to go, so you know, sure,
but we did it well. Camp Mystic was founded in

(20:11):
nineteen twenty six by E. J. Stewart. It's a non
denominational Christian summer camp for girls between the ages of
seven and seventeen. It's been operated by a family whose
surname is Stacy since nineteen thirty nine. Dick and Tweety

(20:31):
Eastland are the current owners since nineteen seventy four, and
the camp emphasizes on its website a wholesome Christian atmosphere
to foster personal quality, self esteem, spiritual growth. Offers activities
like archery, canoeing, horseback riding, Bible study. It hosts about
seven hundred and fifty campers across two sites, the Guadalupe

(20:53):
River site and the Cypress Lake site during the summer.
This is one of the most highly sought after camps
in Texas. It has a wait list that reportedly starts
at birth for some families it is a to summarize,

(21:13):
I would put it this way. It has hosted the
daughters of LBJ, Lynda Mings Johnson, former Governor John Connley,
former First Lady Laura Bush, who happened to be a
counselor at that camp at one time. So it's steeped

(21:33):
in Texas politics, Texas tradition. There is nothing that I
can find anywhere, either on AI searches, Google searches, METIS searches.
I can't find anything that shows a discriminatory policy, nor
would I expect to find one. I wouldn't expect to

(21:56):
find in twenty twenty five a camp or you know,
non denominational yet Christian, A thing says, but it's for
whites only. It's just not going to happen. But that
doesn't mean that those claims won't persist, which again is
an example of how I believe that social media is

(22:18):
dumbing down this country horrifically. Now again, hearts go out
to the girls missing or killed by the flooding at
the camp, But those on the left are absolutely despicable.

(22:40):
I'll tell you who this is in a second. Those people, and.

Speaker 5 (22:47):
I know I'm probably gonna get canceled for this. But
Camp Mystic is a white's only girls Christian camp. They
don't even have a token asient. They don't have a
token black person. It is a all white, white only
conservative Christian camp. If you ain't white, you ain't right,

(23:09):
you ain't getting in, you ain't going period. And I
think that context needs to be said in this matter.
It's not to say that we don't want the girls
to be found whatever girls that are missing or whatever
right now, but you best believe little girls would be
saying things like they need to be deported, they shouldn't

(23:30):
have been here in.

Speaker 2 (23:30):
The first place. In YadA YadA yah. So before y'all
come at me, before y'all.

Speaker 5 (23:34):
Start leaving hate comments on my page about oh, these
are just kids and they don't know no butter da
da da da dada, the parents of these children who
are choosing, and it is a choice in twenty twenty five,
it is definitely a freaking choice to go into East
goddamn tech enclave, exclusionary just for white people, with.

Speaker 2 (23:57):
All exclusionary just for white people. Wow, that's from Sadie Perkins.
He goes on for it's a two and a half
minute TikTok video. It's also over all X they love
a black person. It's all white, white only conservative Christian camp.
But you ain't white, you ain't right, and you ain't

(24:18):
getting in. You ain't going now. Houston mayor John Whitmyer
call the remarks deeply inappropriate. Really no thesis, Sherlock. You
think so, But this is this is what social media does.
She's sitting there, she's looking at the website. She's got

(24:42):
her she's got her iPhone, watching her laptop, and she's
going through the website and based on that, she's made
the determination that it is white only. Now you can
go to look for yourself campmistic dot com. It doesn't

(25:02):
mention any racial exclusions. It describes the camp is open
to girls who have completed second grade, focusing on fostering friendship,
spiritual growth, blah blah blah blah. The goals, at least
as described on the website, are including very inclusive in tone,
aiming to help all campers to be a better person

(25:24):
and grow spiritually. There is no language suggestioning any racial restrictions,
but it is highly competitive. You gotta put down a
four hundred deposit just to get a place on the
wait list, which, as I said, often occurs at birth.

(25:45):
Oh we just had a baby. Oh get them on
the wait list for cam't mystic. And because it is
such a storied place for the political elite in Texas
and they can afford and go throw down the money
and they're on the wait list, I'm not surprised that

(26:09):
there's not an Asian to be seen anywhere. And her
claim that you would think because oh it's near San Antonio,
well you think it would be predominantly Hispanic. Well that's
kind of racist too, isn't it. The camps association with
elite families like Johnson and Connelly, Bush's and others, they

(26:29):
might that might indeed contribute to a perception of homogenity,
but that's not evidence of a formal exclusion policy. You
can go, you can go look at the website yourself,
and you can make your own determination whether or not

(26:50):
it's excluding any minorities. You know, the Texas Hill Country,
I mean, it's area is and has been historically predominantly
white Kerr County eighty white, non Hispanic as of the

(27:12):
most recent senses. Now that demographic, in addition to the
heritage of the camp, may influence the Camper's camp base
camper Base, especially given that it's private, it's high cost,
and nature, it appeals to legacy families. But a predominantly

(27:35):
white camper population does not equate to a deliberate exclusion policy.
But some people's brains like that dirt bag is so
focused on race that if you do anything anything at all.

(28:04):
For example, Tam and I have about four or five
couples that we frequently socialize with. They're all white. Oh
does that make me a racist? Now? I could throw

(28:31):
in all of the minorities that I know and I'm
friends with and that I sometimes have lunches with. But
as a couple, all of our couple friends happen to
be white. We don't have a discriminatory policy. That's just
the way it's occurred. Now. It's kind of interesting because

(28:54):
Tamer's probably very best friend is Hispanic, and probably my
very best friend friend is well one of my two
very best friends. One's white, one's Asian. But who cares?
Why do we even focus on that? So in the
midst of a disaster, a public official decides to make

(29:17):
a TikTok video claiming that you should not get that.
The video goes on to talk about how you know,
you should think twice before you give any sort of
monetary contribution to anybody that might be willing to go
help in the rescue efforts or in the rebuilding the
camp or anything else. I mean, just just don't give
any money at all, because you look at the website.

(29:38):
All I see are you know young white girls. Wow.
I wonder if you ever put your name on it.
Did you ever put your name on the list? Did
you ever apply? Did your family ever apply? Because nothing
kept you from applying. You just want to make it racial.

Speaker 6 (30:01):
Michael. Two things come to mind. One is only black
lives matter, which is really sad to say. And the
second is, this is why every culture has a flood
story in it. This has happened since the beginning of time. Thanks,
have a great day.

Speaker 2 (30:18):
I am having a great day. I'm back behind the microphone.
That makes me happy. So that's that's good. So anytime
we have these tragedies, you can you can fully expect
that the cabal is going to again. It's the whole
concept of don't let it, you know, don't let a

(30:41):
tragedy go to waste, don't let a crisis go to waste,
and here, we're going to infuse all the leftist ideology
that you can possibly imagine, everything from climate change to
race and then on top of that and I don't

(31:01):
think I'm speaking to anyone in this audience, but if
I am, I'm doing it with I'm doing it out
a genuine concern, but it does bother me. I don't
expect everyone to instantaneously know, for example, the history of

(31:22):
flooding along the Guadalupee River. I just don't. I spent
an inordinate amount of time yesterday going through and researching
and finding all of that so I could give you
all those details. But here's what I do expect. I
do expect that, whether in this audience or it's within

(31:46):
your sphere of influence, that you just not take anything
at face value. Anything I said something on X I
had oh while we were in New Mexico over the weekend,

(32:11):
they had moved. We'd gotten an email that said they're
shutting down one of the community bulletin boards and opening
up another one. And so I ended up on Facebook
for a while. I rarely go onto Facebook. Well, I
had found some stuff which I need to check more often,
that had been posted on the official the show page

(32:35):
that I thought was highly inappropriate, and one it was
just absolutely false. It was just everything about it was
just untrue. And when I first saw it, I thought
that that just doesn't seem right. So I did a
quick search. I mean it took me all of thirty
seconds to ascertain that what somebody had posted on the

(32:55):
Facebook page was utterly and completely false, no truth in whatsoever.
So I took it down and chastise the person who
had put it up. So I don't expect people to
just automatically know that what's being told them is not true.
What I do expect, though, and you should expect this

(33:17):
of yourself, is to take everything with a grain of salt.
Even anything I say, you should take with a grain
of salt. If something I say you think doesn't sound
quite right, I would urge you to challenge me on it. Now,
don't just challenge me. Don't just come at me with
I don't think you're right about that. Tell me, why
tell me on what basis, Give me the background, do

(33:40):
your own research. I'm so sick of you, know. I Look,
I think artificial intelligence is going to do wonders for society,
But I also think it's going to dumbess down. It's
going to dumbess down. Because as I was making that
change on the Facebook page, I start scrolling through the feed,
just looking some stuff, and I get caught by a

(34:02):
Because I've been on Air Force One a lot, I
get stopped by a photograph or a video of air
Force one, and I stop and I start watching it,
and about five seconds into it, I realized, wait a minute,
that this is AI. This isn't artificially created video of
air Force one, because what caught my eye was it's

(34:26):
air Force one being escorted by two fighters. Not unusual.
I mean I've seen that myself. I've been on a
plane when that's happened. But suddenly it's crossing over a
it's crossing over an aircraft carrier, and you can tell
that it's superimposed, and the aircraft carrier is probably fake
because there wasn't a soul on the deck. There was

(34:49):
not anybody on the deck anywhere. There were no planes
on the deck or anything else. And then I replayed
it and realized, oh, this is all fake. It's all faith. Hey,
you just can't trust anything.