November 13, 2025 • 30 mins
Join Michael Berry for commentary on Texas flash floods and Camp Mystic lawsuits, government shutdowns, and political showdowns in Washington.
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
It's that time. Time, time, time, luck and load.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
The Michael Varry Show is on the air.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
With the longest government shut down in American history over.
Minnesota's Governor Timmy Waltz is very, very excited. He talked
about it on his podcast.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Hello America. You are listening to the number twelve most popular.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Podcast just out of Canada, and we are don't think
to have you. Who's got the slack, who's got the plan? Yes,
Timmy Walls, he's.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
The manly man.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
With a mic in his hand and a lass of bread.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
He's having wisdom, Bunkie, Timmy Walls, don't put no games.
Super excited today if we feel like good times, come on.
The government is back open after forty three days of darkness.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Time for the walls of pot.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
So Republicans. You can shut up because the shutdown is over.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
No thanks to you.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Now, I did have my assistant Bruise take a poll,
and you know I love a good poll, and the
results show that white males are blaming Democrats.
Speaker 4 (02:02):
For the shut mail.
Speaker 5 (02:05):
Ridiculous.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Listen, it's a well known fact. I'm the voice of
the white American red blooded mail. You know, the manly man.
So allow the old ball coach to explain this in
terms you'll understand. Like any good football coach, you gotta
be good at the p's and q's.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
You see, the.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Democrats, we move the baseball right down the field and
hit a touchdown.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
We grabbed the ball laid it up for a home run.
The Democrats.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
You see, we shot a triple and made more runs
than those Republicans. So you Republicans, you can burn us
and eat my rubber. Feel so good to be a
man ug At that time's getting away from me.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
I'm gonna miss my peny turtle. Then, the impacts of
the shutdown are being reported as follows. Forty two million
(03:06):
in lost snap benefits, forty two million people, five point
two million airline passengers impacted, one point four million federal
workers missed paychecks, and fifteen billion dollars lost per week
(03:26):
in what was it a five week shutdown, so seventy
five billion dollars. I don't know how it affected you
in a tangible way that you felt. The thing I
heard the most from was the airport, And I truly
(03:49):
believe that there was an effort made by some people
to make it more difficult on us to make the
shutdown more painful to cause problems for Trump. We know
that shutdown. Schumer worked very hard behind the scenes to
(04:10):
keep the government shut down. We know that two weeks
into it, twenty days ago, he told the moderate Democrats
who were looking to who were looking to vote to
end they were looking to vote with their own conscience,
that they couldn't do that, that he would punish them
(04:33):
if they did that, and so they did not. Finally,
I think enough of them were catching hell. And what
ends up happening is this is what this is the
really dirty part of the way legislative bodies work. John
(04:55):
Cornyn is very deep into this part of the process.
Eight Democrat senators voted to kill the end the filibuster
so that the government could reopen, and that those eight
senators don't necessarily vote their conscience. If they had, Kristin
Cinema would have voted to close it. Fetterman, I believe,
(05:18):
genuinely believed, because he was saying it constantly, we need
to end the shutdown. But of those eight Durban, Hussan, King, Cortes,
mastow Kin, Shaheen, Rosen, and of course Fetterman, what will
typically be done? And I haven't looked. I should look,
but I haven't looked. What will typically be done is
(05:39):
a senator who's up for a re election who needs
to show that who has like a Democrat challenger in
his primary. That guy can't vote with the Republicans. That
guy can't do what's best for the country if it
looks like he's helping the Republicans. That guy has to
do the most Democrat thing possible because he's got a primary.
(05:59):
Se isn't coming up. But if you're a guy that
was elected two years ago, you got a six year term,
you're one of the guys that can follow on your
sword and vote with the Republicans because it's going to
be four years before you're up for reelection and voters
you will have had a lot of other manufactured crises
in the meantime. Part of why these crises are manufactured
(06:24):
is if you leave people alone and let them live
their lives, they'll go by beach houses and lake houses.
They'll hunt and they'll fish, they'll go to sporting events,
they'll take on projects, they'll volunteer, they'll prepare for a marathon,
they'll travel, they'll build businesses. So the challenge of politics
(06:48):
is you have to keep it top of mind for
Americans all the time, because if Americans are not obsessed
with politics every moment of every they won't keep giving
money to it. They won't keep feeding the beast. And
if you've ever made the mistake of making a political contribution,
(07:09):
you know they're going to hit you for the rest
of your life. You're going to get mail, You're going
to get email, you're going to get text messages. They're
never going to stop. Because there's two types of people.
People who give multiple times to politicians and people who've
never given before and will never give again. They're not
a contributor. The person they're going after is the person
(07:33):
who is prone to write a check, because if you've
made a donation before, you're a person comfortable making a donation.
Doesn't make you rich because it can be small donations,
but you're a person who is willing to do it.
And if your person is willing to do it, that's
where all the energy is directed. You're the one. You're
the one that they want, and you're not going to
give money if you haven't seen them in the news,
(07:57):
if there is not some issue that the reason highly
polarized politics is good for everybody in the industry. People,
can't we all just get along? No, because then you
won't contribute. They have to keep you on edge. Well, well, well,
lucky you. The Michael Ferry Show continues.
Speaker 6 (08:15):
Lucky today.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
What they have found out?
Speaker 4 (08:26):
Okay, thank you everybody who have responded to Michael Berry's
pobable about is you or is you not circumscribed? And
it turned out ninety foul mescent of the Israeli means
and Canadians and the United States and all the Arab
countries is circumscribed.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
And what else?
Speaker 4 (08:46):
They don't even care. I don't know how to feel
about it. What you think was it was this?
Speaker 1 (08:51):
I don't know. I don't even know where my Virginia
start and end.
Speaker 4 (08:56):
Girl, Oh my god.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
The families of multiple campers and two councilors at Camp
Mystic who died in the July fourth flooding have filed
suit against the camp, saying gross negligence and reckless disregard
for safety led to a quote self created disaster end
quote that claimed the lives of twenty eight people total.
(09:25):
The story from ABC News It's gonna be clip number
eight ramon.
Speaker 7 (09:34):
This morning. The families of children and counselors who died
in the historic July fourth flooding at Camp Mystic in
Texas are suing the camp and its owners for negligence.
Twenty five young girls and two teen councilors were killed
when the Guadalupe River rose more than twenty feet in
less than two hours. Now, the families of five of
the girls and two of the councilors insist the tragedy
(09:55):
was avoidable.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Camp is supposed to be a safe place.
Speaker 7 (09:58):
In one of three lawsuits wild Yesterday, the families say
the girls died because a for profit camp put profit
over safety. The lawsuit accuses Camp Mystic of housing the
girls in flood prown cabins to avoid the cost of
relocating them, and of failing to create or practice an
evacuation plan. It claims that even after a flash flood warning,
(10:19):
the staff spent time moving equipment instead of children.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Seales life ended not because of an unavoidable act of nature,
but because of preventable failures.
Speaker 7 (10:31):
A lawyer for the camp said keeping the girls in
their cabins was the right thing to do. Do not
take nine year old girls who weighs sixty three pounds
on average into raging floodwaters, they're going to get washed away.
In a new statement, a camp lawyer calls the flood unprecedented,
saying no adequate warning systems existed. The camp saying it
empathizes with the families but disagrees with several accusations.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Well, July, August, September, October, North it's been four months now.
I put off this conversation when it was fresh because
it was so fresh and so raw, and more information
is coming forward now, and I think it's probably a
(11:20):
time to begin to have this conversation. I know some people.
I've noticed that some people will say, right after this happened, well,
don't start asking questions. It's inappropriate. It just happened. Let
people grieve fair. Those same people that now when you
(11:43):
ask the question, hey, let's talk about what was done.
Let's talk about let's children died. You've got to ask questions.
I'm sorry that upsets people that you ask questions. But
the same people who said, no, no, it's too early,
it's disrespectful to the deceased. Okay, I'll respect that. Those
same people now say what's done is done. Why are
(12:05):
you digging up the past? That's a technique you use
to prevent ever asking questions. Some people don't like to
confront difficult issues. I'm the opposite. I want to get
in there and wallow around in it. I want to
discuss every different angle. I want to talk it through.
(12:26):
Maybe you save a child's life in the future, maybe
you save the camping industry. Maybe you give people some relief,
maybe you at least bring some sense of closure. But
that's what you do. That's what civilized people do. They
don't just pretend that it didn't happen. So we're making
(12:50):
a movie. I have a smaller role than Sean Welling,
who is the filmmaker. Lee Majors is the narrator, and
it's about the heroism of the kids and those who
did do everything they could. And I think everybody involved
(13:11):
in everything good to save the children. It's just a
question of whether everything was done ahead of time. And
these are healthy questions. And Sean Welling, the filmmaker's a
long time friend of mine for almost twenty five years,
and he wanted to interview me for the film Fun
and he does not agree with my opinion on the issue,
(13:32):
which is that I suspect that insufficient effort was taken
to ensure the safety of these kids. And I don't
mean that day necessarily, although I'd still like to learn
more about that, but that these camps were in a
location where flooding is sufficiently likely. That doesn't mean every week,
(13:54):
even every year, but the likelihood was high enough that
balanced against the potential for deadly results. Probably was not
the best idea, probably the best, not the best thing
to do. This wasn't but for putting it on this space.
(14:19):
This camp doesn't exist. Those camps were cashing in, which
is fine. I want everybody to make as much money
as they possibly can. But in the meantime, I think
there is a duty incumbent upon you when you do this,
to create the most safe place for these children should
this happen. Sean and I got into a i'll call
(14:46):
it a spirited discussion, but he had the whole film
crew there. There were probably twelve people in the room
with us, and you know, I'm barking at him, and
he's because I'm pretty passionate. Anyway, i'd like to I'm
sure many of you have thought somewhat happened on that
day seven one three one.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
Thus to your ears, this is the Michael Arry show.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
A lawsuit has been filed by some of the families
of the of the campers who perished in the July
fourth flooding at Camp Mystic Campers and their counselors. Toe
to the counselors Chloe Childress, who was eighteen. She was
(15:33):
set to go to the University of Texas, as was
her friend Catherine Feruso, nineteen. We have mutual friends with
both of those families in some of the some of
the kids as well. It's just regardless how all this
turns out, lawsuits, liability, blame, responsibility changes, it's it breaks
(16:00):
your heart. It breaks your heart for the families because
you never you know, you send your kid to camp,
and you never expect that that'll be the last time
you see them. And I my heart goes out to
those families. That's in the evil I would wish upon someone,
even that one is too much. That that is a
pain I cannot imagine having to suffer. Elena, you're up, Hi, Michael,
(16:25):
how are you? I'm good, dear her, are you?
Speaker 8 (16:28):
I'm all right? We have a birthday in common. I
called you Monday and said happy birthday. I don't know
if Ramon told you, but we have a mutual birthday.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
He doesn't tell me anything.
Speaker 8 (16:37):
Okay, well happy the lady birthday was Monday for me too.
I'm a little bit older than you, but happy birthday anyway.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
Thank you. My thoughts excuse me, I said, thank you?
Speaker 3 (16:50):
Okay.
Speaker 8 (16:51):
My thoughts on this is how come only little girls died,
not the little boys? And how come there wasn't a
life vest anywhere around those places where the children were sleeping?
That's my question. How come it was just little girls.
They took the little boys out. They saved the little boys,
(17:12):
but not the little girls, and there was no lifevest
anywhere around. Do they even own life best at the cabins?
Speaker 1 (17:19):
You know, Elena, one of the things that surprised me
the most in all of this is that life vests
are the cheapest thing. Now. I don't know if that
would have saved the girls. I know it would have
increased the likelihood that they survived. It strikes me that
being in a flood zone like that, that would be
the sort of thing that you would have available, and
(17:42):
even as fast as those floodwaters were rising, you could
stage those in each unit you referenced. How come they
saved the boys and not the girls. It was a
different camp that the boys were at. And I think
there's a lot that goes into some of that, but
most of it, I think it's just the Camp Mystic location,
because the girls who died were all in a particular
(18:05):
part of Camp Mystic. It wasn't every girl that was
at Camp Mystic. It was girls that were in a
particular cabin based on who they were moving and when
they were moving. But you know, one of the things
that has come up in my conversations and have had
a lot of them since then about this is several
people have made a statement to me something of the
effect of, well, yeah, you can go back now and
(18:28):
think about should they have life best or should they this?
And my point is, under a standard of law, let's
talk about the legal liability before you talk about the
moral liability. Because you've taken in these you've taken in
little girls, So we don't need the law to be
involved to have a conversation about what's right and wrong. Right,
we don't have to have that. But several people have said, well, yeah,
(18:50):
you can go back now and say they should have
done this, and they should have done that, and should
have done this. The legal standard would be, is it
reasonable to assume but there was a reasonable likelihood of flooding. Well,
you don't have to have flooding every week, every month,
every year, every decade for there to be a reasonable
(19:10):
likelihood of flooding. You look at the new houses that
are being built off Braiswood or Southmore or along the
Bayou anywhere in Houston, and you look at how they're
building those houses up. Well, we don't flood that often,
but you know that the flooding likelihood is possible. I
(19:31):
was not aware there was a flood, and I think
eighty seven there've been. I was not aware. Were you
aware that this area is known as flash Flood Alley?
I had no idea. In fact, partly because of the
movie and partly because I was I've been fascinated by this.
I have been reading and talking to people involved in this,
(19:55):
the firefighters along that region. They would tell you flooding
is very likely. And the thing about it is this
thing looks like at a water slide. It looks like
those those you know, the twist and turn things that
bring you down. It's like it funnels the water into
a channel that's a hard rock siding as I understand it.
(20:17):
So this thing, it is as if if you wanted
to create an element of flooding that would rise fast
and move swiftly. This would if you designed it. That's
how you design it, if that was your goal, which
of course nobody would, because now it's gonna fill up
faster because it's all a v cut through there. It's
(20:38):
gonna fill up faster, and it's gonna move faster, and
it's gonna funnel everything into that. That's the path that
the water is using to exit, just the way we
have values here, and they know this. It's called flash
flood alley. If you never had a flash flood there,
(21:00):
if you'd only had a flash flood oh about the
era of the Alamo, it wouldn't be called flash flood alley.
And these are the sorts of things that a lawsuit
will discover and a story will be told, and it
should be told. Now I have noticed I have received
some unkind more unkind? What are you eating? Honey? Is
(21:23):
that the honey I gave you? Who gave us that?
Somebody brought that to us?
Speaker 2 (21:29):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Somebody made that at their house, Uh, Steve, it says
it on there trip It's it's out of Brendham. Somebody
brought me that, and then I gave it to you,
and you hurt my feelings byt trying to give it
away to Emily. And she told Nandita, who told me, oh,
saving your life, why you had a cough?
Speaker 8 (21:50):
Oh you oh?
Speaker 1 (21:51):
I see? Okay, all right, all right, I'm glad you're
not on the microphone because I don't hear you cough.
So I've heard some comments that were most unkind, may
I say, from families of campers over the years. Not
campers there now, mind you, but campers over the years.
(22:12):
And there is this idea that, well, we don't want
to question what happened at Camp Mystic because we don't
want to we don't want to close Camp Mystic. Well
neither do I. I'm not trying to close Camp Mystic.
But there is this idea that there must be loyalty
to the cause. Okay, so we're just going to sacrifice
(22:33):
babies to the loyalty to the cause. This is the
same mindset in the Catholic Church that just kept moving
pedophiles because when we don't want to hurt the church.
This is the same mindset at Penn State that protected,
Joe Paterno and an idiot.
Speaker 5 (22:47):
This is the same mindset. Prepare for a complete meltdown
with more up to Michael Berry Show. People who didn't
live through it can't believe how big.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Kenny Rogers was in James. That's Kenny and Dottie And
you're probably thinking, yeah, singing a Sonny and Share song. Well, yes,
technically written by Jimmy Holliday and Eddie Reeves or Ray Charles,
who first recorded it in nineteen seventy one. David, you're
(23:27):
on the Michael Berry Show. Welcome to the program, sir, Oh,
good morning.
Speaker 6 (23:31):
I've been listening for about five years. I love your show.
Thank you first time calling you. We're welcome calling to
comment about the can't miss it? Yep, can you hear me?
All right?
Speaker 1 (23:45):
I can hear you? Great, Okay.
Speaker 6 (23:49):
I really feel a lot of compassion and I just
hate it for these families that lost their loved ones
in the flood, and I don't have any They're pity
for the uh, the owners or the people that you
know were in charge of making sure that camp was
safe for the children. Because this isn't the first time
something like this has happened. Myself I lost the baby brother. Gosh,
(24:14):
it's been a little over forty years now, but uh,
they lost everyone in the camp group. All the kids
have the cancelers. Who was on the pertin now it's
not to goud of Loupe and uh, it's just it's
a terrible thing to h you know, I imagine a
thirty foot wall of water hitting your kids and washing
them down the river. It's just unbelievable, the uh anguish
(24:38):
and suffering those families are going through. And I don't
feel any pity. I don't feel any any sympathy towards
the camp you know staff and uh well, I mean
you know, not the staff, but the the actual people
that are running it, because they could have taken plenty
of precautions. This isn't the first time it's happened. Like
I said, it has been over forty years ago, and
(25:01):
I lost the baby brother to the same type of thing.
And he wasn't alone. Everyone just about in his group
was washed down the river. Half the counselors got washed.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
I mean it was terrible, David, I remember camp was that?
Excuse me, what camp was that? Where your brother was was?
Speaker 6 (25:18):
Oh, I can't remember the name of it, but it
had to do with Hope Center, I think. But they
were camping on the Purdinwis River in the late seventies.
It's you can google it or whatever and pull it up.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
Yeah, I will. I'm sure. How old were you at the.
Speaker 6 (25:35):
Time, Oh gosh, I was about ten. It was seven
and a half.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
Why were you not at the camp? Me?
Speaker 8 (25:45):
Yeah, I was.
Speaker 6 (25:49):
I wasn't a very good kid. I was out running
the street and my brother was at camp trying to
you know, trying to do the camp thing. You know,
it was a good safe place for him, and we
were going to I'm a family was pretty ysfunctional. We're
going through a lot of things at the time, and
it seemed like it was a good place for him
to be for the summer. And you know, I wasn't
(26:10):
expecting that it would be the last time I'd ever see.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
Yeah. I would imagine that's a lot for a ten
year old kid to process. David, thank you for sharing
your perspective, Sir Darcy, you're up.
Speaker 9 (26:22):
Go ahead, Hey, Michael, I just wanted to say he
made a really great point about how houses are being
built along raised by you now and in parts of
Houston that are prone to flooding. My husband's family had
property on the Frio River for thirty five years. And
all you have to do is go back and look
(26:44):
today at how houses along the Guadaloup and the Frio
River are being built, just like in Houston, to note
that the possibility of flooding is reasonable. And I think
that that analogy she works really.
Speaker 6 (27:00):
Well for this.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
With that in mind, Look what precaution do you recommend?
Are you saying how they built the cabin structures themselves.
Speaker 9 (27:10):
Oh, I'm not an engineer, but I don't think the
federal government should have given them permission to put cabins
for kids of any age, whether they're seventeen or you know,
in a flip stat I think that there's a reasonable
expectation to not do that. You put your craft cabins,
(27:33):
you put your camp fire sides, you put the things
that aren't inhabited at night in those areas. That's my
humble opinion.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
Yeah. My hesitation is, I wonder, so you can make
it so that it's impossible to build if you make
it hard enough, and some communities do that, and then
you can make it so that anyone can build anything anywhere,
(28:02):
and people will be reckless about the way they do that.
I don't know I would really. One of the things
I'm looking forward to information coming out about is so
my understanding is that floodwater rose faster than anyone could imagine,
(28:22):
shockingly fast, and yet there were warnings. There were warnings
early enough that all things being equal, you could have
gotten the girls out of there on buses if that
was an option. My understanding is there's only one in
(28:43):
and out, and that's a low water bridge that washes
out fast. So now you're trapped on an island at
that point. That's obviously problematic. And we talked about life vests,
you know, the question is what is reasonable? And it
just strikes me, well, I guess we're going to learn
(29:03):
a lot more. One former camper who happens to be
a friend of mine wrote on the subject of Camp Mystic.
As a young girl, I went to Camp Mystic, and
both of my both of my daughters did twenty something
years ago. But I will tell you I'm mad as
hell about what happened, and I don't believe all precautions
were taken, and I will never understand why the youngest
of the campers were on the closest proximity bank to
(29:24):
the river. The Eastland family has to have some sort
of liability because I'm pretty because I'm pretty certain there
were conversations that occurred and they were aware that this
could happen. But I think, oh, because I'm pretty sure
there were conversations that occurred and they were aware that
this could happen. But I think everybody was just betting
(29:45):
on the fact that it just never would even though
they did have a flood black back in the late
eighties if I remember correctly, so did they all forget
it's a limestone riverbed and water falling on it would
certainly not be absorbed. Thank you for doing the movie
and asking the questions. I think. I think the f
families deserve answers, and if this saves one child at
the camp in the future, then it is worth it. Well.
(30:06):
It's uh, it's incredible, you know. I didn't realize how
many kids go to camp. I heard from so many
people as I've mentioned this and talked about it. There
are a lot of kids who go to camp. I didn't
go to camp as a kid. We didn't send our
kids to camp as a kid. But it's a Texas tradition,
and I think that's part of it, is there's a
lot of nossologia for people, so they're uncomfortable with all
(30:28):
these questions being asked. But we owe it to these
little girls and their families to ask tough questions
It's that time. Time, time, time, luck and load.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
The Michael Varry Show is on the air.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
With the longest government shut down in American history over.
Minnesota's Governor Timmy Waltz is very, very excited. He talked
about it on his podcast.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Hello America. You are listening to the number twelve most popular.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Podcast just out of Canada, and we are don't think
to have you. Who's got the slack, who's got the plan? Yes,
Timmy Walls, he's.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
The manly man.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
With a mic in his hand and a lass of bread.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
He's having wisdom, Bunkie, Timmy Walls, don't put no games.
Super excited today if we feel like good times, come on.
The government is back open after forty three days of darkness.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Time for the walls of pot.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
So Republicans. You can shut up because the shutdown is over.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
No thanks to you.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Now, I did have my assistant Bruise take a poll,
and you know I love a good poll, and the
results show that white males are blaming Democrats.
Speaker 4 (02:02):
For the shut mail.
Speaker 5 (02:05):
Ridiculous.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Listen, it's a well known fact. I'm the voice of
the white American red blooded mail. You know, the manly man.
So allow the old ball coach to explain this in
terms you'll understand. Like any good football coach, you gotta
be good at the p's and q's.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
You see, the.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Democrats, we move the baseball right down the field and
hit a touchdown.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
We grabbed the ball laid it up for a home run.
The Democrats.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
You see, we shot a triple and made more runs
than those Republicans. So you Republicans, you can burn us
and eat my rubber. Feel so good to be a
man ug At that time's getting away from me.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
I'm gonna miss my peny turtle. Then, the impacts of
the shutdown are being reported as follows. Forty two million
(03:06):
in lost snap benefits, forty two million people, five point
two million airline passengers impacted, one point four million federal
workers missed paychecks, and fifteen billion dollars lost per week
(03:26):
in what was it a five week shutdown, so seventy
five billion dollars. I don't know how it affected you
in a tangible way that you felt. The thing I
heard the most from was the airport, And I truly
(03:49):
believe that there was an effort made by some people
to make it more difficult on us to make the
shutdown more painful to cause problems for Trump. We know
that shutdown. Schumer worked very hard behind the scenes to
(04:10):
keep the government shut down. We know that two weeks
into it, twenty days ago, he told the moderate Democrats
who were looking to who were looking to vote to
end they were looking to vote with their own conscience,
that they couldn't do that, that he would punish them
(04:33):
if they did that, and so they did not. Finally,
I think enough of them were catching hell. And what
ends up happening is this is what this is the
really dirty part of the way legislative bodies work. John
(04:55):
Cornyn is very deep into this part of the process.
Eight Democrat senators voted to kill the end the filibuster
so that the government could reopen, and that those eight
senators don't necessarily vote their conscience. If they had, Kristin
Cinema would have voted to close it. Fetterman, I believe,
(05:18):
genuinely believed, because he was saying it constantly, we need
to end the shutdown. But of those eight Durban, Hussan, King, Cortes,
mastow Kin, Shaheen, Rosen, and of course Fetterman, what will
typically be done? And I haven't looked. I should look,
but I haven't looked. What will typically be done is
(05:39):
a senator who's up for a re election who needs
to show that who has like a Democrat challenger in
his primary. That guy can't vote with the Republicans. That
guy can't do what's best for the country if it
looks like he's helping the Republicans. That guy has to
do the most Democrat thing possible because he's got a primary.
(05:59):
Se isn't coming up. But if you're a guy that
was elected two years ago, you got a six year term,
you're one of the guys that can follow on your
sword and vote with the Republicans because it's going to
be four years before you're up for reelection and voters
you will have had a lot of other manufactured crises
in the meantime. Part of why these crises are manufactured
(06:24):
is if you leave people alone and let them live
their lives, they'll go by beach houses and lake houses.
They'll hunt and they'll fish, they'll go to sporting events,
they'll take on projects, they'll volunteer, they'll prepare for a marathon,
they'll travel, they'll build businesses. So the challenge of politics
(06:48):
is you have to keep it top of mind for
Americans all the time, because if Americans are not obsessed
with politics every moment of every they won't keep giving
money to it. They won't keep feeding the beast. And
if you've ever made the mistake of making a political contribution,
(07:09):
you know they're going to hit you for the rest
of your life. You're going to get mail, You're going
to get email, you're going to get text messages. They're
never going to stop. Because there's two types of people.
People who give multiple times to politicians and people who've
never given before and will never give again. They're not
a contributor. The person they're going after is the person
(07:33):
who is prone to write a check, because if you've
made a donation before, you're a person comfortable making a donation.
Doesn't make you rich because it can be small donations,
but you're a person who is willing to do it.
And if your person is willing to do it, that's
where all the energy is directed. You're the one. You're
the one that they want, and you're not going to
give money if you haven't seen them in the news,
(07:57):
if there is not some issue that the reason highly
polarized politics is good for everybody in the industry. People,
can't we all just get along? No, because then you
won't contribute. They have to keep you on edge. Well, well, well,
lucky you. The Michael Ferry Show continues.
Speaker 6 (08:15):
Lucky today.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
What they have found out?
Speaker 4 (08:26):
Okay, thank you everybody who have responded to Michael Berry's
pobable about is you or is you not circumscribed? And
it turned out ninety foul mescent of the Israeli means
and Canadians and the United States and all the Arab
countries is circumscribed.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
And what else?
Speaker 4 (08:46):
They don't even care. I don't know how to feel
about it. What you think was it was this?
Speaker 1 (08:51):
I don't know. I don't even know where my Virginia
start and end.
Speaker 4 (08:56):
Girl, Oh my god.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
The families of multiple campers and two councilors at Camp
Mystic who died in the July fourth flooding have filed
suit against the camp, saying gross negligence and reckless disregard
for safety led to a quote self created disaster end
quote that claimed the lives of twenty eight people total.
(09:25):
The story from ABC News It's gonna be clip number
eight ramon.
Speaker 7 (09:34):
This morning. The families of children and counselors who died
in the historic July fourth flooding at Camp Mystic in
Texas are suing the camp and its owners for negligence.
Twenty five young girls and two teen councilors were killed
when the Guadalupe River rose more than twenty feet in
less than two hours. Now, the families of five of
the girls and two of the councilors insist the tragedy
(09:55):
was avoidable.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Camp is supposed to be a safe place.
Speaker 7 (09:58):
In one of three lawsuits wild Yesterday, the families say
the girls died because a for profit camp put profit
over safety. The lawsuit accuses Camp Mystic of housing the
girls in flood prown cabins to avoid the cost of
relocating them, and of failing to create or practice an
evacuation plan. It claims that even after a flash flood warning,
(10:19):
the staff spent time moving equipment instead of children.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Seales life ended not because of an unavoidable act of nature,
but because of preventable failures.
Speaker 7 (10:31):
A lawyer for the camp said keeping the girls in
their cabins was the right thing to do. Do not
take nine year old girls who weighs sixty three pounds
on average into raging floodwaters, they're going to get washed away.
In a new statement, a camp lawyer calls the flood unprecedented,
saying no adequate warning systems existed. The camp saying it
empathizes with the families but disagrees with several accusations.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Well, July, August, September, October, North it's been four months now.
I put off this conversation when it was fresh because
it was so fresh and so raw, and more information
is coming forward now, and I think it's probably a
(11:20):
time to begin to have this conversation. I know some people.
I've noticed that some people will say, right after this happened, well,
don't start asking questions. It's inappropriate. It just happened. Let
people grieve fair. Those same people that now when you
(11:43):
ask the question, hey, let's talk about what was done.
Let's talk about let's children died. You've got to ask questions.
I'm sorry that upsets people that you ask questions. But
the same people who said, no, no, it's too early,
it's disrespectful to the deceased. Okay, I'll respect that. Those
same people now say what's done is done. Why are
(12:05):
you digging up the past? That's a technique you use
to prevent ever asking questions. Some people don't like to
confront difficult issues. I'm the opposite. I want to get
in there and wallow around in it. I want to
discuss every different angle. I want to talk it through.
(12:26):
Maybe you save a child's life in the future, maybe
you save the camping industry. Maybe you give people some relief,
maybe you at least bring some sense of closure. But
that's what you do. That's what civilized people do. They
don't just pretend that it didn't happen. So we're making
(12:50):
a movie. I have a smaller role than Sean Welling,
who is the filmmaker. Lee Majors is the narrator, and
it's about the heroism of the kids and those who
did do everything they could. And I think everybody involved
(13:11):
in everything good to save the children. It's just a
question of whether everything was done ahead of time. And
these are healthy questions. And Sean Welling, the filmmaker's a
long time friend of mine for almost twenty five years,
and he wanted to interview me for the film Fun
and he does not agree with my opinion on the issue,
(13:32):
which is that I suspect that insufficient effort was taken
to ensure the safety of these kids. And I don't
mean that day necessarily, although I'd still like to learn
more about that, but that these camps were in a
location where flooding is sufficiently likely. That doesn't mean every week,
(13:54):
even every year, but the likelihood was high enough that
balanced against the potential for deadly results. Probably was not
the best idea, probably the best, not the best thing
to do. This wasn't but for putting it on this space.
(14:19):
This camp doesn't exist. Those camps were cashing in, which
is fine. I want everybody to make as much money
as they possibly can. But in the meantime, I think
there is a duty incumbent upon you when you do this,
to create the most safe place for these children should
this happen. Sean and I got into a i'll call
(14:46):
it a spirited discussion, but he had the whole film
crew there. There were probably twelve people in the room
with us, and you know, I'm barking at him, and
he's because I'm pretty passionate. Anyway, i'd like to I'm
sure many of you have thought somewhat happened on that
day seven one three one.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
Thus to your ears, this is the Michael Arry show.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
A lawsuit has been filed by some of the families
of the of the campers who perished in the July
fourth flooding at Camp Mystic Campers and their counselors. Toe
to the counselors Chloe Childress, who was eighteen. She was
(15:33):
set to go to the University of Texas, as was
her friend Catherine Feruso, nineteen. We have mutual friends with
both of those families in some of the some of
the kids as well. It's just regardless how all this
turns out, lawsuits, liability, blame, responsibility changes, it's it breaks
(16:00):
your heart. It breaks your heart for the families because
you never you know, you send your kid to camp,
and you never expect that that'll be the last time
you see them. And I my heart goes out to
those families. That's in the evil I would wish upon someone,
even that one is too much. That that is a
pain I cannot imagine having to suffer. Elena, you're up, Hi, Michael,
(16:25):
how are you? I'm good, dear her, are you?
Speaker 8 (16:28):
I'm all right? We have a birthday in common. I
called you Monday and said happy birthday. I don't know
if Ramon told you, but we have a mutual birthday.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
He doesn't tell me anything.
Speaker 8 (16:37):
Okay, well happy the lady birthday was Monday for me too.
I'm a little bit older than you, but happy birthday anyway.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
Thank you. My thoughts excuse me, I said, thank you?
Speaker 3 (16:50):
Okay.
Speaker 8 (16:51):
My thoughts on this is how come only little girls died,
not the little boys? And how come there wasn't a
life vest anywhere around those places where the children were sleeping?
That's my question. How come it was just little girls.
They took the little boys out. They saved the little boys,
(17:12):
but not the little girls, and there was no lifevest
anywhere around. Do they even own life best at the cabins?
Speaker 1 (17:19):
You know, Elena, one of the things that surprised me
the most in all of this is that life vests
are the cheapest thing. Now. I don't know if that
would have saved the girls. I know it would have
increased the likelihood that they survived. It strikes me that
being in a flood zone like that, that would be
the sort of thing that you would have available, and
(17:42):
even as fast as those floodwaters were rising, you could
stage those in each unit you referenced. How come they
saved the boys and not the girls. It was a
different camp that the boys were at. And I think
there's a lot that goes into some of that, but
most of it, I think it's just the Camp Mystic location,
because the girls who died were all in a particular
(18:05):
part of Camp Mystic. It wasn't every girl that was
at Camp Mystic. It was girls that were in a
particular cabin based on who they were moving and when
they were moving. But you know, one of the things
that has come up in my conversations and have had
a lot of them since then about this is several
people have made a statement to me something of the
effect of, well, yeah, you can go back now and
(18:28):
think about should they have life best or should they this?
And my point is, under a standard of law, let's
talk about the legal liability before you talk about the
moral liability. Because you've taken in these you've taken in
little girls, So we don't need the law to be
involved to have a conversation about what's right and wrong. Right,
we don't have to have that. But several people have said, well, yeah,
(18:50):
you can go back now and say they should have
done this, and they should have done that, and should
have done this. The legal standard would be, is it
reasonable to assume but there was a reasonable likelihood of flooding. Well,
you don't have to have flooding every week, every month,
every year, every decade for there to be a reasonable
(19:10):
likelihood of flooding. You look at the new houses that
are being built off Braiswood or Southmore or along the
Bayou anywhere in Houston, and you look at how they're
building those houses up. Well, we don't flood that often,
but you know that the flooding likelihood is possible. I
(19:31):
was not aware there was a flood, and I think
eighty seven there've been. I was not aware. Were you
aware that this area is known as flash Flood Alley?
I had no idea. In fact, partly because of the
movie and partly because I was I've been fascinated by this.
I have been reading and talking to people involved in this,
(19:55):
the firefighters along that region. They would tell you flooding
is very likely. And the thing about it is this
thing looks like at a water slide. It looks like
those those you know, the twist and turn things that
bring you down. It's like it funnels the water into
a channel that's a hard rock siding as I understand it.
(20:17):
So this thing, it is as if if you wanted
to create an element of flooding that would rise fast
and move swiftly. This would if you designed it. That's
how you design it, if that was your goal, which
of course nobody would, because now it's gonna fill up
faster because it's all a v cut through there. It's
(20:38):
gonna fill up faster, and it's gonna move faster, and
it's gonna funnel everything into that. That's the path that
the water is using to exit, just the way we
have values here, and they know this. It's called flash
flood alley. If you never had a flash flood there,
(21:00):
if you'd only had a flash flood oh about the
era of the Alamo, it wouldn't be called flash flood alley.
And these are the sorts of things that a lawsuit
will discover and a story will be told, and it
should be told. Now I have noticed I have received
some unkind more unkind? What are you eating? Honey? Is
(21:23):
that the honey I gave you? Who gave us that?
Somebody brought that to us?
Speaker 2 (21:29):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Somebody made that at their house, Uh, Steve, it says
it on there trip It's it's out of Brendham. Somebody
brought me that, and then I gave it to you,
and you hurt my feelings byt trying to give it
away to Emily. And she told Nandita, who told me, oh,
saving your life, why you had a cough?
Speaker 8 (21:50):
Oh you oh?
Speaker 1 (21:51):
I see? Okay, all right, all right, I'm glad you're
not on the microphone because I don't hear you cough.
So I've heard some comments that were most unkind, may
I say, from families of campers over the years. Not
campers there now, mind you, but campers over the years.
(22:12):
And there is this idea that, well, we don't want
to question what happened at Camp Mystic because we don't
want to we don't want to close Camp Mystic. Well
neither do I. I'm not trying to close Camp Mystic.
But there is this idea that there must be loyalty
to the cause. Okay, so we're just going to sacrifice
(22:33):
babies to the loyalty to the cause. This is the
same mindset in the Catholic Church that just kept moving
pedophiles because when we don't want to hurt the church.
This is the same mindset at Penn State that protected,
Joe Paterno and an idiot.
Speaker 5 (22:47):
This is the same mindset. Prepare for a complete meltdown
with more up to Michael Berry Show. People who didn't
live through it can't believe how big.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Kenny Rogers was in James. That's Kenny and Dottie And
you're probably thinking, yeah, singing a Sonny and Share song. Well, yes,
technically written by Jimmy Holliday and Eddie Reeves or Ray Charles,
who first recorded it in nineteen seventy one. David, you're
(23:27):
on the Michael Berry Show. Welcome to the program, sir, Oh,
good morning.
Speaker 6 (23:31):
I've been listening for about five years. I love your show.
Thank you first time calling you. We're welcome calling to
comment about the can't miss it? Yep, can you hear me?
All right?
Speaker 1 (23:45):
I can hear you? Great, Okay.
Speaker 6 (23:49):
I really feel a lot of compassion and I just
hate it for these families that lost their loved ones
in the flood, and I don't have any They're pity
for the uh, the owners or the people that you
know were in charge of making sure that camp was
safe for the children. Because this isn't the first time
something like this has happened. Myself I lost the baby brother. Gosh,
(24:14):
it's been a little over forty years now, but uh,
they lost everyone in the camp group. All the kids
have the cancelers. Who was on the pertin now it's
not to goud of Loupe and uh, it's just it's
a terrible thing to h you know, I imagine a
thirty foot wall of water hitting your kids and washing
them down the river. It's just unbelievable, the uh anguish
(24:38):
and suffering those families are going through. And I don't
feel any pity. I don't feel any any sympathy towards
the camp you know staff and uh well, I mean
you know, not the staff, but the the actual people
that are running it, because they could have taken plenty
of precautions. This isn't the first time it's happened. Like
I said, it has been over forty years ago, and
(25:01):
I lost the baby brother to the same type of thing.
And he wasn't alone. Everyone just about in his group
was washed down the river. Half the counselors got washed.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
I mean it was terrible, David, I remember camp was that?
Excuse me, what camp was that? Where your brother was was?
Speaker 6 (25:18):
Oh, I can't remember the name of it, but it
had to do with Hope Center, I think. But they
were camping on the Purdinwis River in the late seventies.
It's you can google it or whatever and pull it up.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
Yeah, I will. I'm sure. How old were you at the.
Speaker 6 (25:35):
Time, Oh gosh, I was about ten. It was seven
and a half.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
Why were you not at the camp? Me?
Speaker 8 (25:45):
Yeah, I was.
Speaker 6 (25:49):
I wasn't a very good kid. I was out running
the street and my brother was at camp trying to
you know, trying to do the camp thing. You know,
it was a good safe place for him, and we
were going to I'm a family was pretty ysfunctional. We're
going through a lot of things at the time, and
it seemed like it was a good place for him
to be for the summer. And you know, I wasn't
(26:10):
expecting that it would be the last time I'd ever see.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
Yeah. I would imagine that's a lot for a ten
year old kid to process. David, thank you for sharing
your perspective, Sir Darcy, you're up.
Speaker 9 (26:22):
Go ahead, Hey, Michael, I just wanted to say he
made a really great point about how houses are being
built along raised by you now and in parts of
Houston that are prone to flooding. My husband's family had
property on the Frio River for thirty five years. And
all you have to do is go back and look
(26:44):
today at how houses along the Guadaloup and the Frio
River are being built, just like in Houston, to note
that the possibility of flooding is reasonable. And I think
that that analogy she works really.
Speaker 6 (27:00):
Well for this.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
With that in mind, Look what precaution do you recommend?
Are you saying how they built the cabin structures themselves.
Speaker 9 (27:10):
Oh, I'm not an engineer, but I don't think the
federal government should have given them permission to put cabins
for kids of any age, whether they're seventeen or you know,
in a flip stat I think that there's a reasonable
expectation to not do that. You put your craft cabins,
(27:33):
you put your camp fire sides, you put the things
that aren't inhabited at night in those areas. That's my
humble opinion.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
Yeah. My hesitation is, I wonder, so you can make
it so that it's impossible to build if you make
it hard enough, and some communities do that, and then
you can make it so that anyone can build anything anywhere,
(28:02):
and people will be reckless about the way they do that.
I don't know I would really. One of the things
I'm looking forward to information coming out about is so
my understanding is that floodwater rose faster than anyone could imagine,
(28:22):
shockingly fast, and yet there were warnings. There were warnings
early enough that all things being equal, you could have
gotten the girls out of there on buses if that
was an option. My understanding is there's only one in
(28:43):
and out, and that's a low water bridge that washes
out fast. So now you're trapped on an island at
that point. That's obviously problematic. And we talked about life vests,
you know, the question is what is reasonable? And it
just strikes me, well, I guess we're going to learn
(29:03):
a lot more. One former camper who happens to be
a friend of mine wrote on the subject of Camp Mystic.
As a young girl, I went to Camp Mystic, and
both of my both of my daughters did twenty something
years ago. But I will tell you I'm mad as
hell about what happened, and I don't believe all precautions
were taken, and I will never understand why the youngest
of the campers were on the closest proximity bank to
(29:24):
the river. The Eastland family has to have some sort
of liability because I'm pretty because I'm pretty certain there
were conversations that occurred and they were aware that this
could happen. But I think, oh, because I'm pretty sure
there were conversations that occurred and they were aware that
this could happen. But I think everybody was just betting
(29:45):
on the fact that it just never would even though
they did have a flood black back in the late
eighties if I remember correctly, so did they all forget
it's a limestone riverbed and water falling on it would
certainly not be absorbed. Thank you for doing the movie
and asking the questions. I think. I think the f
families deserve answers, and if this saves one child at
the camp in the future, then it is worth it. Well.
(30:06):
It's uh, it's incredible, you know. I didn't realize how
many kids go to camp. I heard from so many
people as I've mentioned this and talked about it. There
are a lot of kids who go to camp. I didn't
go to camp as a kid. We didn't send our
kids to camp as a kid. But it's a Texas tradition,
and I think that's part of it, is there's a
lot of nossologia for people, so they're uncomfortable with all
(30:28):
these questions being asked. But we owe it to these
little girls and their families to ask tough questions
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