Breitbart's Clark In Texas

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the show. Randy Clark from Breidbart says, here
Texas border reporter, but here to cover a decidedly different story.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
It sure is any we're about one hundred and fifty
miles from the border right now in the Curveville area,
so we're closed. But we're not right on the border,
that's for sure.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
And this is an area where flooding isn't it's not
known for it, it's not commonplace. It's not an area
that gets overwhelmed with where we all have those areas
in our neck where we live where it's like, go,
I don't go down that way. You won't get through there,
you can't get passed there. So why did this happen?

Speaker 2 (00:40):
Well, you know, this was just the perfect storm. It
happened at the worst spot, and it was a system
that just dumped about eleven to fourteen inches of rain
in short order on the evening of the third and
into the morning of the fourth. It started one hundred
and fifty miles away from here, near San Angelo, Texas.
Caused some local life flooding there. And then it's the

(01:00):
hill country, right, So you've got winding hills and two
lane roads that move all throughout this area, and that
water just managed to accumulate into too, that Wadalupe River
which is running through Cerville, it runs out to the
Gulf of Mexico. It just barreled downstream and between three
and five in the morning, that river where it was

(01:22):
just full of campers getting ready to celebrate the Fourth
of July, which is caught unaware, uh, hundreds of campers
yet airs.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
It's a horrible story, you know, and it was immediately politicized,
which really frustrates me. In the meantime, I played a
clip this morning from Aci Weather where the gentleman said,
clear as day, you know, we put this out hours
in advance. There were notified hours in advance, there was time.

Speaker 2 (01:51):
There's some localized flooding that happens in these areas every
single time it rains because there are low water crossings
and two lane roadways, and folks have learned to just
wait it out right. And in this area that rainfall falling,
even that amount that was predicted, which wasn't as much
as actually fell. If it would have fallen, you know,

(02:12):
a mile in one direction, a mile below the camp,
we wouldn't be speaking right now. Right. Those are the
small things that create the perfect storm. Nobody knew Helene
was going to create the damage it did, but it
was the perfect storm as well. That range just rolled
over and stayed and stayed and stayed, and we saw
the damage it created. Well, that's what happened here. There's
no other in memory flood like this. It surpassed one

(02:36):
forty years ago, nearly forty years ago, where ten campers
died trying to evacuate. So you never know, trying to
evacuate seven hundred and fifty little girls, were you going
to create a danger that was might you know that
might not have occurred if you just stayed put and
sheltered in place. So you know, we can second guess
this all day long, but this was just an act
of God that it was in the worst spot on

(02:59):
the way worst weekend of the year. If this had
happened in February, you and I wouldn't be talking because
that water would be gone by now, and a few
residents would have perished sadly, but it wouldn't be where
we are right now, wouldn't have been as catastrophic in
the number of deaths, especially involving children and campers and
folks like that that were coming out to celebrate. So

(03:20):
this was just the worst time for this to happen
in the place that it did. And this camp, you know,
this was not a rustic type, you know, tent camping place.
Camp Mystic has been attended by some very prominent people,
you know. First Lady Laura Bush was a camp counselor

(03:41):
there at one time. Governor the children of Texas Governors
John Connolly the LBJ have attended this camp in the past.
It's a facility that has hardened structures down there. These
girls are there in the summer months for up to
four weeks, doing all kinds of activities out there. So
if they thought there was a danger, this had been

(04:02):
in the family since nineteen thirty nine, so this family
has run it since then, and if they thought there
was any danger, you can bet something would have been done.
This was just wholly unpredictable, even by the people who
have lived there in that area and operated for decades.