Tragedy in Texas: An underestimated flood risk

ABC's Jim Ryan reports on the extensive damage and heartbreak that continues following the flood in Texas

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Jim Ryan from ABC News is on the standby right now.
He's I don't know, man, Just looking around at the devastation,
the tragedy, the loss of life, the everything that has
happened in Texas since July fourth, it's hard to keep
your head up. I'm quite sure, Jim, but I appreciate
you doing your job this morning.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
It's just mind blowing when you consider the flash flooding
that happened on July fourth, and now we have a
new chance of flooding this morning. It's raining across much
of Texas, Chuck here in North Texas, down into Central Texas,
down to the hill country in San Antonio, and all
of that water is going into those same rivers that
rose up out of their banks on July fourth. It's
not expected to be that kind of flood again, but

(00:42):
it certainly is slowing down the effort to try to
find more of the victims. One hundred and thirty two
people we know were killed in that flooding. Over one
hundred and sixty more than the death count. One hundred
and sixty more are missing and presumed to be dead.
Many of them are, although many of them, some of
those on the unaccounted for lists were probably out of
the area altogether, but just haven't checked in as safe

(01:04):
with anyone that campground.

Speaker 1 (01:06):
How long has it been around, Jim, do you know
the history of it?

Speaker 2 (01:08):
Generations? I talked to a woman when I was down
there last week in Kerrville, and a woman who had
been there as a girl in nineteen fifty seven, so
it's been there for sixty plus years. And by the way,
when she was there in fifty seven, they had a
flood that year too, nothing at all like we saw
this month.

Speaker 1 (01:27):
But it is a flood prone area, and I mean
this was just monument as they say, one hundred year
once and one hundred year type event and so forth.
But what you were showing in your story here, apparently
like fourteen years ago, the flood drawings or the flood
map was redrawn to exclude a lot of this area.
What was the reasoning behind that?

Speaker 2 (01:48):
At the request of Camp Mystic, the camp where this happened,
this Christian girls camp, Camp Mystic took just a horrific
hit from the flooding. Over two dozen people, most of
them camp were some counselors were washed away and killed.

Speaker 1 (02:04):
In the flooding. But yes.

Speaker 2 (02:05):
In twenty eleven, the FEMA map, the map, the Federal
Emergency Management Agency map showed that some of the buildings,
some of the property at Camp Mystic were in a
severe flood zone within the one hundred year flood zone
at high risk of flooding. Camp Mystic, the operators of
the camp, the owners went to FEMA and appealed that

(02:26):
saying that those buildings shouldn't be on the map, that
they were out of danger of flooding. Well, we saw
what happened fourteen years later when severe flooding did come.
Now FEMA is trying to answer questions a Camp Mystic
hasn't said anything about whide appeal the original map. But
you know it would have made a difference, Well maybe

(02:47):
maybe not. You know, it didn't mean that they had
to tear down their buildings. There would just show that
they were in the flood zone.

Speaker 1 (02:52):
Until all of the missing people are found, you can
never consider this done. But is there is there any
guidance being given to you right now by officials as
far as Okay, we're gonna keep doing searches until and
then and then it is what it is.

Speaker 2 (03:06):
Well, I mean what they're saying and you know, optimistically,
and maybe there's some bravado there, but state officials and
others are saying we're going to keep on searching until
every last person on the unaccounted for list is found.
I'm afraid that might be almost impossible, Chuck. If you,
if you consider how much stuff was just pushed over,

(03:27):
how much stuff was buried it, we might might never
be able to account for everyone.

Speaker 1 (03:33):
No intention to be morbid or anything else. But with
those floodwaters and people being washed away, you don't you
don't know until you do. And that's that's what it
comes down to. It's a sad, sad thing. And again,
as I started, I end I thank you for having
the determination and the professionalism to do your job because
I know this is hard to look at every day.

Speaker 2 (03:50):
Yeah. Well, I mean, here's something to give some hope
to this whole situation. The day of the flood, the
Kirk County Relief Fund was set up to try to
help people out, and in the ten days since that
fund has raised thirty million dollars.

Speaker 1 (04:05):
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