| | | So you Texas magaTs knew it was coming and did nothing !
It is so, so much worse than that. Not only did they know it was coming and did nothing, there were those who actively blocked attempts to address the issue. The thing to keep in mind is that Uvalde, home of that school shooting, is just a hop, skip and a jump from Kerrville, the county seat of Kerr county. And apparently the local authorities are cut from the same cloth as in Uvalde. Every decade or so, campers get swept away on the Guadalupe and the neighboring Comal river. About a decade ago, it happened on the Comal and the residents there installed a warning system. That sparked some interest in Kerr county, keep in mind that the downriver stretches already either had a warning system or had one in planning. So they already were late to the party.They put together a plan for a tick under $1 million, $975k.
One county commissioner opposed a system because he didn't want to be woken up in the middle of the night with sirens. Yeah. There is a flash flood and the last thing you want is to be rousted out of bed by a siren. Rushing water is much preferred, I suppose. And then there was the funding issue. They tried for a federal grant, Trump turned them down. Abbott was running for president, so his focus was on Operation Lonestar and not floods. So they struck out there. And the locals didn't want a tax increase, so the idea died.
Kind of.
Because it got even worse.
The Biden administration offered them a grant for the system and to beef up law enforcement. People in the c county didn't want the money because of "Biden mandates" and "strings", although no one could name any. They eventually accepted the money because they were told that otherwise it would go to a blue state and that would be communism. So they took the money and stuffed it in a bank so it could draw interest. No warning system, either. They literally have the money in the bank
The corker? Kerr county is one of the wealthier counties in the state. Lots of millionaires have been building on the Guadaloo. Many of whom could have paid for the warning system and not break a sweat, A rounding error in the toilet paper budget.
It is what happens when Republicans run things. |
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