Speaker 1: For what's developing.
Speaker 2: This is just developing out of the Middle East now
Speaker 2: right down, it's developing.
Speaker 1: Fifty five krc the talk station height O five a
Speaker 1: fifty five KRCD talk station. Brian Thomas here. Always looking
Speaker 1: forward to this time of the week because we get
Speaker 1: to talk to breit Bart. Get the inside Scoopers. Would
Speaker 1: like to call it from bright Bart News b R
Speaker 1: E I T b a art dot com book market.
Speaker 1: I always like to start out with a suggestion. You
Speaker 1: do that, you'll be glad you did. Take me up
Speaker 1: on that advice, because you'll be reading at least stuff
Speaker 1: about Texas and the Texas border with my guest Randy Clark,
Speaker 1: who is the bright Bart News Texas border reporter. Randy,
Speaker 1: welcome back to the morning show. It's always a pleasure
Speaker 1: having you on.
Speaker 2: Good Morning, Brian, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: Looks like we're pivoting away from the border itself for
Speaker 1: the border related issues to talk about the floods, which
Speaker 1: of course dominating the news. What an absolute outright tragedy
Speaker 1: and almost even more tragic, and I don't say that
Speaker 1: too seriously, the fact that Democrats are blaming Donald Trump
Speaker 1: for the death of these young people and the others
Speaker 1: who perished in the flash floods. I just beside myself
Speaker 1: in disbelief that they would go that low, but that's
Speaker 1: what they do.
Speaker 2: Yes, it's a sad situation, and that just compounds it.
Speaker 2: You know what we know right now as of late
Speaker 2: last night, we've got one hundred and four deaths in
Speaker 2: six counties there in the central part of Texas. The
Speaker 2: worst hit was Curville, where there's eighty four deaths. Many
Speaker 2: of them were children from some of these camps. So
Speaker 2: this was the perfect storm. It was the worst day
Speaker 2: of the year for this to happen, and obviously the
Speaker 2: hour of the day it hit between three and five
Speaker 2: am on July fourth, when most folks were asleep and
Speaker 2: we turned cell phones off or or you know, we
Speaker 2: just get so many alerts during the day we just
Speaker 2: tire of that. So a lot of effort went into
Speaker 2: notifying people as far as information that came out from
Speaker 2: the National Weather Service, but a lot of that came
Speaker 2: out as this became more imminent after right shortly before
Speaker 2: midnight and then shortly after midnight. So but you're right,
Speaker 2: the miseries compounded by what we're seeing not only from
Speaker 2: you know, the left, but also from some members of
Speaker 2: the media who show up, you know, to these press
Speaker 2: conferences that are designed to provide some information to the
Speaker 2: public by county officials and city officials, and in some
Speaker 2: cases it appears they're being heckled more than they are
Speaker 2: being asked questions at times. So it is it has
Speaker 2: become politicized unfortunately many instances, you know, in today's day
Speaker 2: and age.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you're right about your observation in terms of
Speaker 1: the time that there's like there's a warning, there is
Speaker 1: you know, alerts that go out. There's sort of gradual, Hey,
Speaker 1: we might expect some flooding, be you know, aware that
Speaker 1: there is a potential for flooding, and then it moves
Speaker 1: over to what an outright emergency where yes, it's flooding,
Speaker 1: get the hell out or and all those came in
Speaker 1: over time. Twelve hours was the beginning of the notices,
Speaker 1: and that was of course during the day obviously people
Speaker 1: were in a position to be able to get that information.
Speaker 1: But in the middle of the night, four am when
Speaker 1: you send out the emergency alert, I understand not only
Speaker 1: were obviously people asleep, but this was in a low
Speaker 1: communication area in terms of cell phone connections and the like,
Speaker 1: so it's possible that they maybe even didn't get an alert.
Speaker 2: That's correct. And some of the camps, they you know,
Speaker 2: they pull the cell phones from the children attending, you know,
Speaker 2: for good reason, because they're there for you know, wholesome
Speaker 2: activities and kind of get away from that. Yes, right,
Speaker 2: camps are Christian camps and you know, and the adults
Speaker 2: are watching over them. You know. The camp there was
Speaker 2: most impacted camp missed it. Their director, you know, this
Speaker 2: camp's been in their family since nineteen thirty nine, lost
Speaker 2: his life trying to save these poor children. And so
Speaker 2: it's just a tragedy. But that tells you the likelihood
Speaker 2: of a flood event like this happening. That camp was
Speaker 2: established in nineteen twenty six. We've had ex presidents Lyndon
Speaker 2: Baines Johnson send his daughters there. Laura Bush worked there
Speaker 2: as a camp counselor. So it's a prominent place. They
Speaker 2: wouldn't put the children in harms way on purpose, we
Speaker 2: know that. So to politicize it is absolutely despicable.
Speaker 1: Yeah, in hindsight, of course, is twenty twenty. I've read
Speaker 1: an article in fact on Breitbart, a discussion with Kirk
Speaker 1: County Judge Rob Kelly, who apparently has property that was impacted. Kelly,
Speaker 1: the county's top elected official, edited that a flood warning
Speaker 1: sirens system was in consideration to be placed along the
Speaker 1: now devastated Guadalupe River before he was in office, about
Speaker 1: six years ago, but it was never executed. He's quoted
Speaker 1: to saying we've looked into it before, but the public
Speaker 1: reeled at the cost. So there was a reason and
Speaker 1: a motivation to talk about a public alert system because
Speaker 1: this has happened before in that particular area, has it
Speaker 1: not well?
Speaker 2: So there have been floods all throughout the region. Right
Speaker 2: the Gualla Loupe is just only one river that traverses
Speaker 2: that area. You've got the Blanco, the Frio, the Medina.
Speaker 2: You've got tons of rivers in this hill country area.
Speaker 2: And where rainfalls impacts. What areas are going to flood?
Speaker 2: Low lying areas, low water crossings on tiny roadways, you know,
Speaker 2: they're subject to flooding almost with any amount of rain.
Speaker 2: The last major event was in nineteen eighty seven where
Speaker 2: a loss of life, you know, close to this occurred.
Speaker 2: Ten children from a camp were lost when they were
Speaker 2: trying to evacuate. So the second guessing, if you put
Speaker 2: an alarm system and you start moving children in a
Speaker 2: big storm like this, you may lose some in the
Speaker 2: evacuation process if you get them out. There were seven
Speaker 2: hundred and fifty you know, girls at that camp, so
Speaker 2: you can imagine what it would take to evacuate those
Speaker 2: folks in short order. The chaos caused by that, getting
Speaker 2: buses in order and moving in on those roadways. The
Speaker 2: bridges were all but washed out to that camp, so
Speaker 2: if they would have tried to leave the area, they
Speaker 2: may have suffered. If they have gotten without shelter up
Speaker 2: on higher ground, you have lightning strikes. So this was
Speaker 2: just the perfect storm. And you know, we've got to
Speaker 2: look at this and decide. I think, you know, are
Speaker 2: people going to begin to ignore a siren that may
Speaker 2: go off two or three times a month and not
Speaker 2: materialize into flooding where they are at. That's human nature
Speaker 2: and that has to be looked at in the light
Speaker 2: of day. But when you do that, we need to
Speaker 2: leave politics at the door when you go in to
Speaker 2: discuss this and come up and formulate a plan.
Speaker 1: No doubt about it. I thought there was an interesting
Speaker 1: observation from Brian Stetler over at CNN. He said warning
Speaker 1: fatigue was being cited by quite a few experts as
Speaker 1: one of the causes of the disaster. And I don't
Speaker 1: necessarily draw a correlation between warning fatigue and the disaster,
Speaker 1: but insofar as he said, when everything is labeled extreme weather,
Speaker 1: nothing seems extreme anymore. And I think there's a good
Speaker 1: point to be made there, because you know, it's twenty
Speaker 1: four hour day shock and on news, you know, they
Speaker 1: even like the weather channels like, oh my god, we're
Speaker 1: all gonna die. Hurricane season. Yeah, there's like nine thousand predicted.
Speaker 1: Oh my god. And you know, they predict these dires
Speaker 1: weather events and quite often they don't manifest or materialize,
Speaker 1: and we're like, all right, there's another crazy warning. It's
Speaker 1: like the Boy who Cried Wolf. You know, at some
Speaker 1: point still you're like done with it.
Speaker 2: Well, and we see that. We saw that happen with
Speaker 2: Hurricane Helene. You know, you get the warnings, you don't
Speaker 2: think it's going to happen, and it materializes. Look at Katrina,
Speaker 2: a complete and utter disaster. So it happens when you
Speaker 2: get the warning that materializes, and sometimes it's worse than
Speaker 2: what the warning is. But that's fatigue comes from not
Speaker 2: just weather alerts, but you know, we get important amber
Speaker 2: alerts as well. So when you're dead asleep and that
Speaker 2: cell phone starts to go often you've got to go
Speaker 2: to work, you're likely to just silence it because you're
Speaker 2: going to think, well, I'll look at this in a
Speaker 2: few hours when I wake up. Well, that river rows,
Speaker 2: you know, near twenty nine feet in two hours. That
Speaker 2: is extremely significant. It's the second highest level it's ever achieved.
Speaker 1: Now do they have like the civil defense sirens in
Speaker 1: the area there? Because I honestly, and I've said it before,
Speaker 1: I'll say it out loud again. We do a text
Speaker 1: segment every week on this program on Fridays, and one
Speaker 1: of the things I always say, I, you know, I
Speaker 1: don't pick up a phone if I don't recognize the number,
Speaker 1: I just let it go into voicemail. But in the
Speaker 1: middle of the night, I want to get a good
Speaker 1: night's sleep, so I keep my phone off, So if
Speaker 1: someone's trying to reach me, they're not going to be
Speaker 1: able to. But I could be awakened by a civil
Speaker 1: defense sirens screaming and going off in the middle of
Speaker 1: the night. That's like a backup system for us. Is
Speaker 1: there anything like that in that general area?
Speaker 2: No, And that's what they were proposing, you know, to
Speaker 2: have added that was going to cost a million dollars
Speaker 2: was actual audible sirens because in that river bottom and
Speaker 2: I experienced that watching you know, this unfold the following
Speaker 2: day and you know, seeing the rescues come in and
Speaker 2: you get on that river bottom and even the authorities
Speaker 2: had to beg bar and steal to get some starlink
Speaker 2: apparatuses to get out some of those areas because the
Speaker 2: towns are not gigantic towns. You move away from the city,
Speaker 2: that river stretches two hundred and thirty miles to the
Speaker 2: Gulf of America. Now, so if you move out of
Speaker 2: those cities yourself, one coverage drops. If you move into
Speaker 2: that river bottom, which can be up to a quarter
Speaker 2: mile wide, that's it. You kind of lose signal in
Speaker 2: some of those spots.
Speaker 1: What also was overwhelming was the just absolute volume of water.
Speaker 1: And now I've seen other floods before, and I'm always
Speaker 1: overwhelmed by the amount of water that can accumulate, but
Speaker 1: in the amount of time that it accumulated, I mean
Speaker 1: that it came out of nowhere and the river rose
Speaker 1: what twenty six feet in a matter of forty five minutes.
Speaker 2: Yes, And so that's why this was the perfect storm,
Speaker 2: because if that storm had dropped that water, you know,
Speaker 2: several miles to the east or the west, or just
Speaker 2: downriver of Kurbville by just a mile or two, we
Speaker 2: probably wouldn't be speaking right now, because that water was
Speaker 2: directed into that particular waterway by two offshoots that feed
Speaker 2: into that wadlupa river just upstream of Hunt. So it
Speaker 2: was the worst place, worst day, and the worst hour
Speaker 2: for it to happen. And being that the camp's been
Speaker 2: there since nineteen twenty six and in the same hand
Speaker 2: since nineteen thirty nine, tells you nobody expected since that
Speaker 2: day that this was going to endanger that many girls
Speaker 2: that were camped in that area.
Speaker 1: That's such a tragedy and we've lost the life is
Speaker 1: now north of one hundred and there are still how
Speaker 1: many people missing at this point, Randy.
Speaker 2: Well, that's the big question. You know, we know from
Speaker 2: the camp we've got ten girls and one councilor they
Speaker 2: still have folks that remain unidentified that they have recovered
Speaker 2: so a lot of this area, especially along the wall
Speaker 2: A Lupe, the cities and towns like Kurbville, did not
Speaker 2: get you know, horribly damaged. It's what structures were on
Speaker 2: the river bottom, which mainly the camps in the RV.
Speaker 2: So folks that may not have told their family they
Speaker 2: were going to be at a particular park in that county.
Speaker 2: We don't know if they haven't shown up to work
Speaker 2: and that they're added to the missing. But you know,
Speaker 2: we suspect there's several dozen missing still and at least
Speaker 2: eleven from the camp, one counselor and ten campers.
Speaker 1: Well, and since you're familiar with the area, how difficult
Speaker 1: is it for first responders and search and rescue folks
Speaker 1: to get in there and scour the area? Is it difficult?
Speaker 1: Generally speaking? I figure if these camps have been there
Speaker 1: for that long, they have to be released somewhat readily accessible, well, so.
Speaker 2: They aren't in fair weather, when the roads aren't destroyed,
Speaker 2: you can get into Curval. It's off Curveling Comfort sit
Speaker 2: right off by ten, so it's an easy drive from
Speaker 2: San Antonio sixty mile. Then you're going to be hoofing
Speaker 2: it on foot through that river bottom to conduct searches.
Speaker 2: But the searchers are in the water, in the air,
Speaker 2: on horseback, you name it. A multitude of federal agencies.
Speaker 2: And that's the good that I witnessed. The volunteers coming out.
Speaker 2: We've got fire department from Mexico coming. I hear there's
Speaker 2: some coming from California to help. That's the good. But
Speaker 2: when you start getting towards Hunt and Ingram, some of
Speaker 2: those roads were damaged and they had to air drop
Speaker 2: supplies into those kids. The ones that survived a flood,
Speaker 2: there were eight hundred and fifty rests. Is just within
Speaker 2: the first twenty four hours.
Speaker 1: Wow, well, it's I appreciate your reporting on this and
Speaker 1: you're updating us on the situation. Randy Clark Border Expert.
Speaker 1: Can I pivot over just for a brief moment here?
Speaker 1: What is the border crossings have virtually ended? I mean,
Speaker 1: the Trump administration has virtually has basically stopped people from
Speaker 1: getting gaining entrance into our country. Is there a noticeable
Speaker 1: like change of attitude improvement, a general up up uplifting
Speaker 1: feeling in the general in the area based on the
Speaker 1: population and what they're experiencing.
Speaker 2: Now, yeh see, you don't hear very many border residents
Speaker 2: complaining that the border's not wide open. A lot of
Speaker 2: them have lost sleep for the last four years from
Speaker 2: the Texas Real Grand Valley all the way to San Diego, California. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so the morale is better on the border troll on
Speaker 2: the line. But if you see yesterday we had that
Speaker 2: nut attack one of the facilities for the bordertroll and
Speaker 2: McCallum Texas. You see what's happening in La with Mayor
Speaker 2: Karen Bass trying to shoe off the agents, and you
Speaker 2: know what's the officer was shot in Alvarado. So we're
Speaker 2: seeing the left creative situation that's almost as dangerous to
Speaker 2: the agents. That's what they were facing by an open border.
Speaker 2: But it is night and day for the residents. In
Speaker 2: some areas, they're less than five to ten crossings and
Speaker 2: places there used to be five thousand in a day.
Speaker 2: So it is night and day difference at the border.
Speaker 2: And it was all done with messaging and an effort
Speaker 2: to enforce the law.
Speaker 1: Well, Trump's certainly following through what he campaigned on a
Speaker 1: campaign in terms of shutting down the border that was
Speaker 1: wildly successful. Even along the southern border. There was a
Speaker 1: New York Times article about that. I just commented some
Speaker 1: of the quotes from some of the Democratic representatives there
Speaker 1: that seemed like, oh my god, you know, we've been
Speaker 1: Democrat now forever, and look, Trump took all of the
Speaker 1: border counties and it was an amazing turnaround. So they're
Speaker 1: sort of having a come to Jesus moment on their
Speaker 1: position on border security, recognizing the vast majority of Americans
Speaker 1: want a crackdown on border security.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, I'll tell.
Speaker 1: You what, it is always a pleasure talking with the
Speaker 1: Texas Border reporter Randy Clark. Thank you for the time
Speaker 1: you spent my listeners of me today. Keep up the
Speaker 1: great work at Breitbart. I'll look forward to another edition
Speaker 1: of the Inside Scoop next Tuesday. Take care of my friend.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Brian, have a wonderful day.
Speaker 1: Thanks you too. It's eight nineteen right now, I fifty
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