“Perceptions,” By Gerry Warner

Op-Ed Commentary

In Genesis, just before telling his followers to build an ark, Noah said to the faithful: “The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.”

Rather chilling, isn’t it? But then again what can you expect from a failing planet disintegrating all around us and we don’t seem to care. Floods, including deadly flash floods, have been happening for more than 100 years on the Guadalupe River in northwest Texas and elsewhere around the world yet few care until the watery cataclysm bursts over them.

This was clearly the case with the God-fearing residents of “Flash Flood Alley” where the badly stricken residents of West Texas did too little too late to respond to the catastrophic threat surrounding them. I’m sure most of the folks who live along that tragic stream are just like the rest of us – kind, decent, hard-working people struggling to support their families and doing the best they can in difficult circumstances.

But Mother Nature can be a cruel mistress at times and this has got to be one of the cruelest times on record as the deadly death toll passes the 120 mark and the grim search for more drowned bodies – many of them children – continues. And already the recriminations have started with many citing the lateness of the flash flood warnings and cutbacks to the US  National Weather Service  made by the Trump government.

There is some credibility to both of these assertions, but relatively little. Keep in mind the enormity of this ferocious storm. An inch of rain is a lot and can do a tremendous amount of damage on its own. But this storm dropped close to a foot of rain on many parts of the rugged hill country which is peppered with hundreds of small creeks that normally can be stepped over or walked straight through because they’re often bone -dry and the only thing flowing in them is dust if there’s anything at all.

In fact, the Guadalupe River itself normally has very little water in it and can be waded through without getting  your knees wet. Many years ago (1967,) I hitch-hiked through the West Texas region and I had difficulty considering the so-called “rivers” worthy of even being called creeks. But that was in the spring dry season. In summer the region can get monsoon-like thunderstorms and parched streams can suddenly float a ship.

So this is the context in which this horrendous disaster took place. Trump haters of course make much of the government cutbacks that took place just prior to the storm and I don’t blame them. But quite honestly, I don’t know there would have been much of a difference in the death count even if the layoffs hadn’t occurred.

People aren’t at their best when they’re woken up by sirens at 3 a.m. Some may even have rolled over and stuck their head under the pillow.  And even if they had gotten up how long would it have taken to find shelter and higher ground? No one could say for sure. But one thing is certain. Despite the toxic politics that have bedeviled the US the past decade this is not a political story.

It’s a weather story, a climate change story, an epic Greek tragedy and don’t let any political nutso, left or right, tell you differently. As Bob Dylan once famously said: “You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.”

The “story” now is getting an accurate death count – and pray to God they may still find some alive – and deciding what government should do to prevent any other horrific tragedy like this from happening again.

– Gerry Warner is a retired journalist that writes an occasional column for e-KNOW.

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