I live in Central TX and the flooding is just the beginning of climate collapse
Posted by No-Body6215@reddit | collapse | View on Reddit | 152 comments
I am not from TX originally but I have been here for almost a decade. Last year the weather was odd but this year it has been record setting odd. More rain than this region has seen since 2016.
It flash floods randomly and frequently. One day I was driving and there was a cloud pour rain onto the highway over a radius of about a quater mile. I drove through it and it was heavy rain but I could see the sun shining just ahead of me. Tonight it stormed but several hours before the storm arrived there was loud rolling thunder that lasted about an hour. No clouds in the sky just a lot of thunder and no lightning. When we do have lightning at times it flashes constantly for minutes at a time.
13 people had already died to flash floods by early June. But their deaths were easily forgotten and not taken seriously.
This area is not prepared for this rainfall the road I live on does not route the water properly quickly enough to the drains. So I have been telling my partner for weeks sonce last year that as the weather warms storms get more frequent, sudden and severe. This tragedy in Central TX, has claimed 81 lives and there are still people missing, but it is the first of many more tragedies to come. This administration is going to do anything to stop it.
I also worry for Houston which has flood issues every year during hurricane season. Hurricane Beryl last year was pretty hard on Houston. I had a friend who spent a week without power.
I knew this was coming. The scientists have been warning us for years. Watching it escalate and nothing is being done to improve this situation is infuriating. I am hoping the nation's attention can help but I know that is optimistic.
Anxious_cactus@reddit
Watching the climate collapse I have the same feeling I had when watching my asthmatic mother smoke a pack of cigarettes a day. Just you know, way worse since it's the whole planet and humanity in question. Other than my husband nobody around me believes or cares about the extent of climate change. They don't believe it will cause death from extreme weather, famine, old diseases resurfacing and new bacteria showing up with change in temperatures and permafrost thawing.
Even with death and destruction the main concern is work. Unless the work place gets destroyed in the flash floods you're expected to just show up and continue working with no regard for what or who you might have lost only days prior.
I'm just angry, tired, and sad.
No-Body6215@reddit (OP)
None of the dystopian fiction prepared for me to maintain a 9-5 through collapse. It feels like I should be doing something to stop it but no idea how to do that and still afford food and housing. Even saying that feels lazy. We are going to die and I am worried about paying rent.
Cautious_Rope_7763@reddit
I used to have a full time job, and it drove me crazy. The world could be ending and I'd have no idea. Everyone laughs, jokes and acts like nothing's wrong and that this isn't the insane system it is. Nobody gets we're sawing off the branch we're sitting on every day to keep working for the status quo.
progfrog@reddit
What do yo do now?
Cautious_Rope_7763@reddit
I'm just working different temp jobs right now, until something more permanent comes along. Might get some vocational training, even though there's a small chance I'll ever actually get paid in whatever it is I take up.
PyrocumulusLightning@reddit
I got a degree in it, but you can't do anything (other than volunteer) unless you get a ... job. Which I have not been able to do. I had to switch to biotech.
Equality_Executor@reddit
Capitalism and modern society has made it impossible to do anything but perpetuate it.
You can't even leave it behind and go live in the woods because you know someone owns it and they would pay someone else to have you removed.
Anxious_cactus@reddit
Yeah it sucks so bad. Can't do shit without obscene amounts of permits, if it's even permittable. I'm in an EU country, yet it's illegal to collect rainwater. We used to collect it for flowers and grass and stuff until someone made a report and we were fined.
I actually own a little piece of a forest, but it's no use to escape the grid and the grind. Can't live there, can't hunt, can't collect rainwater. People just dump their trash there and we have to collect and clean it every now and then or we'll get fined for that too. But we're also not allowed to fence it since it's a small part of a bigger forest. So it's just a neverending loop.
Unique-Sock3366@reddit
Laws against rainwater collection are utterly baffling to me.
I have a well, the aquifer of which is fed by rainwater. How is that different from collecting in rain barrels? It hurts my brain to try and understand the logic used.
Commandmanda@reddit
The reason why rainwater collection is not allowed in my area is because of mosquito control. Standing water attracts female mosquitos, who lay their eggs in the water. Then the eggs hatch, you get mosquito larvae, and then tons of mosquitoes.
People don't know to use mosquito tabs, or to cover the barrels. Simply sending a pictograph brochure and a list of places that sell mosquito tabs would fix this - or get an inspector to come and fine/educate people who refuse to follow directions. But our local government would rather do nothing. So stupid.
endadaroad@reddit
How about our local government coming and placing the tabs for us?
randomfunnythings@reddit
I personally wouldn’t want government inspectors coming to my house to throw tabs in any uncovered bucket or wheel barrow. It’s not their damn business and I’m positive there would be ulterior motives. Your local government is not your mother., take care of your land, because no one else will.
Unique-Sock3366@reddit
Thank you for answering my question! That “makes sense” on the surface but I absolutely agree that mitigation is a simple matter and easily taught.
It’s akin to refusing a medication for fear of a mildly unpleasant, easily treated side effect.
harryelch@reddit
Take Germany as an example: If 80+ mio germans start rain water collections there wouldn't be much hitting the ground and people start to run out off water when there isn't any rains or your collection tanks run dry.
It sounds like a stupid rule but in populated areas it makes a lot of sense.
GS300Star@reddit
This. Spent time getting ready at a cabin in the UP and everything is owned. There will be no bugging out ever if things happen because those communities will put road blocks and kill people I got dirty looks for driving my out of state personal car 😔
urlach3r@reddit
I keep catching myself sighing & thinking "All this will be underwater soon..."
KeyHound10@reddit
Honestly, that was my thought when Bezos chose Venice for his wedding. Like a sad, last, selfish hurrah.
Anxious_cactus@reddit
I feel like I'm in a satirical movie daily. This morning a storm hit us. It wasn't even that strong and lasted maybe 30 minutes but trees downed on houses and roads, roofs taken off, streets and underpasses flooded.
But I have a meeting in 3 hours and tonight I need to take out the trash and separate plastics from paper and biodegradable stuff, even though it all ends up on the same trash pile because my city / country doesn't have a recycling facility or anything like that. Or we'll ship it to India, because that's what recycling is apparently, just moving the trash overseas.
I try to do the little things I can but it feels like a psychological torture on some days, doing those things that you know don't make any difference and are just a ruse.
urlach3r@reddit
We had one of those a few weeks ago, lasted about two hours. Two highways & three city streets flooded & collapsed, and that's on top of the two other highways that had sinkholes open up a few months back when it rained for almost two weeks. I'm in a rural area, feels like we're slowly being cut off.
endadaroad@reddit
God is not blessing America, he is attacking us. On our collective birthday.
Turbulent_Pirate2473@reddit
Yeah this is also what it's like to live in a place at war. I think a lot of us grew up on stories and even histories where it seems like life stops and people struggle 24/7 but it actually happens in spurts. You go to work, pay your bills, cook your meals, raise your kids, hang out with your friends all like usual until the week your town is wiped out by flood or bombing or wildfire or occupation. Then you have days or weeks of scrambling survival. Eventually maybe you move or maybe you stay put, but you have to go back to work again and cook meals and pay bills and raise children etc until the next time.
bastardofdisaster@reddit
You are still worried about your survival (and the survival of the people you love and care about). There is absolutely nothing wrong with that.
While the major stuff will certainly kill a lot of us, the daily grind of living won't stop taking its toll.
WhiskyEye@reddit
THIS EXACTLY. Like I wake up and do my job but like....for what. I just tell myself it's so I can afford to keep building my homestead so at least I have what I need if the crumble gets to the collapse point...
SanityRecalled@reddit
No one believing is the worst part. Everyone wants to just stick their head in the sand and pretend everything is fine, business as usual. It makes me feel like the oracle Kassandra from Greek mythology sometimes, fated to always have true predictions but cursed so that no one would ever believe her, it's so frustrating.
mimaikin-san@reddit
not just disbelief but active efforts to destroy any science that could help address the issue
ignoring global warming is one thing but these guys are dumping premium in & flooring the gas pedal on the way to collapse
SanityRecalled@reddit
My comment was meant more about the average people I interact with in day to day life. The willfully ignorant.
Our leadership and governments are absolutely destroying the science, burying evidence and going full climate accelerationism. Those people are just straight up malevolent.
Erikkman@reddit
I’m very lucky my wife, siblings and parents all agree we need to get out of Texas soon. Keeping the family and resources together wherever we move will prove essential.
Can’t say the same for 99% of my friends, however. They think the Texas coast region won’t be uninhabitable until 2100. I have friends in Dallas that are convinced that since they’re further north than Houston, they’ll be fine.
Idiots. Once the infrastructure of Houston and other ports in Texas collapse, Dallas and every other city reliant on them are going to get fucked by supply chain collapse. Idiots.
Erieking2002@reddit
Good for all of you, it’s also even stupider of your friends to think they’re safe in dallas because hurricane Katrina already proved how devastating losing access to the gulf ports would be with how high gas prices in north america were for months afterwards
Erikkman@reddit
Friends in Dallas are stupid, my friends in Houston who refuse to believe it’ll affect them are the stupidest.
Erieking2002@reddit
One of the reasons that they moved the capital of the Republic of Texas from Houston to Austin in 1839 was because Houston was so intolerable even by southern standards, anyone who is in areas like Houston should leave asap
TuneGlum7903@reddit
Tell them simply that at +2°C Texas is projected to have SIX MONTHS a year of +100°F temperatures. Agricultural output is projected to fall by around -90% as droughts become permanent conditions.
Then mention that we will be at +2°C (sustained) by around 2035.
Erikkman@reddit
Oh yeah. I’ve tried. All they are focusing on are hurricanes, as if that’s going to be the only symptom of what’s coming. Which, once the gulf sees its first cat 6 storm, being a measly 250miles north of Houston won’t mean shit.
YYFlurch@reddit
Capitalism demands that we supress ALL emotions, as they're not conducive to profits and they impact productivity. As we get further and further into /r/LateStageCapitalism, we will be entirely expected to become automatons, which will only place greater pressures on humans to deliver the impossible. Aberrant behaviors will only increase as humans seek to survive stressors for which we're definitely not designed. Add environmental and societal collapse and then things get very interesting.
After all this, then there's AI, which will lead us to The Promised Land, so all will be well.
Itchy-Pressure-6190@reddit
Thx for the morning chuckle 😁
sus_act@reddit
I was in Austin in I think 2016 driving to New Orleans for Mardi Gras and a storm hit in the middle of the drive. I've never seen weather like that in my entire life, the whole sky lit up like you said but for hours. I saw more lightning in one night than I have in my entire life on the west coast, and the rain was relentless. The thing that stood out to me the most was seeing water slowly rising on both sides of the road, no matter how fast I went it just kept rising because it's flat as hell out there. I seriously thought I was going to die but luckily made it to the city soon after.
It makes me think, just how horrible a way to die that must be, water slowly rising with nowhere to go, being swept away in the dark.
I learned then that I'm never going to live in the south, I can only imagine the nightmares people are going to endure as the climate continues to worsen.
Turbulent_Pirate2473@reddit
Yes it is horrible but the water rises insanely fast not slowly. You know how when you're driving around Texas and you go over those huge tall and wide bridges and it seems like you're just driving over land, nothing but a little passive narrow river below? It's because in 5 minutes it can swell its banks.
UnicornFarts1111@reddit
I watched a video yesterday of the Texas flood waters. A guy was on a bridge like you said. No water or small stream at the start, way below. At the end, he had to leave the bridge as debris had started coming over top the bridge.
WontLieToYou@reddit
This might be that video, if by "debris" you mean an actual effing house. https://youtu.be/rir1mRgqyBs?si=--s7WA7FYsarcc84
Turbulent_Pirate2473@reddit
It's crazy and also normal. Well this one was higher than normal but the rapid rising rivers is normal. I live in WA now and a few years ago I was camping by a river as it started to really rain an abnormal amount for WA. I kept looking at the river rising. My friends were certain it was no big deal, everyone in the camp grounds were likewise calm. But the river was slowly noticeably rising and because Im used to Texas rivers, I could not sleep thinking about it. In the middle of the night, I said fuck it and got in my car and drove up the campground hill towards the entrance way uphill from the river and slept the rest of the night in my car. Everyone laughed at me because it was perfectly safe and I was over reacting but it was worth it for my peace of mind. Water is an amazing force. People who haven't seen it often can't believe it. In Texas we lived in a town along a river, high enough up that our neighborhood had no risk of flooding. But the river bank area was extremely wide and steep and undeveloped. Big enough that it was a full park, they'd host music festivals there where everyone would sit out in the grounds. Huge space, small calm river, easy swimming and floating. But a couple times a year the rain would hit in such a way that the river would swell and rise up to just below the bridge, completely covering the entire park, very deep and rushing. You really have to see it to believe it.
rumham_irl@reddit
I'm not from Texas, but from the videos I've seen of the flooding, it seems like the bridges and roads were built with this extreme flooding in mind.
That being said, why are people/businesses allowed to live/build in places like this that are known to flood? It's not a matter of if, but a matter of when. Are people ignorant that they're living in a flood zone? Or just dont believe it will impact them? I'm very curious what the root of this issue is
Turbulent_Pirate2473@reddit
As you can probably tell from the video, this level of flooding has gone well beyond the capacity of the construction of the banks and bridges. Everything is built with that in mind and it's usually fine. If you mean why there is any construction in flood prone areas, its the same reason as there are cities built on fault lines and in tornado areas. Unless you want to abandon the entire Gulf Coast, people learn to live with floods. This is more inland where the cities are built above the high level mark where the rivers rises. It was so deadly this time for a number of reasons including things getting worse so more water faster, weather report and monitor systems being cut so less warning time, etc. All the things people know about here in this sub. The girls who died were not in a town BTW they were at a camp.
AlphaNoodlz@reddit
It’s going to get wetter and it’s going to get windier
Kryten_2X4B-523P@reddit
As someone from New Orleans, that weather sounds fairly typical for our area.
No-Body6215@reddit (OP)
Yeah it is quite terrifying. Today when the storm final started the uneven parts of the road I live on were full in minutes. It is like the sky just dumps all the water at once. I just saw a video on the front page showing the waters rising suddenly over just 3 minutes. The biggest accident prior to this tragedy swept cars off of the road and the cars were mangled. Yesterday I saw a video of an entire house being swept away.
Gniggins@reddit
This is America, so the only problem must be a lack of prayer.
Ilaxilil@reddit
I took an extended road trip out there last year and the forecast always said “light rain” but apparently their “light” rain is what I consider an unrelenting downpour 😂 freaked me out too, idk how people derive in that. I had to pull over at a rest stop because I couldn’t see anything and kept hydroplaning.
awnawkareninah@reddit
Tbf light usually means like over the entire area. Dumping it all on a single square mile averages out to light.
urlach3r@reddit
We had one of those freaky lightning storms a few days ago. Driving in to work just before 10pm, could see the whole sky lighting up off in the distance. Got to work & checked my radar app... It was almost 50 miles away. The storm didn't actually get to us till nearly midnight. Would love to know how high those cloudtops were.
Logical-Race8871@reddit
What's crazy to me is that it's not even necessarily climate change, really. 100-year floods might have become 75-year or 50-year floods because of climate change, but the bigger issue is that 50/75/100 years ago nobody lived in the damn flood plains.
Not building in flood plains and/or building architecture design around flooding is a genuine lost knowledge phenomenon.
We added 7 billion people in a single century and had to put them somewhere, and somehow just forgot that water exists.
It's nuts to me. We knew these areas flood and are floodplains. It's not like the damn geology changed overnight. We just...did it anyway. Everyone from the individual level to real estate developers, state governments, systemic forces... It's absolutely wild.
It's like people just walked into a furnace on their own volition.
There were people here for 10,000 years who knew not to do that shit, and 50 million people in the US are doing it, by choice or not.
Longjumping-Ad-8867@reddit
“Yes, Augustus Doricko (25, Thiel Fellow) founded Rainmaker, funded by Peter Thiel (Palantir co-founder). They seeded clouds in Texas on July 2, 2025, two days before deadly floods killed 60+. Doricko claims seeded clouds dissipated 24+ hours prior, denying causation. Cloud seeding is regulated by Texas Dept. of Licensing; efficacy debated. Sources: Thiel Foundation, Reuters, Doricko's X.”
VS2ute@reddit
Cloud seeding is not capable of creating such a huge flood (unless Rainmaker have invented some super-duper new process).
fratticus_maximus@reddit
This is interesting. Suspicious timing indeed but it's premature to jump to conclusions. There were pretty large storms going across the SE in general.
endadaroad@reddit
So, is Dorko claiming that his cloud seeding scam doesn't work?
YourNonExistentGirl@reddit
We’ll see more geoengineering initiatives leading to catastrophic weather before end of the century, unfortunately. It’s notoriously unreliable. Just look at UAE’s experiments.
SoFlaBarbie00@reddit
First thing I thought of when I saw this guy did some cloud seeding a few days before was UAE and all of the flash flooding they experience.
SoFlaBarbie00@reddit
This is really important for people to understand. What used to be a fringe conspiracy theory is actually occurring to some degree in many parts of the world at this point. How many of us here have been nervous to suggest geo-engineering as a viable solution given the unpredictable results of it?
dust-ranger@reddit
Interesting, that's the first I've seen of this
Heliopawz@reddit
Just had an energy committee meeting today. Nothing is going to protect small towns when the grid goes down. We’re trying to look for cost saving avenues so our school can afford to staff teachers by leasing the high school’s parking lots to solar prospects. Good thing we just lost the opportunity for tax credits on that front. This shit blows.
karmaapple3@reddit
Meanwhile in the Dallas area, it's July 7 and the temperature has barely hit 95° yet this year. By now, we are usually well into the upper 90s, and even into the 100s
Givemeahippo@reddit
And what do we do about it? I just cry about the kids while I’m getting ready for work and act like everything is normal. While completely aware of the fact that my kid could be next, as the flash flood watch goes off on my phone for the 4th day straight. Abbot isn’t going to do shit about it. Trump said he might visit. For what?? Cut the funding we need then go see the outcome for a day, like visiting a zoo or something.
Interestingllc@reddit
He'll do a flyover. People never learn.
After_Resource5224@reddit
Been an Austinite for 20 years. I own a damn irrigation business here. I have NEVER seen anything like this here, and our entire industry is floundering locally. I'm gonna have to switch to doing drainage, lol.
CountryRoads8@reddit
Central Texas irrigator here, this year has been quite crazy. After the brutality that was the summer of 2023 I’m never going to complain about rain ever again. Just off the top of my head since 2015 in centex we’ve had multiple historic floods, the second hottest and driest summer on record, and multiple historic winter storms.
After_Resource5224@reddit
Good to know I'm not the only Cen Tex Irrigator that's collapse aware!
FastLane_160@reddit
Do both. Cash in on drought and flood
BuffaloOk7264@reddit
The real problem is the lack of ground water coupled with too much development.
Necessary-Start4151@reddit
And it will Only get worse. we are burning fossil fuels at increasing rates. Everyone loves their suvs even when they don’t one We are doomed as a species We are stupid never learn from our mistakes and are afraid of change
SteppenAxolotl@reddit
How Often Do Flash Floods Occur?
1. Seasonal frequency
So during the peak April–June window, flash floods occur roughly 10–20 times per month, or about 2–5 times per week, region-wide.
2. Historical event data
3. Location hotspots
tface23@reddit
It’s wild to me that people are still saying “the beginning” like it hasn’t started yet. Like climate change is going to be one sudden cataclysm.
The water is already boiling. There’s a lid on the pot
Cultural-Answer-321@reddit
Two words about Houston: Hurricane Harvey.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Harvey
artisanrox@reddit
I hope everyone in TX that understands and cares what's going on stays safe. ❤️
TexasChick2021@reddit
One of the reasons I moved from Houston after almost 40 years was the never ending weather emergencies and the constant concern over the flooding. Then the derechos started and I left. I could not handle the weather anxiety anymore.
kittymctacoyo@reddit
Regarding your edit: were you not simply stating it was beginning of bad days to come for Texas specifically? Thats what the context tells me. No clue why you’d need to specify further
Cowicidal@reddit
MAGA is already increasingly blaming it on leftist/jewish/whatever cloud-seeding conspiracies, etc.
There's no reaching these people now. Post-truth society. The only real answer is everyone else (who is not insane) aggressively remove these people from power and force them back under the rocks they used to be forced to dwell under.
Until that happens and we continue to allow them to have power, we are all in existential danger in the entire country and also the world.
If this sounds "harsh" to anyone, they are either idiots, haven't been paying attention — or both.
antikythera_mekanism@reddit
Please do all you can for preparedness, for yourself and loved ones. That’s all we can do right now. I am in the Caribbean and we are ready for isolation after a hurricane because that’s the biggest danger - when it’s over and you can’t get medical help or food or water. So I do urge you to be prepared with all that.
But in reality, that’s such a little thing against the changing of an entire climate. I’m consoled by the extra water jugs and antibiotics we have, but nothing will stop the flood from taking us away anyway, if that’s what’s going to happen.
Texas is somewhere i am not interested in ever going, with prevailing political and social beliefs that turn my stomach. But I have found that none of that really matters… because my heart is broken for all these families and I was sobbing over the loss of lives. You Texans are in our thoughts and hearts, even progressive old atheist socialists like me.
This whole incident reminds me how divisive all of our politics are. Because no family on earth deserves this horror - tiny children swept away in a sudden flood never to be seen again! I truly don’t wish that on my worst enemy. I hate to see all the mean comments online like “oh they get what they voted for”.
Little girls in their camping beds did not vote to be swept away and die in a flood. Parents did not vote to be searching desperately through piles of mud and debris for any sign of their beloved child.
My heart is with you and this ramble is all I can really offer.
Fuzzy-Hurry-6908@reddit
Yes they did.
RicardoNurein@reddit
So the people saying it is unnatural, it's man made weather... are right?
Zwartekatmoppie@reddit
Being optimistic is not good, not good at all. In fact it’s why scientists have been largely ignored. The warnings started decades ago, for example by the Club of Rome in 1972 (“The Limits to Growth”)
Cheapthrills13@reddit
I get what you’re saying and 100% believe in climate change. But that area has experienced two other catastrophic significant flash floods in the last 10 years with the same circumstances. Junction and Wimberly. Central TX is prone to these for a number of reasons.
abelabelabel@reddit
Texas is also the testing ground of voting against your long term self interest and immediately seeing the consequences time and time again lately.
Turbulent_Pirate2473@reddit
The thing that's hard for outsiders to realize is that flash floods and hurricanes and flooding tropical storms and heat waves and droughts are not new in Texas. Maybe the widespread coverage of them is new so people elsewhere see it and think "how could these people not realize it's because of climate change or the president" etc. Well because it happened a few years back also. Also a decade back. And before that. And our grandparents can tell us about when it was happening to them. And there's stories even when it was happening to settlers and indigenous.
So you are right but it's not immediate. To most people who have always lived in Texas, this is how things have always been, it's not changing. It's a frog in a pot situation. You could chart out how there has been an increase in various factors over time or how there are infrastructure advances that could lessen this that they arent getting or how certain political choices are making it worse. But at the level of the average person's experience, this isnt new.
abelabelabel@reddit
We have things like ATC and the National Weather service for a reason. Bashing experts always causes loss of life. But American culture - at the moment - is a meatgrinder with IPads, because it's easier to sell advertising and provide value to shareholders that way.
gymfreakk@reddit
What a joke, floods happen all the time. Rapid city had a flood back in 1972 that killed and wounded thousands, is that climate change?
Spe3dGoat@reddit
hill country has been flooding for hundreds of years
its literally famous for it
sherpa17@reddit
I don't know much about Hill Country flooding. Is 10-14 inches in a few hours just typical Hill Country stuff?
uraniumbabe@reddit
the beginning? We are decades in.
paramedic236@reddit
What are you saying, this exact thing happened before, in 1987?
Because if you are, you’re right.
Kerr County, Texas, experienced deadly flooding in 1987. A flash flood on the Guadalupe River on July 17th, 1987, resulted in significant loss of life and property damage. The flood was triggered by heavy rainfall in the western part of the county, causing the river to rise rapidly and inundate areas, including Pot O' Gold Christian Camp, where 10 teenagers perished. The event is remembered as one of the worst tragedies in the Texas Hill Country
uraniumbabe@reddit
can you do me a favour and check 20 years before that?
paramedic236@reddit
This is from Google AI:
Kerr County has historically seen major floods on the Guadalupe River in the following years:
KeyHound10@reddit
From The Guardian UK:
The lieutenant governor noted that the potential for heavy rain and flooding covered a large area.
“Everything was done to give them a heads-up that you could have heavy rain, and we’re not exactly sure where it’s going to land,” Patrick said. “Obviously, as it got dark last night, we got into the wee hours of the morning, that’s when the storm started to zero in.”
Asked about how people were notified in Kerr county so that they could get to safety, Judge Rob Kelly, the county’s chief elected official, said: “We do not have a warning system.”
When reporters pushed on why more precautions were not taken, Kelly said: “Rest assured – no one knew this kind of flood was coming.”
The area is known as “flash flood alley” because of the hills’ thin layer of soil, said Austin Dickson, the chief executive officer of the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country, which was collecting donations to help non-profits responding to the disaster.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/05/texas-flood-recovery-dozens-dead-children-missing
THEY DO NOT HAVE A WARNING SYSTEM 🙃🙃🙃 wat
uraniumbabe@reddit
actual round 2 wtf
SanityRecalled@reddit
Exactly. Scientists have been warning about this since like the 1950s. You can't put a problem off for 70+ fucking years because of profits and not expect it to grow out of control. If we had started seriously working towards mitigating it in like the 80s, we'd be so much better off right now, but even that is still before I was even born. It's depressing knowing I was born into an already doomed society, where our fates were written before most of us had any say in the matter. It's like we collectively worked together to help repair the ozone layer and then everyone went 'ok, that's enough effort for this lifetime'.
consciousaiguy@reddit
Nothing about this weather is unusual. Source: a born and raised Texan.
PuIchritudinous@reddit
5th generation Texan here. While flash flooding is not unusual for the area, the amount of rainfall is increasing.
https://www.climameter.org/20250704-texas-floods ClimaMeter - 2025/07/04 Texas Floods
Boner_jams_09@reddit
Plant as many native species as you can, select ones with deep roots. The more vegetation you have the more water the ground can absorb. It is 100% possible to terraform an environment, I recommend the Miyawaki method. It can achieve dramatic results in a mere two years, you can reforest even the harshest desert with it. The forest also has the ability to be up to 56°F cooler than the surrounding region and after 2 years of care it’s independent. A mass reforestation program can DRAMATICALLY change a landscape, look at China reforesting a desert to create the very first highways through endless shifting sand dunes.
Look what women have accomplished in the US in just 50 years with 80% of the rights. Mother Nature is like us, give her a fighting chance and she will SEIZE it.
No-Body6215@reddit (OP)
Thank you for this comment! I have started planting native species in our yard. Every time it rains the soil is being washed away so I thought planting might help and this area really needs pollinating plants.
PuIchritudinous@reddit
Look into installing a swale. Native plants can’t absorb the water fast enough with how fast it can fall. French drains are also not fast because the water has to percolate through the soil down to the drain.
PuIchritudinous@reddit
Planting native species can help the cities that have too much asphalt but there is nothing that will change this area from flash flood alley. The amount of rain that can fall in a short time is caused by the warm gulf coast air hitting cooler air combine that with the underground limestone shelf, clay soil, and hills makes it hard for native plants to soak up the rain fast enough. Many plants will get washed away if they are in a dry creek area because their roots can only grow so deep due to the limestone.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/why-texas-hill-country-where-160717909.html Why Texas Hill Country, where a devastating flood killed dozens, is one of the deadliest places in the US for flash flooding
GogOfEep@reddit
lol. lmao, even.
Delirious5@reddit
20 years ago, there were literally a couple million refugees from the Gulf Coast scattered across the US because of Hurricane Katrina. Hundreds of thousands ended up permanently displaced. I was one of them. Everyone acts like climate refugees are this dystopian future thing.
HolymakinawJoe@reddit
No, I think the YEARS of insane wildfires everywhere have that disctinction.
AnOnlineHandle@reddit
The multiple 'once in a century floods' my area has been having every few years lately since I lost my home in 2011 also show this has been a growing problem for years.
mangomisfit@reddit
The “once in a century” kinda language we hear from politicians and the press really does distort the reality.
Dozens of children died last week because of rain. Not because of hurricanes or earthquakes, but rain. And they didn’t die in an under-resourced country like Bangladesh, they died in Texas, the 9th largest economy on the planet.
So if this is what happens here. What happens in Bangladesh? Or Sudan or Guatemala? We are so woefully unprepared for the impact of climate change.
enek101@reddit
To be fair most wildfires end up being good for the environment in the long run. It promotes regrown. Im not entirely sure that the wildfires are terribly concerning in them selves. Plants will regrow. More so with the amount of rain that areas see. Im sure ill get downvoted for saying the wild fires arnt world ending. At the end of the day wildfires are part of a natural cycle.
unknownpoltroon@reddit
except when that natural cycle has been suppressed for decades because "fire bad" and you then have feet of unburned fuel pile up.
phalluss@reddit
I'm also baffled as to why you lot over there planted so many eucalyptus trees.
We need them over here for our environment, their job in the ecosystem is to start massive fires...
Just a weird thing to introduce to your very much not Australian climate.
boneyfingers@reddit
This question is a little more complex here in Ecuador. Yes, eucalyptus is an ecological hazard here: they burn, they dry out soil, and their leaves and bark debris suppress native plants. But, in the 120 years since they were introduced, they have probably saved all that is left of our native trees. We use them (and pine, another non-native,) for building, fence posts, fuel wood, etc., and they grow very fast. Without them, we would be using native trees instead. (This is only really true in the highlands here. On the coast, and in the eastern rain forest, tropical hardwoods are cut at an appalling rate.)
hurrayinfamy@reddit
Australians brought the eucalyptus tree seeds with them when they came during the gold rush.
phalluss@reddit
https://www.independent.com/2011/01/15/how-eucalyptus-came-california/
TuneGlum7903@reddit
Good article, I hadn't realized that the trees came to California so early. Thanks.
TuneGlum7903@reddit
During the 30's, before there was 'ecology' as a science, eucalyptus was planted all over the US. The reason was that it grew quickly and provided windbreaks to prevent soils from being 'blown away' by wind (Dustbowl remember).
It wasn't until much later that people realized the downsides of eucalyptus.
MaxPower303@reddit
Has anyone raked the dead trees?
scgeod@reddit
It's the scale that makes fires horrific. Yes, wildfires are good for ecosystems but not when they are huge infernos that decimate the tree crowns over thousands of square miles. We are currently witnessing the destruction of the Arboreal Forests which circle the entire globe. Beneath those trees are permafrost. The burning leaves the ground exposed to subsequent melting. Eventually all of the Arboreal Forests will burn and when that goes, it has the potential to double our current atmospheric CO2. When we talk about Global Warming in the pipeline it is this kind of feedback loop that none of the current computer models even bother to consider because the variability can't be calculated. This is how Hansen gets to +10°C or +12°C in the long run. So while you are right in one regard that fires do some good, what we are witnessing is the global firestorm that is beginning to ramp up and will consume the entire Northern Hemisphere's Arboreal Forests. This will be a catastrophe unlike anything we have yet to see and it's only just begun.
fake-meows@reddit
No...in the paleoclimate, when there was as much CO2 as we have right now today, climate was 10° warmer.
What Hansen has pointed out is that there is a VERY long lag before climate responds. Most of the alternate climate models have been based on extrapolating the climate change from the initial twitch of the climate starting to move.
When we burn fossil fuels, we make CO2 plus soot / particles. In the first couple decades the CO2 has a small effect on warming and the soot has a large effect on cooling.
The alternative models ignored the cooling effect and assumed the CO2 effect was small.
The "in the long run" part doesn't require extra feedback loops, it's just the amount of warming that this much CO2 causes when it stops going up in 100+ years from now.
If feedbacks come in, it'll be even more warming.
fake-meows@reddit
Some environments have a natural "fire cycle" every few decades but when 500 year old trees are burning for the very first time you can tell that areas are now burning that should never have fire.
What I've noticed in the pnw is that with clear cuts and fires, the regrowth is no longer normal. If there are a couple of hot summers trees don't come back at all, and all the species change. It appears to shift to a radically different plant community.
CountySufficient2586@reddit
If you have healthy ecosystems yes but this is not the case.. Instead we have a few patches of actual woodlands left world wide.
Meowweredoomed@reddit
Actually the wildfires are a triple feedback loop. First, they destroy the carbon sinks, the trees breathing in the co2 in the atmosphere. Second, the black soot created by the fires draws in more sunlight and thus, heat. Finally, the wildfire smoke produces tons of co2, a greenhouse gas.
I can't believe you think these wildfires are natural or beneficial, come on man! They're even spurred on by unnatural droughts!
sludge_monster@reddit
Several years of persistent wildfire smog make the environment unsuitable for life.
shewholaughslasts@reddit
Wildfires are technically a natural phenomenon. That does NOT mean it's a natural cycle to destroy entire cities from fire - that's pretty new (since Chicago and that one cow). From Paradise to Talent to Blue River, Maui and even LA - nothing about those fires is good for the environment or healthy for the forest. Burning entire cities worth of noxious buildings materials and gas stations etc is not good for anyone.
When the fires stay in the forest that's fine - they burn. They regrow. But when the speed and destructive power takes out so much encroaching humanity that hundreds or thousands lose everything they own - it's not part of a natural cycle.
At least, I really don't want it to be. If we start losing entire cities every year enough for some callous person to call it natural, my heart will truly break.
Any_Day5115@reddit
To be fair
enek101@reddit
No need to be patronizing. They cycle was disrupted by humans. Wilf fire is still a cycle and is over all better for the land. Humans just hyper sensationalize everything. Floods are not great for human. perfectly fine for the planet. Don't forget we are the invaders here.
NyriasNeo@reddit
It is neither the beginning nor the end. It is just a small step. Stay tuned.
BrightCandle@reddit
Its become (almost) undeniable now in many countries where events are occurring that are well outside peoples memory of weather, 1 in 1000 year events and 1 in 100 year events happening every few years. But the reality has been that they have been increasing in occurrence since the 1980s. It's a lot harder to ignore now when its frequent and devastating.
Kyoto aimed for a 2C rise because it was the most economic, that is the cost of mitigations and cost of transition was at its minimum point, back before we understood about tipping points. None of the mitigation work has happened despite following worse than this path. The truth is the wealthy were never going to pay to prepare for these freak weather events they were just going to leave people to die.
PuIchritudinous@reddit
We have always had flash floods randomly and frequently during the storm season, many of them can be very destructive. I’m from the area and still own property near Kerrville that can only be accessed by crossing a dry creek prone to flooding. The only way to get home sometimes would mean waiting for the water to go down and the current to slow before crossing. My family knows where the highest flood line is on the property because my great grandmother marked it when a major flood happened in her lifetime. Luckily it has never crossed that line in my lifetime but it has been very close.
Yes, the droughts in the area have intensified over the years due to climate change and this means worse flooding when it rains. Mix this with an increase in population from transplants and it’s a very bad combination. Due to witnessing so many intense flash floods that were so destructive I take every flash flood warning seriously and avoid driving when possible. But I know so many people who ignore these warnings and think I am being silly. They are use to a different kind of flooding and don’t seem to realize that it can and will happen in seconds here. I have seen drivers cross low water crossings when they are flooded and it’s obvious they don’t know what they are doing as they don’t take safety precautions like rolling down their windows before crossing. They speed up as they enter the water and try to drive fast through the current. The worst part is they didn’t need to cross in the first place because there was an alternate route which I always take. I’ve seen this happen in the major cities more often than the small towns.
This winter my partner and I were driving up in the panhandle when we got hit by an extreme downpour that made it impossible to see the road and it flooded the entire highway in minutes but pulling over was not possible due to barriers and 18 wheelers were not stopping. The storm was not moving so waiting it out was unrealistic. He has lived here over a decade but I realized he didn’t know what to do in the situation. I could see the sun shining far ahead so I handed him the yellow driving glasses and talked him through it.
More intense storms with more people unfamiliar with the area living in these places are a recipe for disaster.
Fearless-Temporary29@reddit
When Mar-a- lago gets flattened by a hurricane , maybe someone will.open their eyes.
TWanderer@reddit
Will be Biden's fault in some way
SanityRecalled@reddit
Hopefully happens suddenly without any advanced warning since our gov has gutted the agencies responsible for tracking hurricanes.
'Climate change isn't real if no one is monitoring it!' /s
endadaroad@reddit
I'll be laughing too hard to open mine.
intergalactictactoe@reddit
Let's hope that happens soon. Only for the sake of climate change awareness, of course.
FireDawg5000@reddit
Here's hoping!
RandomBoomer@reddit
No one can "stop it" or "improve this situation" during your lifetime. What we are experiencing right now is already baked in for the next 50-100 years. Any efforts made now are about changing what happens after we're all dead and buried.
And that's is precisely part of the problem: no matter how much people might sacrifice immediately and for the rest of their lives, they will never see an improvement during their lifetime; they will only see a continued deterioration.
The average person may not be aware of that delayed effect, but the people who run the industries or the government or the military are very much aware of it. There's little incentive to change -- especially if it means giving up wealth and power -- when you will never see the benefit of that sacrifice.
DavidG-LA@reddit
Droughts and floods. We’re seeing the same thing in Brazil, China, Spain, Italy, UK.
chatonnu@reddit
It's everywhere. China is really getting crushed this year.
Synreal@reddit
I thought the beginning was 2005 when the polar bears were dying.
mhouse2001@reddit
I think TX is in a worse position than many others because its politics bows down to the oil industry. Any attempt to curtail their emissions is DOA.
I live in the desert. Something switched on in 2020 and hasn't turned off. This summer has been normal so far but it's like it suddenly went up several degrees and won't go back down. This morning's low (official temp measured at the airport which is usually warmer than much of the surrounding areas) was 91. My state has the opportunity to build solar farms, enough to power most of the country if we built enough of them. But that won't happen. Big Oil's reach is everywhere.
I'm afraid many will suffer before empathy surpasses greed.
RandomBoomer@reddit
Either way, many people will suffer. This is not going to get better in our lifetime, even if the entire planet dropped everything else to focus only on reducing carbon emissions.
Detson101@reddit
Fuck 'em. Reap what you sow.
parkentosh@reddit
Q
Darnocpdx@reddit
We're well past the beginning.
So far the biggest indicator is immigration from Central America and Africa towards the north, water disputes in India/Pakistan, south Pacific island moving populations up hill, loss of land in the Gulf states (US). Massive species die offs/extensions. Icr caps melting, Ozone, smog, sea currents changing.
It's been an ongoing process for most of the last century, it's the beginning of people paying attention and actually believing it now, but it's not just starting.
CompetitiveEmu1100@reddit
Yea the collapse is just going to be people moving away from the hard hit areas of central and south America and the southern us as more people lose their homes or ability to work/farm
Darnocpdx@reddit
You'll see the future of the world conflicts when you compare world maps of population density and "wet bulb" temperature events. People won't just die in place, they'll move when things get intolerable, or at least the ones that can move.
I'm personally less concerned about what the earth does to us, than our reactions to those changes.
CompetitiveEmu1100@reddit
I forget his name but I remember some article written in like 2005 that was being passed around here like 6 months ago by some guy predicting the rise of facism and anti immigration as a result of climate change migration
Darnocpdx@reddit
Sounds about right, I haven't seen anything that specific, but that is definitely in line with my comment implying human reactions is what I think is more concerning than climate change itself. Not to say climate change is better or good, it's not pretty either.
Taokan@reddit
What's frustrating to me, is not only are we not going to do anything about it, the current administration is actively slashing weather monitoring programs, giving people less warning of impending danger and scientists less data to work with to make the case for change.
"Don't Look Up".
Decent-Box-1859@reddit
This tragedy taught me that people would rather "pray the common sense away" than have accountability, foresight, and prevention.
NiSiSuinegEht@reddit
Having grown up just north of Houston, it's been getting worse as the years go on.
In '94 a 100-year flood plain was reclassified as a 50-year, 7 years later into a 20-year. Now they just expect it every year with the heavy rains.
eac555@reddit
I’ve lived in California all my live. The worst flooding I remember was in the 80’s in the SF Bay region. The place I worked flooded which you never would have thought could happen. Knew a guy whose son drowned in a creek that overflowed. The rain was just so heavy that year it was crazy. Hasn’t happened like that again in the same places. Many places are prone to floods in different parts of the country and have a history of flooding. Then it seems people are surprised when it floods.
awnawkareninah@reddit
This sort of flooding does happen here, but pretty rarely. Last one this bad was 1987.
The worse thing is that the second worst flood was 2018. These used to be every few decades. If it speeds up to every 10 years we're in trouble. If we get to every other year...good luck to us all.
It's absolutely tragic this happened out in the hill country. Even as is there were creeks nearly road level in Austin. If that storm parked itself in Austin instead you'd be hearing hundreds more dead minimum.
canwealljusthitabong@reddit
Your second paragraph just describes common weather events in that area. It’s honestly one of the things I miss most about it. The storms there are awesome and beautiful and sometimes there’s just a little storm cloud drenching a small area and you can watch it from miles away.
There’s an old timer’s expression for when it’s raining and you can see the sun shining but you might not know it. That’s a common phenomenon people have been observing for many years.
TexasFratter@reddit
Grandpa can you turn the TV down I can hear it from up here and have work in 3 hours.
TryptaMagiciaN@reddit
As someone from TX hill coubntry, that was a HS senior in 2016, I hope folks living there realize how little the state cares and takes some action. The flooding in 2016 was more water than Ive ever seen not in a lake or ocean. Whole fields with standing water. I hope people will be alright.
yoshhash@reddit
sadly, things will have to get a LOT worse before it actually gets some people's attention. This is the one silver lining in this tragedy, I believe Texas will be just a little bit more aware about climate change.