XPost: alt.survival

Long, but very well-researched piece on the 4th of July flood in Texas
that took many lives.

The Texas flood was due to a chronic failure
to mitigate the eco-impact of past sheep herding

https://rense.com/general98/Texas-flood.php

By Yoichi Shimatsu
Exclusive to Rense
7-14-25

The mainstream news channels have a knack for spreading confusion and
fear while evading the root causes of unanticipated disasters and “inexplicable” tragedies - as is happening in the wake of the Fourth of July killer flood through the Kerrville region of west Texas (which is
south of Fredericksburg along the road toward Austin and north of San
Antonio). Slightly after midnight on the 4th, a surging wall of water
deepened and widen the channel of the usually tame Guadalupe River,
plowing under homes, campsites and vehicles along its path. Most
heart-rending of all casualties were young girls swept away from the
bunkhouses of their summer camp. The over-dramatized mass media
subsequently treated this terrifying act of nature as something like
“The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” or, worse, as a whimsical act of a
merciless God.

For all the political correctness of media lightweights mindlessly
spouting catch phrases like “global warming”, “carbon emissions” and “green energy”, the mainstream liberal press has consistently failed to consider - much less detect and analyze - the causal factors affecting
regional weather systems now acting with extraordinary intensity across
the USA. The specific cause of the unexpected sudden flood, however, has
to do with the vast changes in the natural environment above and along
the headwaters of several regional rivers including Guadalupe (of this disaster), the Nueces (an underlying element in the Uvalde school
massacre) and the ultimate cowboys and Indians waterway the San Saba –
which was evacuated this week with the onset of the second mega-flood
out of the massive Edwards Plateau. The environmental and human
threat/safety importance of the Edwards massif is discussed further
along this essay.

The horrified public reaction over the Guadalupe River flood killing
more than a hundred local residents and girl campers in the
post-midnight darkness has cast a shadow of obscurity over the root
cause of this mega-disaster. The lack of credible explanation about the
sudden flood has been followed by the anti-Texan liberal assertion that riverside zoning regulations had been ignored - despite the fact that
dozens of properties on river-banks deemed to be safely out of reach
along embankments were also swept away in droves with lethal consequence
for their inhabitants. It was a monster flood of historic proportions -
which has detectable causes in the transformation of the western states
from self-sustained rural communities to a current condition of a dying wasteland exploited for housing tracts, vacation homes and new centers
of technology divorced from serious long-standing issues related to the
natural environment in a changing economy over the past century, most
seriously over the past 50 years.

The day of independent ranchers, migratory herders, independent
craftsmen and roving bands of Indians may seem to be long ago over and
out - along with those memories of the frontier and the notion of range
land shared by local communities. But it’s been the “taming of nature” - with ever-increasing bureaucratic rules and legal codes making an
independent rural lifestyle practically impossible – and that
disappearance of local stewardship has removed all human barriers to
forest fires, drought, water scarcity, pollution, periodic floods and
neglect of natural resources across the western states – not just Texas.
In the fading light of a once wild west, the wild rage of the Guadalupe
River is nature’s call to return us back toward values of hard work,
craft practices, moral behavior, common sense and love of the land as
practiced by our frontier ancestors. Failure to learn from the
mega-disaster will be yet another factor in the collapse of rural
America, broken apart at the seams and sold to the highest corporate
bidder and Frankenstein data center from Florida to Pennsylvania to
Kentucky and on to California. Let us not interpret the tragic deaths of
the Kerrville flood victims as an excuse to turn our backs on rural
America but instead accept this tragedy with a noble spirit and renewed commitment to this vast precious land - yours and mine - for Americans
will always be pioneers rooted in the land in search of wider vistas
blessed by God’s grace.

Neither have the news reporters and media pundits considered the
possibility that so-called “modernization” across the American West over past decades might have destabilized the tricky balance between solid
ground and stormy conditions. Indeed, sudden downpours routinely sweep
through “arroyos” (storm-carved channels) across the dry zones of the western states Arizona, New Mexico and west Texas, resulting in
permanent depopulation of vast areas of nature’s flood zones.

Stuck by the Storm System

Had not I protected my own abode in New Mexico similarly threatened with flooding (by the same storm system although of lesser power than the
Kerrville flood) – and minimally deflected with piles of bricks, new
rain curtains and my relentless sweeping away rainwater off the back
patio with a broom while being personally soaked like a frog - well, I
would now be residing inside an emergency shelter for the homeless. That physical effort, prior preparation for heavy rainfall and sheer
determination, while successful at saving the property, kept me from my journalistic impulse to immediately drive to Kerrville to conduct
interviews of local residents and make first-hand assessments of causal
factors - as I had done previously on-site at the Uvalde school shooting
(which was largely motivated by planning for an electric power plant by
Nueces River to supply the Los Angeles basin with TV access).

Well, the harsh fact in Kerrville that so many residents and summertime sojourners were overpowered and therefore unable to swim to shore
resulting in death by drowning made my early-on hope of covering the
flood situation a pre-ordained exercise in futility. That disappointment
of being powerless to come to the aid of those frightened people swept
along the churning water came to pass – and there would have been
nothing I could have done about it and whatever the case my presence
would have been an unhelpful nuisance to the overwhelmed local rescue teams.

Perhaps for comparative rainfall analysis the recent experience of
intense rain in southern New Mexico is similar to the precipitation
pattern over Kerrville hundreds of miles away and more importantly on
the other side of the Edwards Plateau (along the eastern edge). It’s not surprising that in both cases that the rainfall was heaviest about
midnight due to the cooling of air temperatures, allowing for
condensation of cloud-borne rain droplets. What is more intriguing is
that in other cases - hundreds of miles apart and at different
elevations - that the rainfall was in both cases narrowly channeled due
to a narrow cloud configuration (as opposed to a wide weather front).
The storm was shaped like a spear and not a shield. In both cases,
nearby communities were hardly drenched, suffering only minimal spatter.
The odd narrow bandwidth of rain could suggest some artificial
manipulation of the storm front, or perhaps that’s paranoia. Odd indeed.

The outcome - which rendered lifesaving attempts futile - proved the
validity of the ancient Chinese assertion that water is the most
powerful of elements, an observation based on thousands of powerful
river floods over the millennia in the Asian lowlands, especially the
Yangtze basin. For all our bravado posturing and muscle flexing, this
flood proved once again that man is a pathetically weak creature in both
the natural order and within the larger plan of creation. Of course,
humanity has known that fact since the biblical account of Noah’s ark.

Centers for sheep-raising and recent disasters

I’ve had many pleasant recollections of long drives past ranches,
vineyards and live oak trees through that river-divided terrain on
several previous visits in the direction of Austin and the pleasant German-heritage town of Fredericksburg - the latter located along an
upper branch of the Guadalupe River. The history and geography of that west-central region is also now applicable to the Kerrville flood disaster.

One of the curious geological factors linking the Uvalde affair and the Kerrville flood is that the south-flowing Nueces River and the eastward
running stream of the Guadalupe share the same place of origin - which
is the Edwards Plateau, the source of rainfall – and drinking water -
for southwest Texas. The killer flood, thus, arose from that rather
barren highland, which in every direction spouts dozens of streams that
merge into nine separate rivers flowing in different directions – the life-blood of Texan grazing, farming and human habitation. What’s
interesting is how the relatively short and small Guadalupe channel
swelled into the most destructive flood of recent times in that vast
state. The phenomena that explains the “overload” of a relatively short
and small river Guadalupe was the rather odd weather pattern of
concentration of rainfall in a relative narrow band of clouds - exactly
the same feature as my rain troubles in Southern New Mexico (whereas
nearby fringes – just a block away - of the passing flood remained
fairly dry.)

Slightly to the north of Kerr-and-Frederick is the Llano River - also originating in the Edwards Plateau. “Liano” is the Spanish term for “sheep” - the key clue to comprehending the causal relationships
centered at that plateau which accounts for the destructive mega-flood
of July Fourth. The long absence of herds of sheep grazing on the cloud-gathering Edwards Plateau - explains the ferocity of the July 4th catastrophe. As we mourn, we are also compelled to think about - to
consider - how human behavior can bring on unintended consequences, and sometimes horrifying tragedy as we’ve witnessed over the past week(s).

Baa, Baa Sheep

Sheep are meek creatures content to graze and sleep outdoors and that
cannot even harm a fly, which is why their coats of fur are so thick.
The density of wool has traditionally been the reason for woolen
clothing and in the promised land of the Mayflower Puritans – that is
until the invention of petrol-based fibers including nylon, polyester,
acrylic and spandex, which gained dominance over the fashion industry
and consumer demand in the late-1960s - as predicted by that infamous
quote “plastic” whispered to Dustin Hoffman’s ear in “The Graduate”.

In the bulls-eye of the chemical textile industry was the Edwards
Plateau, the greatest single area of sheep rearing in the southern half
of the USA, the source of knitting wool to textile mills mainly in the
American South and along the Atlantic coast, whereas hardier sheep
ranches in the north, immediately below the Canadian border. produced
rougher fiber for the mills on the northern half of the Eastern
Seaboard. The trade in wool (as yarn or raw material for weaving into
cloth) especially for export to Britain and beyond was the root economic/financial cause of the Civil War. Such a peaceful critter
triggered the bloodiest conflict in the American history and came close
to putting an end to the Union, bah-bah! Well, during freezing winters
in an era without automatic heating systems, a thick coat was essential
for human survival through the deepest months of the cold season. Most
of the wool was shipped by rail from the prosperous town of Uvalde along
the Nueces River, where domestic (household) raising of tiny mohair
sheep resulted in the thinnest yet still strong fiber used to weave the
finest thin cloth for tuxedos and fancy gowns for the East Coast elites,
North and South. The lamb’s fleece from Texas was second only to silk
from the Far East - and fetched a price nearly as high.

Of course, young males soon grew to be quite large and so other than
breeding stock, the masculine lambs were castrated and soon butchered
for lamb chops for Easter supper. The sheer volume of wool either combed
off or sheared in the springtime meant that Easter holiday was a festive occasion for oven-roasted young male lamb with a sweet condiment of mint
jelly to quell any gamey stench, as I still fondly recall enjoying after
the mandatory egg rolling contest outside my family’s Christian church.
Soon thereafter, during my college years in traditionalist Indiana, lamb
chops fell off the menu along with our woolen shirts, pants and jackets
- replaced by “wash-and-wear” synthetic petroleum-based fiber textiles
and, of course, cotton with the popularity of blue jeans. Instead of
chops for Sunday dinner, we had to settle for meatloaf. Easter was never
the same since that fashion statement went out of style. (I should add
here that many consumers, myself included, developed an allergy to
rougher woolens aside from fine - and unaffordable - angora textiles, a widespread health issue that only spurred the sales of polymer fabrics.)
As we see today, the change of textiles has come back to haunt us with
the shocking scale of deaths on this past Fourth of July.

An exhausted plateau

Thus the dominance of petroleum-based plastic fibers proved to be
devastating for the environmental balance on the Edwards watershed,
indeed much of west-central Texas, as aging sheepherders ended grazing
on their pastures and disappeared, presumably to retirement in nearby
cities. Nearly a half-century later, I have often driven across that
desolate little-traveled highland, gone to sparse weeds and wind-blown
dust. Absent of manure from the herds resulted in the mountain soil to
be rapidly depleted of organic matter, which was lost to rainfall and
gradually over time transforming into a highland desert, somewhat
similar to northern Nevada (another former sheep-rearing region) The
rockier barren spots have come to resemble Utah. The die-off of trees,
shrubs and ground cover over decades has rendered the Edwards Plateau vulnerable to flash floods along relatively new “arroyo” - the Spanish-Mexican term for dry sandy flood channels - and in that
transformation from pasture to wasteland you have the root cause of the increasingly destructive and deadly floods in counties east and south of
the Plateau. Mess with Nature in Texas and the cult of plastic
convenience comes back on you with a vengeance.

Admittedly, I cannot offer an immediate solution, when warding off
floods over my veranda demanded every ounce of strength against the
wind-driven rain that swamped the backyard. And the arrival of more
clouds has kept me on storm watch instead of chasing down interviews in
the Kerrville-Guadalupe disaster zone. Given the power of arroyo floods
in New Mexico, I was aware of the strong probability that only a few
survivors in Texas escaped the floodwaters. Helplessness is a sickening
fact especially for a journalist who has survived all sorts of
warfare-related risks, scuffles with gangsters and natural disasters
over the decades. Oh, well, Kerrville was the one that got away.

Rebuilding a self-sustaining environment

Therefore, all I can conclude is that somehow the Edwards Plateau needs
to be replanted with trees, shrubs and hardy grasses - moderated and
enhanced by wild deer or possibly wild mountain sheep as in the
pre-settler days - in sufficient numbers as to restrain the onrush of
spill-off rainwater. Also helpful toward restraining floods, landscaping projects can divert storm water into ponds or lakes (some of which can
be used for recreational fishing or even small boat recreation). To do
what’s necessary, we must not focus solely on the harsh consequences downstream – the endgame - but instead come up with forefront solutions
at the source and do the hard work to prevent rapid runoff from the
Plateau onto the downhill communities. Certainly the inhabitants in a
state with the sunshine of Texas deserve beautiful and shade-banked
waterways to enjoy during the long hot summers. But to function as an alternative back-to-nature weather system, the terrain of hills and
valleys need to be studied, planned and designed on a scale as famously
large as a Texan vista. So the bright side of a very bad situation is
that to terra-scape with human efforts in imitation of what takes Nature millions of years to sculpt can be accomplished in a relatively short
span of time with careful planning and steady effort.

The Edwards Plateau is potentially a Garden of Eden and not solely as
catchment of clouds for changeable rivers meandering through vast tracts
of fallow land. Development is not solely about building new housing
tracts but also involves human efforts to improve the ecosystem for our
species and theirs - the wildlife, horses and pets in need of contact
with Nature. And it would be a heritage project to have one, two or a
few sheep stations on that landmark terrain of the mohair and wool
industry. Range wars are long behind us, and probably never as
widespread as suggested in cowboy movies. As I grew up in the Mohave
Desert, all of us wild boys dreamed of growing up to be a gun-slinging
cowboy hero rather than an environmentally conscious pastoralist. Were
we wrong about that! The over-arching lesson from the horrifying
disaster of July 4 - a day to learn about and practice the human
capability to do what’s necessary and good for all of God’s creatures -
so that children might thrive in a safe natural environment instead of
being swept away into the darkness. May God bless their souls and calm
their distraught families.
--
First we will destroy your identity. Then we will teach you your past
was evil. You will conclude yourself that your inheritance, your
homeland, your ancestors and your people are underserving of it all.
Then we will complete your dispossession and dissolve you into the final
phase of the Kalergi Plan.

https://www.globalgulag.us

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