Cal.E.'s Korner

d.: I want to take a break from our somewhat silly story line and address an issue that’s on most Texans’ minds. If you are in Texas (or probably most of the rest of the United States, you’ve seen and/or heard the story of the campers that were washed away in a freak storm in Kerr County that created a 100-year flood. Some of the people who are still to be found are adults, but most are children, and that’s heartbreaking. Any parent (or even those without children can probably empathize with these families, and that has created an atmosphere in Texas of people joining together to help search for the missing people and supplying the families of the lost (mainly) girls with food, water, and other necessities that the families probably aren’t giving much thought to right now.

I grew up in a rural community where, unfortunately, it wasn’t unusual for children to die before their eighteenth birthday. In rural communities, children die in hunting, accidents, as well as swimming accidents when they try to navigate water in streams and creeks that is too fast for them to fight the current, or worse. Some kids  dive in headfirst without checking the depth of the water farming, and ranching accidents also happen semi-regularly, and fatality car accidents also happen on country roads, but this is different.

These (mainly) girls were at church camps or camping with family members. Most were sound asleep when the warning to leave the area was issued. At four-thirty in the morning, not too many campers are, or are able to watch or listen to the news, and no airhorn was sounded to warn these people of a coming flood.

This blog post is not to point fingers, but to ask for help. I have heard, on the radio, of several churches that are accepting donations. Other people are using their trucks or ATVs to hunt for the bodies of the people who were washed down the Guadalupe River. The death toll is now at 95, and it’s expected to climb higher.

Information on this tragedy is abundant on the internet, as well as the local and national news. Some websites will give information on ways to help these families. Hopefully, none are scammers, but I don’t have enough information on any of these organizations to encourage y’all to donate to a particular one.

Thoughts and prayers are also appreciated, I’m sure. Please keep these families in those as you go about your daily routines.