Deadly Texas Hill Country Floods – July 4, 2025

Posted on July 7, 2025 by Professor Taboo

This has turned out to be Part I of an unknown series-number that I hope to keep short and finished soon.

Some of you who follow my blog may not have known just how closely my Alzheimer’s mom and I live to the banks of the Guadalupe River. Here’s a Google Maps view:

We live about 1,050–1,080 feet from the banks of the Guadalupe River. Here is how the river looked July 4th at approximately 3:00am to 4:30am CST and hours after:

*Over 26-feet of water raised the Guadalupe River in less than 1-hour*. The river crested at 30-feet above normal.

This was a very close call for us and our neighbors. However, having lived here in Kerrville, Texas, since 1996, Mom and I know full well how quickly this Hill Country can flood to dangerous, lethal levels. It has happened here many times going back to at least the early 1930’s. Anyone who has lived in Kerr County for a number of years, or decades, KNOWS what happened July 4-5, 2025, can occur in the spring/early-summer months when weather is quite volatile. And with extreme Climate Change weather events occurring around the globe more and more over the last 40-50 years, I am fully aware and many of our good dear friends in the area that are (very?) well-educated with good critical-thinking skills, consistent sound reasoning, and are not anti-science or hyper-religious know completely how vulnerable our area really is in which we live. Honestly, these weather events are NOT rocket science, but merely knowledge and education received during middle school called Earth Science classes.

However, those 4th- thru 8th-grade classes cover the core basics, but more than enough for a quality understanding of Earth’s climate and weather systems and how they work and are all linked together. Furthermore, a deeper understanding can easily be achieved if the person(s) want and desire to be very well-informed and more highly educated. In this area of Texas doing so is extremely wise! Your life could depend on it!

This is what is fully known by 7th- and 8th-generation Texans like myself and Mom, who are very well-educated with under-grad and post-grad educations and more importantly believe and trust science, particularly the Earth Sciences, Climate Change, meteorology, ecology, and atmospheric sciences and how they all interact. Again, in this area of Texas knowing these sciences thoroughly well could save your life.

Alright, enough of being a very highly educated 8th-generation Texan living in a volatile weather area of Texas. Let’s examine more broadly what took place prior to July 4-5 last autumn in October–November 2024 and thereafter, what occurred July 2-3 with the local National Weather Service, and now after the catastrophe and fatalities of over 47 people, many children… what is being said, claimed, blamed, and defended publicly by our Texas politicians and officials.

*https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/texas-news/video-congressman-chip-roy-praises-central-texas-flood-response/3878753/*

Congressman Chip Roy is our Republican representative in Texas’ 21st congressional district which includes Kerr County. Mr. Roy is originally from Bethesda, Maryland, not Texas. Mr. Roy has a long political history with Texas Senator John Cornyn (R), former Texas Governor Rick Perry (R) and by default former Texas Governor and U.S. President George W. Bush (R), and with current Senator Ted Cruz (R) and many other ultra-conservative MAGA-supporting politicians.

If you watched the above video of Rep. Chip Roy the day after the horrific tragedy along the Guadalupe in Hunt, Ingram, Kerrville, Center Point, and further down river to Comfort, Texas, this was one of the first things Mr. Roy stated on camera to America and the world:

“…there is going to be a lot of finger-pointing and blaming of what should’ve been done and what wasn’t done.”

This was stated less than 1-2 minutes in his opening remarks. Why start off the news briefing that way less-than 30-hours after the deadly tragedy? Couldn’t there have been several other positive remarks to be made first? It begs the question, was he speaking to families of victims, ordinary local Texans, or was he speaking to a world-wide and nation-wide audience and all their spotlights and cameras as if on stage? Was that really comforting to hurting families and Texans? Was it at all helpful?

Mr. Roy, Gov. Gregg Abbott, Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha, Kerr County City Manager Dalton Rice and others sitting down, and all the other “attending officials” standing behind the sitting panel quickly began praising their political colleagues and authorities for their incredible efforts and response times, bragging and boasting about them doing their jobs with excellence.

I began to get sick to my stomach listening to these so-called political and public safety officials sitting and standing proudly in front of all the cameras and news media and asked, Why aren’t all of you out there helping clean-up, helping rescue efforts do more and doing it for hours upon hours upon more hours rather than bathing proudly in front of cameras? I had to walk out of the room. I couldn’t stomach their arrogance and egomania to the news media. 🤢🤮

The Before, During, and After Events & Facts

October–November 2024:
It is very well-known that in the early designs of our federal, state, county, and local governments, the process of legislation, voting, and representative-based system of officials serving the public—not their own interests—working with and protecting our citizenry, its public safety needs, its infrastructure required to keep citizens safe and protected, and that in a true and pure democracy us individual legal citizens must constantly participate in our government’s ruling and regulating this county, state, and nation at least every two-years. You must get up, get out and go vote for the best political-government officials. Citizens have the biannual responsibility to do their own homework and legwork to cast their vote for the most ideal, most experienced, most honorable and public-serving officials available. This honor, duty, and virtue can never be done right by taking the easy way out: like voting strictly party-line that takes 5-minutes at the polls, or spending 1-hour or less skimming over the candidate profiles, or worse still… by NOT voting at all!

Shamefully and sadly nearly 90-million Americans registered to vote did not go vote last October–November 2024 during one of this nation’s most critical elections to-date. Texas voters are some of the worst active voters in the nation, usually with only 34%–38% turnout rates every two years. And that has been the case in Texas since the 1970’s and 1980’s. The rural Texas areas, like Kerr County, are often lower turnout rates than 38%.

The consequences of this apathy and voting indifference by American voters last fall have directly and indirectly had domino-effects on many public safety, public programs, and not-for-profit organizations. Agencies nation-wide are now being felt personally by Americans as well as Texans in the Hill Country due to the apathy of voting citizens and the horrendous budget cuts and gutting of public safety agencies, staffing, and programs.

[ ** Note ** — I had to stop writing/drafting this post because we just began receiving more NWS Flash Flooding alerts and warnings on my cell phone and local newscasts again at around 2:30pm CST July 6th due to the North Fork of the Guadalupe River (near Hunt, TX) has another surge of water coming down to us in Kerrville, TX. Hopefully, I will return to this post shortly.]

I’m back. It is about 8:40am, July 7th. All afternoon yesterday and into the late evening after receiving two or three NWS Flash Flood alerts on my cell phone informing us and Kerrville residents close to the Guadalupe River to move to higher ground or evacuate your location if near the swollen river banks. The NWS alert told us that the North Fork of the Guadalupe was about to have a dangerous water surge northwest of and into Hunt, TX, see images below.

*Guadalupe at Ingram, TX, Hwy 39 and Hwy 27 junction*

*Guadalupe River down river at Hwy 27/Junction Hwy and our home.*

How large or how high the surge was going to be was not, at that moment, exactly known. The surge was expected to hit Hunt, TX, at their Guadalupe River point near downtown in 20-mins or so. That is approximately 15-18 minutes up river from us/our home. Not yet knowing how high/large the water surge would be I immediately began making preparations for my 85-year old Alzheimer’s mom and I to either quickly evacuate the property complex, or if we could not exit out onto Junction Hwy/Hwy 27—there’s only one entrance/exit for our property—so I then made preparations for a Plan B… climbing up the closest, strongest oak tree in front of our porch getting up at least 6-7 feet higher than our sidewalk and front porch. Mom was going to be the very difficult rescue; she has no physical strength at her age. Given the very short period of time I had this was the best I could do in 15-minutes.

About 35-45 minutes later I found out from local TV news and weather updates what the expected surge-height would be: no more than 11-feet. That was great news! During the night/early hours of July 4th the surge was 23-26 feet, cresting at 30-feet. I had roughly calculated that if this second surge would be upwards of 45-feet or more… we were probably in big trouble. As luck would have it, we were still safe.

I will pause here for the moment given the unexpected length of this blog-post and the volatility we’ve had over the last three/four days and nights. I will try my best to post Part II very soon…

A late update and clarification – July 7, 1:25pm CST:

Regarding stalled thunderstorm vortexes in Texas, these have been rare. The commonly used term over the last several decades is a “100-year Storm.” However, these events are becoming more and more common place and frequent. They have become what is currently classified as Mesoscale Convective Vortex or stalled low-pressure thunderstorm system(s).

Important Considerations of a MCV:

Mesoscale Convective Vortex (MCV): A low-pressure center within a Mesoscale Convective System (MCS) that can pull winds into a circling pattern. MCVs can persist for hours after the MCS dissipates and can even become the nucleus for a tropical storm.

Stalled Storms: Stalled storm systems can cause significant flooding due to repeated heavy rainfall over the same areas. An example is the extraordinary rainfall in Texas in July 2025.

Defining “Stalled Thunderstorm Vortex”: It’s possible that the concept of a “stalled thunderstorm vortex” refers to a longer-lasting mesovortex within a thunderstorm complex, leading to PROLONGED severe weather conditions in a particular area over several hours.

Live Well – Love Much – Laugh Often – Learn Always

Expect the Worst for America(ns) Now

Posted on June 22, 2025 by Professor Taboo

Just as former President George W. Bush forced the United States and its allies into an unnecessary, illegal invasion of Iraq in March 2003, falsely justifying the attack based upon bogus, fabricated WMD weapons inside Iraq, President Donald J. Trump today has gone several steps further and more illegally attacked Iran for even less bogus reasons than the Bush Administration invented 22-years ago.

Many, many serious concerns come to mind after this unprovoked attack on Iran. Very serious ones come to mind that I am quiet sure President Dumb-Rump never considered, much less his incompetent Cabinet.

This is what President Dumb-Rump and his imbecilic MAGA Republicans have now opened up as a Pandora’s Box against Americans and American interests abroad for the next decade or two:

Likely/Assured rising or skyrocketing oil/gas prices across the Western hemisphere. Iran and her oil-producing allies will hit the U.S. and its allies with all sorts of retribution in oil-production, like closing the Straits of Hormuz and convincing other Iranian allies to jack-up Western oil price distributions.
Attacks on American military bases and/or businesses across the globe and in the Far East, Middle East, and Near East causing unnecessary death to American personnel and lifetime despair for their family members.
Likely/Assured rallying of radical Islamic groups and nations to aid and/or attack U.S. interests around the globe and probably inside the U.S. borders. More American and allied casualties!
Number 3 above causes these Iranian allied nations, e.g. China, Russia, and North Korea (to name only three), to aid further in weakening U.S. bases, interests, and the West to help desperately fighting nations like Ukraine and Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine because Dumb-Rump is easily played and manipulated by foreign dictators such as Benjamin Netanyahu to get sucked into another long, drawn out Iraq 2 War.
And the worst possible scenario Dumb-Rump has opened up and flamed are more radical Islamic groups (who hate the U.S., like Al-Qaeda) to plan horrendous attacks on the U.S. like the 9/11 attacks!
Dumb-Rump did NOT first obtain Congressional approval to start a war against Iran like all previous Presidents have done in our 250-year national history! This is grossly UNconstitutional!
Back in July of 2015 a Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action known as the Iran Nuclear Arms Deal set in motion a solid agreement between Iran and China, France, Russia, the U.K., and U.S.—plus Germany, along with the European Union to assure PEACE in the Middle East free of nuclear risks. Dumb-Rump destroyed that agreement in May 2018 by withdrawing the U.S., essentially making all bets off! What an EFFIN MORON that buffoon Trump is, truly! 😡🤬 Now the idiot goes and attacks Iran! WTF!? 😡🤬
Now this idiotic decision and attack by Dumb-Rump will fuel perpetually more and more Islamic terrorist groups to form-up against the United States for decades to come.

And these eight (8) concerns above are just the beginning. Who knows what domino-effects Dumb-Rump has started for this country and our military personnel and ordinary citizens in the coming decades.

Americans, mark my words this day, the coming weeks, months, and years are going to be a deadly, horrible, economically unnecessary hardship on us that we never had to shoot ourselves with in the foot and head. Bad, bad, BAD move Dumb-Rump!

Whining Too Much Too Late

Posted on June 8, 2025 by Professor Taboo

I am beginning to get quite tired of Americans bitching and moaning about how horribly Donny J. Trump is ruining this country, both domestically and in foreign affairs. It is getting annoying and nauseating to keep listening to and reading about American voters getting angry, publicly protesting, and just giving lip-service to what SHOULD have been voiced and acted upon back in October–November 2024.

The fact is, that bitching, protesting, fighting HAD to be waged back in April 2023 when Project 2025: The Conservative Mandate was published for ALL American voters to read… precisely what Trump and his MAGA sycophants said they were going to do to our entire federal government and our Constitution. Surprise! No… no surprise.

But how many Americans actually read the MAGA Republican’s 790-page blueprint to trash the country? No one. Did anyone prepare for their overhaul of our Charters of Freedom and trashing of our Constitution? No one. And NOW they are starting to bitch, moan, and whine far too late? WTF people!

I am getting very tired of listening today to Americans complain to what Trump and his MAGA sycophants said they would do if he got voted back into office. He and the MAGA-eots are doing it. And how many lazy ass, indifferent, apathetic, non-patriotic Americans did NOT vote last October–November? I’ll tell you, almost 90-million Americans did not vote last autumn. That was more than enough American voters to keep Trump out of the White House! Plenty of No-Votes against Trump!

Quit your bitching, moaning, and whining Americans, THIS is what YOU allowed to happen by not participating in protecting our democracy, our Charters of Freedom, and letting a fascist dictator back into the White House! 😡🤬 So shut tha hell up with non-stop whining about what the Orange Orangutan is doing to this nation. Yes, he is ruining it, he is trashing it, and he is indeed a shameful 4th-grader embarrassment that behaves like an immature spoiled, bullying brat! But voting Americans… YOU let him back into the White House. So show some accountability, belly-up, and STOP your god damn effing whining already!

We deserve this. Period.

Live Well – Love Much – Laugh Often – Learn Always

A Very Simple Question for Trump-Americans Today

Posted on February 28, 2025 by Professor Taboo

By now everyone has likely heard and gotten wind about the shameful, disgraceful tirade Vice-president J.D. Vance and President Trump went on with and against President Zelensky of Ukraine. To say this childish behavior from the White House was unprecedented is to wrongly identify the facts of the last 4-years (Feb. 22, 2022) and the last 11-years (Feb. 20, 2014).

US President Donald Trump and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky listen to Vice President JD Vance (R)as they meet in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, February 28, 2025. Zelensky on February 28 told Trump there should be “no compromises” with Russian President Vladimir Putin as the parties negotiate to end the war after Moscow’s invasion. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP)

Trump and Vance wrongly accuse Zelenskyy and Ukraine of ‘not wanting peace’ in their illegally occupied country. This is classic Trump diversion tactics of historical, contextual facts and “foolish” naive American Trump-Vance supporters. One simple question to Americans, particularly MAGA Republicans, will easily make light of their idiotic fallacy about the war in Ukraine made by Russia and Vladimir Putin. That question is this:

If North Korea invaded the United States and seized huge swathes of American soil, reducing our 50-states to say… 34 states, would loving patriotic Americans stop fighting and defending their country’s borders because China accuses America of not wanting peace, in negotiation attempts between Kim Jong Un and President Trump?

The answer is GLARINGLY obvious. Duh.

So why should President Zelenskyy and Ukrainians drop their weapons and let Putin and Russia have whatever they want in Ukraine (and the Crimea?) “for the sake of peace”? Would Trump, Vance, the U.S. Armed Forces, and real patriotic Americans just let Kim Jong Un and North Korea have whatever they want?

Exactly.

And THAT is why Trump, Vance, and all MAGA Republicans are dead wrong today praising our Commander-in-Chief and V.P. for their humiliating, childish tirade on President Zelenskyy today. Duh!

An excellent read from Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters from an American on just how dead wrong Trump, Vance and MAGA Republicans truly are and how they are taking the USA down a very dark, dangerous road, fast.

Public Safety?

Posted on February 17, 2025 by Professor Taboo

How would you describe and define (altruistic) “public safety”?

Why would an advanced, civil society and nation promote and/or care about “public safety”?

What are all the benefits of widespread (altruistic) “public safety”? What are the negatives of “public safety,” if any?

What are some historical BAD examples of no public safety? What are some stellar examples of incredibly caring public safety?

Let’s really dive into the detailed concepts of “public safety.” Share your thoughts, ideas, and personal principles. I would love to know your thoughts and behavior about public safety.

Live Well – Love Much – Laugh Often – Learn Always – Care About Others, It’s Christ-like