‘Not a Damned Penny.' Texas Flood Survivors Look for Help

New York Times

a day ago

As soon as the raging waters receded on July 4 in Central Texas, Mike Richards led a group of volunteers to his property along the Guadalupe River to search for survivors. Instead, they found corpses, 10 of them, including a man that appeared to have bled to death as he waited for help.
Mr. Richards, 67, has been waiting for help ever since, from federal, state or local officials who could aid in the search, pitch in money for those who need it or help clear land that, he said, 'still looks like a bomb went off.'
'Not a damned penny came through this gate from my taxpaying dollars,' he said on Tuesday as he looked at the twisted trees and piles of debris that still litter his property and beyond. 'And I don't understand why.'
Mr. Richards is one of many residents planning to confront members of a Texas legislative committee on Thursday at a flood hearing in Kerr County, which suffered the brunt of the 136 known deaths in the Texas Hill Country. Kerr County's 100 dead included at least 27 counselors and campers from devastated Camp Mystic, most of them from two cabins near the river.
From the early days of the tragedy, officials in Kerr County have faced questions about the weak local government response and lack of alarms systems along the river. They have been at a loss to explain why they failed to secure grant funding for a flood warning system in recent years.
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