Above photo: Volunteers aid cleanup efforts after floods devastate South Central Texas. PSL.
Organizers in Texas have raised over 14,000 dollars for relief efforts.
And condemned local officials for failing to implement measures to prepare and warn residents of flooding.
Disastrous flash flooding in Central Texas in the beginning of July left at least 121 people dead. Rescue teams continue to search for the over 170 people still missing. The floods now rank among the deadliest natural disasters for children in the US in recent decades. 36 children lost their lives in Kerr County alone.
Amid the loss of life, many argue that the flood deaths were preventable, with some pointing to the failure of local officials to implement a flood warning system.
The editorial board of the Houston Chronicle published an editorial advocating for systems that would ensure more flood recovery and preparedness, writing “what’s most difficult to process is that these deaths were largely preventable.”
“IT IS DAMN WELL PAST TIME we have a loud siren system especially in rural portions of the river valley,” wrote Chris Suchan, chief meteorologist at News 4 San Antonio, in a post on Facebook. “Lets not let the tragic loss of so many precious lives be wasted on in-action. GET IT DONE!!”
Flood and disaster expert and Rice University professor Phil Bedient wrote in an opinion piece that “my colleagues and I believe that Texas can — and must — prevent tragedies like this in the future.”
“May we work together to build an effective, updated and workable warning system,” Bedient concluded. “Never again can we sleep through the night while floodwaters rise.”
Grassroots organizers with the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) throughout Texas have argued that “the deaths of 100+ people in Texas floods are the result of political decisions made by local, state, and federal politicians.”
“They all knew about the urgent need to protect communities from severe weather,” reads a statement issued by the PSL in San Antonio. “They were all given explicit opportunities to expand prediction, prevention, and early warning systems. Instead, they gutted these systems, denied funding for upgrades, and gave billions of dollars in public money to the ultra-rich.”
Organizers with the PSL based in Austin, San Antonio, and San Marcos are soliciting donations for relief efforts. Similar efforts were taken up by the PSL in Western North Carolina after Hurricane Helene tore through the Southeast and Appalachian regions of the US.
On-the-ground volunteers denounce attempts to blame DEI
As they mount relief efforts, these organizers denounced the conservative political activist Charlie Kirk for placing blame for the tragedy in Texas on “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) policies. PSL organizers in Texas claim this is an attempt to use the attack on DEI “divide” Texas residents amid a dispute between firefighters and Austin’s fire chief.
Peoples Dispatch spoke to one of these socialist organizers in Texas, Rachel Domond, who described why she is not afraid to attach the label “socialist” to disaster relief efforts. “This is conservative Trump country we’re talking about, but it’s in situations like these in which we have a real opportunity to be on the ground with people across race and political affiliation. We can’t leave these moments to the Charlie Kirks of the world, who want to blame DEI, rather than the whole system, for this devastation.”
Over the weekend, the on the ground relief work began. Volunteers arrived in the cities of Kerrville and Leander, backing local cleanup drives and helping volunteer and rescue teams.
In a flood-ravaged neighborhood just off Kerrville Lake, community members were already hard at work when volunteers arrived to help gut a damaged home, one that, until then, had seen no outside organizational support. The homeowner was one of the first to witness the rising river. With no sirens or official alerts, he ran door to door shouting for his neighbors to evacuate.
Together with the homeowner, and local community help, volunteers tore out soaked ceilings, removed insulation and fiberglass, and filled dozens of contractor bags, only pausing once the trailer used for debris was filled. The team stayed until the cleanup was fully complete.
PSL members are soliciting donations for ongoing relief efforts, and claim that “the loss of life has been exacerbated by inadequate flood warnings and evacuation notices, along with a lack of resources for people to evacuate.” A fundraiser launched by PSL members in South Texas has raised over USD 14,000 at the time of this writing.
