More camps needed staffers like Aroldo Barrera!

[LeftInTX]

It was about 1 a.m. on the Fourth of July when the facilities manager at a central Texas summer camp saw water from the Guadalupe River steadily rising amid a deluge of rain.

Aroldo Barrera notified his boss, who had been monitoring reports of the storms approaching Presbyterian Mo-Ranch Assembly, a recreation destination where an intercultural youth conference had been called off early just hours earlier.

Despite an absence of warning by local authorities, camp officials acted quickly on their own, relocating about 70 children and adults staying overnight in a building near the river. With the kids safe, camp leaders including President and CEO Tim Huchton were able to avoid the catastrophe that hit at least one other camp near Hunt, where the 500-acre Mo-Ranch is located.

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/06/quick-action-by-1-texas-summer-camp-led-to-timely-evacuations-ahead-of-deadly-flood-00441065

I'm sure Aroldo Barrera was looking at the radar and saw that mesoscale convective system, with bright pink in the center parked over the headwaters of the Guadalupe river. (A few miles west of Hunt) The river is quite narrow in Hunt, hence a very heavy rainfall will have a much strong impact than 12 inches of rain in a larger river.





He was wise and knew what he was doing! Yet, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to read a weather radar.

I wish other camps had staffers like him!!

WPC issued as many as six MPDs for the deadly flash flooding in the TX Hill Country starting yesterday evening and lasting through much of today. The first MPD generally set the stage for what was to come, while the next three shown were as the event unfolded.

— Peter Mullinax (@wxmvpete.bsky.social) 2025-07-05T00:03:07.896Z