I lived and worked in the Kerrville/Bandera area for 15 years. My oldmans' home place is Utopia, where we spent every summer swimming in the freezing cold chrystal clear creeks and Sabinal River. The hills are all limestone rock and since settlement in the 1850's, settlers have tried hard to knock a living out of these hills where only small portions of the valleys are friable and can continuously grow a crop. My family and many in the area were Irish from east Kentuck/Tennessee area. They understood limestone hills, caves, clear creeks, etc. but the difference was the amount of annual rainfall average. Many of the hills had fertile soil, but it is shallow and they were farmed out soon. The rest of it was used for rangeland. Barbwire was strung and cattle were grazed in an area that naturally had low fertility and little predictable rainfall. Then my ancestors went to sheep and goats cause they could tolerate the climate better and also eat brush and short grasses after the good grasses were grazed out. After the long rooted grasses were gone on the hills, then cedar (Ashe Juniper) took over cause even goats won't eat that unless they are starving. Couple that with the suppression of fire, then what was created was cedar forests and rocks all over hills and landscape My great grandfather was a farrier, and his side job was sheep shearing, he would travel the areas of the hill country to shear sheep. This was the age of livestock dipping vats as well.

These lands, up until the 1990's were not all that productive and everything went as normal until the late 90's. There was good hunting, but that was it.

Old timers started having to sell out cause their kiddos didn't want to make a living off cattle, sheep, and drought. They were land rich and money poor, and many of these big places were bought by outsiders because of the beauty of the land. They did not need the land to pay for itself. Since then, the Hill Country of Texas has been absolutely raped. Ranches divided and subdivided, and people and houses everywhere. Wells being drilled, and rainwater runnoff so bad from impervious cover that many of the spring fed rivers in the area no longer even flow year long.

Tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people more now live in the area where the flooding occured. More people, means more rooftops, more driveways, and more concrete. Many of which are on hillslopes. Recreation is a big deal now and folks don't have to make money off cattle and sheep anymore. They can make money merely off access to beautiful land and providing a place to camp.

My point is, that this area has always flooded. The Hill Country is known for flash floods; the issue is that 50 years ago, it would affect some farmers and ranchers and screw up some hay and maybe lose some livestock; now is a whole other situation.

Conspiracy nuts making fun of other conspiracy nuts .

You can sure tell when a full moon is close, lol.


Wonder why were seeding clouds in Mexico where this storm came from?