ACCOUNTABILITY

‘Morning Joe’ Tears Into Texas Officials Ducking Blame for Flood Response

Deadly flooding in the Lone Star State has claimed the lives of at least 120 people.

MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough tore into Texas officials for ignoring “very clear signals” about their antiquated flood warning system.

As the death toll from catastrophic flooding along the Guadalupe River last weekend continues to climb, with at least 120 confirmed dead and 161 still missing, Texas officials have faced a mounting backlash over their refusal to take responsibility for the state’s lack of emergency preparedness.

“The flood system, as reported, was considered antiquated a decade ago,” Scarborough said on Thursday’s edition of Morning Joe. “You had not only the people of Kerrville ... you had to have people in the county and people in the state repeatedly ignore these very clear signals that people’s lives were in danger, Texans’ lives were in danger, because they weren’t upgrading an antiquated system.”

Following reports that county officials had discussed upgrading the state’s emergency warning system 20 times since 2016 before approving a plan two days before the tragedy, Scarborough said the state of Texas had “failed miserably” at protecting its residents.

“We heard a sheriff say in a clip that things could have been so much worse, and certainly they could have,” he said. “But also, there is no doubt: If the warnings over the past decade had been listened to by politicians in Texas—on the local and the state level—then this tragedy could have been so less worse, so less tragic.”

The death toll from the catastrophic flooding along the Guadalupe River continues to climb, with at least 120 confirmed dead and 161 still missing.

Kerrville Mayor Joe Herring attempted to duck accountability on Monday by claiming officials “didn’t have a warning” about the catastrophic flooding. Gov. Greg Abbott, meanwhile, made a bizarre football analogy to avoid taking responsibility, claiming it was “the word choice of losers” to blame elected officials for the tragedy.

“Every square inch of our state cares about football,” Abbott said on Tuesday. “Every football team makes mistakes.”

Scarborough, a former Republican congressman, scoffed at the pair’s attempts to avoid blame, saying, “There’s really no passing of the buck.”

“This talk of ‘losers’ is from somebody who doesn’t take responsibility,” he said. “Nothing is done for over a decade to an antiquated warning system.”

“The governor suggesting that any calls for accountability is the talk of ‘losers’ suggests that person is afraid to face the accountability he deserves,” Scarborough added.

Scarborough also went after officials for allowing a children’s camp to be built in a flood zone. Flooding at Camp Mystic near Kerrville, Texas, has killed at least 30 young girls and counselors. Five campers are still missing.

“State authorities allowed a children’s camp to be built in a flood zone just a few years ago,” he said. “That’s again, one more thing where the state of Texas failed miserably.”

See more of our coverage in your search results.

ADD THE DAILY BEAST ON GOOGLE

Tom SandersReporter

Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here.