TDEM Gets an Earful

Citizen Frustration Boils Over in Uvalde

Reliable reports from friends and associates that a special meeting between Texas Department of Emergency Management officials and concerned citizens and taxpayers in Uvalde turned into a vocal and occasionally verbally combative scene, as worried citizens poured their frustrations with the border crisis out on TDEM officials.

It happened at the meeting of the Texas Border Sub-Regional Planning Commission, at the Uvalde County Civic Center. Yours truly had to cancel plans to attend— in favor of assisting a close friend with hay bale processing operations in a pasture. Yes, hay, as in what’s for horses. It’s a rural area folks, and work has to get done. When you tell someone you’ll help, you help.

This photo comes from Montana. But, a hay bale is a hay bale.

A typical Hay bale. Imagine moving 280 of these, without tractors and bobcats. One can weigh between 500 to 1500 pounds, depending on species of grass, and water content. Image by: I, Montanabw, CC BY-SA commons.wikimedia.org

On the basis of what we’ve been told, it seems the gathering in Uvalde was in many ways similar to that we witnessed in Kinney County, when staffers for State Attorney General Ken Paxton were confronted with the frustrations of area ranchers and landowners.

You can see our coverage of that past event, in the body of the post linked below, after our discussion of the migrant caravan massing in Southern Mexico:

Estimated 90,000 Moving to U.S. - Mexico Border

In general terms, we are aware of a lot of frustration in area county governments (not just Kinney County) that have been told to go to TDEM for emergency funding, and then being told there’s no money for them, or there’s a problem with their applications, or other minutia and excuses that just make dealing with the current crisis more difficult than it should be as local governments scramble to find money to pay overtime to deputies, dispatchers, and overworked local court staff.

We anticipate coverage in the Uvalde Leader News, Friday morning. Kinney County Sheriff Brad Coe and County Attorney Brent Smith, and County Judge Tully Shahan were all in attendance— we will attempt to get word from them about their take on the event and what they saw.

Meanwhile, outside attention on the County continues. Conservative youtuber and blogger Anthony Aguero remains in Kinney County. One suspects he may be allergic to saying “Brackettville,” as he routinely tells his audience he is in Kinney, TX.

Some minor inaccuracies aside, his most recent livestream late last night, from what appears to be somewhere along Spring Street, or perhaps a park on Ann Street, is worth giving a brief look just to see what kind of a perspective far-right activists are bringing to recent actions by County Commissioners. And also, some frank discussion about how feeble current preparations around the state seem to be in the face of the massive migrant caravans on their way from Central America.

That’s all for now. As always, feel free to like, subscribe, and comment. We can tell you, that the spotlight of outside attention on the county and surrounding area is only going to get brighter. While moving about the town and county offices, one can occasionally hear strangers identifying themselves to various County employees. “I’m so and so, I’m a reporter with the Wall Street Journal,” and so forth, as they go about their work of trying to get a handle on what’s happening around here. It bears repeating, a lot of people are coming into this stuff completely fresh, and with no shortage of ignorance. Patient education and presentation may well go much further than frustration, no matter how well-earned.