Texas is still in shock. What seemed to be another summer storm became a historical tragedy. Already 104 dead, including about thirty children, And dozens of people continue missingThe image of images from the air is destructive: devoted entire areas, cars floating in mud, houses are divided in half and Families are looking for their loved ones Among the wreckage.
The center of the disaster is located around the Guadalup river, which In just an hour and a half, it grew more than six metersSaving everything he found in his way. And although the sky seems to have calmed down, the authorities do not reduce their guards: the risk of new floods is still present.
But what exactly happened so that this storm is so destructive? Why did you hit so much?
The storm that was “stuck”
The first factor is associated with the abnormal behavior of the storm. Instead of moving, as usual with this type of phenomena, He was almost a few hoursThe Francisco Kacho field, the Lasexta meteorologist, explains this as follows: “The clouds were formed in mountainous areas and were anchored there for a long time. They did not move, they just downloaded “
In a few hours more than 300 liters per square meter fellA cruel amount of water equivalent to rain in a few months.
The shape of the earth worsened everything
The second main factor was the regorography of the region. Mountains and hills that surround the area They acted like a funnelThe field all the water, which quickly fell high down to the valleys, and went straight to the Gaadalup river channel.
“All this rain did not stay on the mountain. He went down very quickly to low areas And he was directed with great force, ”Kacho explains. Result: the river grew by six meters in just 90 minutes and took bridges, roads, trees … and whole houses.
Saturated air
To this we must add the third ingredient: The air was already saturatedThe field of very high temperatures and very high humidity loaded the atmosphere as a sponge that was supposed to drain.
This excess of moisture was fed by a storm, which was dropped with greater force than usual. A kind of “perfect storm” This had everything to be catastrophic.
Everything happened while people slept
And, perhaps, the most tragic: the water came at night. A lot of people They slept when the notifications began to soundNot everyone listened to them, or they did not have time to react.
In some summer camps, children had to avoid swimming between furniture and dirt. One of them calculated: “Our only way out is to swim from the cabinsThe field was dark, we did not know where the door was. “
Scenes of destruction
Now the injured areas are a landscape of destruction. Children’s mud blankets, wet animalsBroken crystals, the streets turned into channels. The windows of many houses break at a pressure of water. The dirt covers everything.
Rescue teams They continue to work tirelesslyThe field is areas that can only be accessed in a boat or by helicopter. Every day that passes is the key to the search for disappearance.
And this has not ended yet. The Governor of Texas announced state of emergencyThe field and although he stopped rain, experts warn that the danger has not passed. The floor is saturated, the rivers are filled, and any new storm can cause another flood.
