"The first waves began hitting the U.S. West Coast after an 8.8-magnitude quake off Russia’s coast put a swath of Pacific nations on alert."

Live updates from the NYT. Gift link, here.

ADDED: "The Kamchatka Peninsula is so known in Russia for its wilderness and lack of communication links that it has become a byword for 'remote.'... Unlike Turkey and Syria, countries that have been devastated by earthquakes in recent years, Kamchatka is sparsely populated — and the Soviet-era housing there typically has only one or two stories.... Moving around Kamchatka is difficult: The peninsula has just a few hundred miles of paved roads, mostly around major towns, and there are no roads to cross the swampland separating it from the mainland. Kamchatka has become a popular destination for tourism in recent years, with travel companies offering camping, helicopter rides and off-road tours for the visitors to see the volcanoes or admire the pristine forests and rivers.... A tour guide in the Kuril Islands, Yelena Kotenko, posted a video of tourists running out screaming from a two-story building as tiles rained down from its roof. The tourists went up the side of a volcano while a tsunami was rising on the coast, she said."

"Camp Mystic’s leader got a ‘life threatening’ flood alert. They evacuated an hour later."

"Much of what made the camp special also put it at heightened risk as the river rose to record levels, a [Washington] Post investigation found."

That's a free-access link.

Excerpt: "As the water encroached, the teenage counselors, cut off from others, were left to make frantic life-and-death decisions. They began rousting girls from their cabins, the younger campers screaming or crying as they waited for help or were ushered to higher ground. Dick Eastland, 70, and other staffers eventually realized that the Bubble Inn and Twins cabins, which held the littlest girls — some as young as 8 — were in the most danger, Eastland Jr. said. A swirling eddy of water had formed from two directions...."

"'Okay, we’re going to go out,' she told the girls around 3 a.m., but the first in line, a 9-year-old, was afraid to jump."

"So out Ainslie [Bashara, a counselor at Camp Mystic] leaped, and when her bare feet touched the ground, the water, rushing past with such force it felt like rapids, crested at her waist. If the girl had gone first, Ainslie realized, she would have been swept away. Stunned by the cold, Ainslie caught her balance as her co-counselors inside kept the girls calm and coaxed them through the window. The pair eased the first girl out to Ainslie, then a second, then a third. All of them were crying. They clung to Ainslie — her arms, back, waist, hair — as the former dancer slogged through the current toward a dry pavilion about 30 yards away.... She dropped off the first set of campers, told them to wait, and returned to Giggle Box, repeating the trip until the cabin was empty...."

From "In the dark, amid screams, a Camp Mystic counselor had 16 girls and one headlamp/As the Texas floodwaters rushed into their cabins, the teen counselors braved the unknown" (WaPo)(free access link).

"The Texas county where nearly 100 people were killed and more than 160 remain missing had the technology to turn every cellphone in the river valley into a blaring alarm..."

"... but local officials did not do so before or during the early-morning hours of July 4 as river levels rose to record heights, inundating campsites and homes, a Washington Post examination found."

This was the technology they needed, and apparently, they had it. They didn't use it.

"Many of the counselors and campers didn’t have phones on them: Campers were not allowed access to technology..."

"... while counselors could have them only during select nights and moments during the day, and Ms. Clement said she had always thought of that as a benefit, part of the atmosphere that went with being along the river. 'You don’t know how much of a joy it was to be unplugged,' she said."

From "As Texas Flood Raged, Camp Mystic Was Left to Fend for Itself/Flash floods surged through in the middle of the night, but many local officials appeared unaware of the unfolding catastrophe, initially leaving people near the river on their own" (NYT)

Ms. Clement = Nancy Clement, an 18-year-old counselor, who escaped the flood.

Also: "The county does have access to a private system known as CodeRED that sends out alerts to residents’ phones, but it is not clear to what extent it was used. At 4:22 a.m., a firefighter asked on an emergency channel if there was 'any way we can send a CodeRED out' to residents in the town of Hunt, where Camp Mystic and the Presbyterian camp are located, 'asking them to find higher ground or stay home,' according to a report by Texas Public Radio. But it appears that the first CodeRED did not go out for about an hour. Louis Kocurek, a resident of the town of Center Point, told The Times that the CodeRED text message he received had come in at 10:07 a.m. Sheriff Leitha said he could not say why the alerts had not been issued earlier."

ADDED: There is a second front-page NYT article today, and it's about what I think is an even more shocking problem: "Camp Mystic Cabins Stood in an ‘Extremely Hazardous’ Floodway":

"The primary job right now continues to be locating everybody... We will not stop until we identify, recover every single body."

Said Gov. Greg Abbott, quoted in "At Least 173 People Are Still Missing After Texas Floods/Officials said the search for remains would continue until all the victims have been accounted for. In the hardest-hit county, no survivors have been found since Friday" (NYT)."

Search crews spread through the Texas Hill County on Wednesday morning with a grim mission, seeking signs of the scores of people missing from devastating floods that struck the region nearly a week ago, killing at least 111.

Gov. Greg Abbott revealed late Tuesday that at least 173 people remained missing — the first time state officials have identified just how widespread the human toll might eventually be....

"And you could have my two daughters on this call who know that when I die, my ashes are to be spread at Camp Mystic."

"It runs that deep for people who went to that camp. It was a very, very safe space. You know, it just was a, a clean slate. No one knew what you were like at school every day. No one knew that I was the geeky kid. I just was a can't-miss-it girl. I didn't even have a present father. I didn't know what anybody else's father did or how much money or the size of the house they lived in. It was a space where people could come and it was a level playing field.... So I did not have an idyllic childhood. I had a privileged childhood. But, you know, just because you're privileged doesn't mean that things are always going well at home. And I think a lot of kids were grappling with themselves and they came to Mystic and it was just a place to be a child.... I had an older brother and he was great. But I looked up to girls. I don't think I understood that at the time. It was also a place where you could just be silly. And I don't know that I would've been silly in front of boys at that age...."

Said Erin Paisan, describing her years as a camper in the 1970s, in "A Love Letter to Camp Mystic," today's episode of the NYT "Daily" podcast.

And over at The Washington Post, there's "'The camp of our dreams’: LBJ’s daughter remembers her years at Camp Mystic/Lynda Bird Johnson Robb recalls how the Texas camp shaped her childhood" (free-access link): "The camp, which opened in 1926, had a legendary reputation among Texans of privilege. Parents were known to put their daughters on the waiting list at birth.... Girls in their cabins could look up and see the names of their mothers and aunts and grandmothers carved into the rafters.... The bonds formed there could help assure that a girl would get into the right sorority at the University of Texas, marry well and find entry in elite circles."

"At least 59 people have been confirmed dead by the floods... as a frantic search-and-rescue operation continues for countless more who remain missing..."

"... including 11 girls from a beloved summer camp on the Guadalupe River.... Extraordinary atmospheric conditions released 1.8 trillion gallons of rain in and around Texas Hill Country on Friday. In one area, the Guadalupe River rose from 7 feet to 29 feet in just a few hours.... The National Weather Service said its reports gave localities hours of lead time, but the speed and severity of the flooding still appeared to catch many off guard. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem said that the agency used an 'ancient system' for alerts and that the White House has been working to upgrade the technology...."

The Washington Post reports.

UPDATE: The headline at the link now reads "Death toll nears 80 as local officials promise ‘full review’ of what went wrong."

"[P]arents circulated photos of some of the missing girls, and exchanged hopeful stories that they were hearing about dramatic rescues: girls clinging to trees, or floating downriver to a boys camp five miles away."

"Camp Mystic aims 'to provide young girls with a wholesome Christian atmosphere in which they can develop outstanding personal qualities and self-esteem,' its website said. It draws from families around Texas and beyond, with the youngest campers entering third grade in the fall. The camp was established in 1926... and has been run by generations of the same family since the 1930s.... Camp activities include archery, cooking, cheerleading, fishing and a variety of sports. Videos posted to the camp’s Instagram account show large groups of girls participating in group dance performances this summer...."

From "Live Updates: Rescuers Search Through the Night After Texas Floods Kill at Least 24/Two dozen girls were missing from a camp along the Guadalupe River. Flooding continued in some areas on Saturday" (NYT).

"This is our last night, so we thought we would brave the city and brave it is."

Fiongal and Jamie on their "last night" — in Ahmedabad, India:

Every man for himself.

In the comments to the previous post, about the Cuauhtémoc disaster, Old and slow said: "They could see the collision coming. I don't understand why the sailors stayed up on the yardarms."

I asked Grok, "Were they courageously holding their formation? Were they waiting for a command?" and guessed that no such command was given because the men could not have scampered down all at once. Grok observed: "Staying in place, secured by harnesses, may have been safer than attempting to climb down without clear instructions.... Naval operations prioritize collective action over individual initiative in emergencies.... The sailors likely held their positions to avoid creating additional hazards, trusting their officers to issue appropriate commands."

My inclination was to credit the sailors with courage, but Grok thought it was more likely a matter of "duty and discipline." If adhering to duty and discipline doesn't count as courage, are we systematically lying to ourselves and others and engaging in sentimentalism and propaganda when we speak of courage in the military? And why would it be less courageous to unclip the harness and attempt to descend?

In writing my question for Grok, I thought of the expression "Every man for himself." Is that a command ever given in the navy? Grok said — full Grok answers here — that's not a formal command in the naval tradition. But then why do I know that phrase? Where does it come from?

Mexican tall ship hits Brooklyn Bridge.

Sailors seen dangling from the Top Masts of the Mexican navy vessel that collided into the Brooklyn Bridge. It appears that several people were hanging and/or clutching on to objects several hundred feet in the air in an attempt to avoid falling.pic.twitter.com/Y3Bt145IxF

— Noteworthy News (@newsnoteworthy) May 18, 2025

"An A.I. tool may learn how to superficially mimic the end result of writing, but it will never mimic a writer’s soul or how he or she actually produces meaningful writing..."

"... that process by which an individual idiosyncratic mind works out a problem, granting readers access to the inner life of another actual person, that constitutes the lifeblood of writing and storytelling.our institutions embrace a totally unproven technology. University administrators routinely announce new partnerships with A.I. startups, and well-meaning instructors — perhaps imagining an ideal student in an ideal world, or just wanting to feel like they’re on the cutting edge — incorporate these tools in their classrooms.... I will continue to teach students that, whether they go on to write a best-selling memoir or simply scribble in their journals occasionally, we can try to do the work as honestly and earnestly as possible, bringing our full obsessive selves to the page. The act of writing itself can be an act of self-preservation, even one of defiance...."

Writes Tom McAllister, in "I Teach Memoir Writing. Don’t Outsource Your Life Story to A.I." (NYT).

Good luck enforcing student authenticity. They're writing for you, but what you want is for them to do what's for their own good. So you must structure things so that when they do what's for their own good you will reward them. I'm tempted to... I mean, here I am, going straight to A.I. with: "A creative writing teacher wants students not to use A.I. How can that rule be enforced?" Grok gave me 7 ways to detect the use of A.I., then suggested "flipping the script: allow AI as a brainstorming tool but require students to document how they transformed its suggestions."

I've never taken a creative writing class, but I have thought of writing a memoir. If I did, at this point, I would definitely use Grok, not because I want help composing sentences and paragraphs, but to get encouragement to see the value of the material. 

Citizen journalism.

PASSENGER STARTS FILMING IMMEDIATELY AFTER UPSIDE DOWN DELTA JET CRASH AT TORONTO AIRPORT.

80 people on board, minor injuries reported, no deaths.pic.twitter.com/BCxA6yblU3

— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) February 17, 2025

"At the request of and in coordination with the family, the Army is releasing the name of the third Soldier who died while performing a training mission near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Jan. 29."

"Capt. Rebecca M. Lobach, of Durham, North Carolina, served as an aviation officer (15A) in the regular Army from July 2019 to January 2025. She has no deployments. She was assigned to the 12th Aviation Battalion, Ft Belvoir, Va. Her awards include the Army Commendation Medal, Army Achievement Medal, National Defense Service Medal and Army Service Ribbon. Our deepest condolences go out to her family, and all the families who are mourning the loss of their loved ones impacted by this devastating accident...."

Reads the statement from the Army.

"'I was so distraught when I heard this news last night,' said Senator Tim Kaine... who for years has opposed adding flights at Reagan..."

"... and warned of the dangers posed by overcrowding the D.C. airspace. 'I will not be able to rewatch the speech I gave on the Senate floor about it because it would make me too upset,' he added. Last year, as the Senate debated the latest round of additional flights, Mr. Kaine said he feared the prospect of people sticking a microphone in lawmakers’ faces after a tragedy and saying 'you were warned and you voted for it anyway.'"

From "Congress Approved More Flights at Reagan Despite Warnings of Danger/Lawmakers repeatedly added flights despite fears of delays and accidents" (NYT)(Congress has repeatedly voted to increase the number of daily flights at Reagan National Airport, adding departures that made life more convenient for lawmakers...).

"And he went, ‘It’s the water. What do you want me to do, swim there?’ And I was like, exactly. F*ck right. You’re exactly right. It’s a stupid question. And you got just the answer you deserve."

NEW: Bill Maher says Trump was “exactly right” to mock reporter over “stupid question” about the plane crash site.

This impression is actually pretty good.

“They asked him a question about the crash, and they said, ‘Will you visit the crash site now?’ Every other politician… pic.twitter.com/NfyLTnMh1p

— The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) February 1, 2025

"The issue of the female aviator’s identity is particularly sensitive as Mr. Trump has also blamed diversity, without evidence, for the crash."

"In addition, Pete Hegseth, the newly confirmed defense secretary, has said that the military has diminished its standards by welcoming women and racial minorities into its ranks. He has echoed Mr. Trump’s comments on rooting out diversity programs in the government.... Mr. Hegseth said on Thursday that the Black Hawk helicopter was 'doing a required annual night evaluation' flight and was being flown by 'a fairly experienced crew.'..."

From "Army Withholds Identity of Helicopter Pilot Killed in Crash/The names of two male crew members were released, but the family of the third aviator requested privacy" (NYT).

The reason the Army gave for withholding the name, we're told, was "her family’s request for privacy." And "It is unclear what specifically motivated the aviator’s family to make the request."

If we had the name, everyone would be able to research her, to read anything she may have written on social media, to look at photographs of her, and to express all sorts of opinions about her, including — taking a cue from Trump — theories about how she was promoted beyond her merit. Her death — and the death of everyone else in the disaster — would merge with the discussion of DEI and Trump's dramatic effort to snuff it out nationwide.

Trump press briefing, just now, on the air disaster.

 

Much of this was an attack on the FAA's diversity and inclusion hiring plan, "which says diversity is integral to achieving FAA's mission of ensuring safe and efficient travel":

"The airplane was on a perfect and routine line of approach to the airport. The helicopter was going straight at the airplane..."

"... for an extended period of time. It is a CLEAR NIGHT, the lights on the plane were blazing, why didn’t the helicopter go up or down, or turn. Why didn’t the control tower tell the helicopter what to do instead of asking if they saw the plane. This is a bad situation that looks like it should have been prevented. NOT GOOD!!!"

Wrote President Trump on Truth Social last night.

According to The Washington Post: "According to flight surveillance data, the downed Army Black Hawk helicopter was heading south, roughly along the District side of the river, before the collision with the American Airlines regional jet. [Jeff Guzzetti, a former crash investigator with the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board] said it appeared the helicopter had been traveling in that corridor, but that he could not be certain...."

It was an Army helicopter (WaPo): "The Army helicopter involved in the collision was a UH-60 Black Hawk on a training flight, military officials said late Wednesday.... Three service members were on board, according to two defense officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the incident. Flight tracker information identified the helicopter as 'PAT25,' the typical call sign for helicopters used for 'priority air transport” missions...."

Russia connection: