Since the flash floods erupted during the July 4 weekend in Central Texas, the official death count is 129 people, including 36 children. Hundreds more are still missing. Most of the deaths occurred in Kerr County, not far from San Antonio along the Guadalupe River, which empties into the Gulf of Mexico.
Many people were asleep before any of the limited alerts from the Kerr County emergency management reached them. By then it was too late to escape the waters that rose 20 feet in two hours in some areas. There were no measures taken that could really help evacuate many residents from where they lived. It reminded many observers of what happened to Hurricane Katrina victims almost 20 years ago in New Orleans.
Flooding in Kerrville, Texas
There was little to no coordination between local and national emergency agencies due to layoffs within the Federal Emergency Management Agency by the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) under the Trump administration. When Trump dared to show his nauseating face during a recent visit to Texas, he had the gall to say that the floods were “an act of god.”
In reality, these devastating floods were an act of climate change, rooted in global capitalism’s greed for profits at the expense of the planet.
The death toll caused by these floods in 10 days is still lower than the number of Palestinians murdered, including children, on an almost daily basis by the U.S.-backed Israeli Occupation Force. According to a report from the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza on July 13, some 139 Gazans were killed within a 24-hour period. This brought the official total death toll since Oct. 7, 2023, to over 58,000 Gazans murdered by the murderous Zionist regime. And this death count – which according to some studies is many times higher than Ministry of Health estimates – grows every day.
Starving Gazans risk getting shot by Israeli occupiers while seeking food.
The bottom line is that whether it’s the death tolls in Central Texas for the past two weeks or in Gaza in the past 21 months, the same system is the root cause: imperialism, which is capitalism at home and abroad.
The capitalist economic system, first and foremost, has always put profits before meeting the needs of human beings, regardless of any borders. The capitalist class of billionaires is driven to grow its profits through war and exploitation even if the lives of the working class are lost.
Regarding the profit motive, there is no fundamental distinction in the eyes of the ruling class between the lives of the Palestinians or of the ordinary people in Central Texas; only the locations and circumstances differ.
Think about the fact that 20 Mexican firefighters crossed the border to assist in rescuing people from the Texas floods. They had few resources and might have faced arrest and detention by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Compare the solidarity from Mexico to the $7 trillion U.S. federal budget that prioritizes war over workers’ needs.
Capitalism is a ruthless, predatory and oppressive system that must and will be uprooted to save all of humanity – from occupied Palestine to Central Texas.