excuse me, but they have no reason to say STOP – we are temporarily calling mother nature to bring lots of rain. you had already noticed that others left. now if you read the article, it says EJECTED? so was anyone wearing a seatbelt? so problem is finding why was everyone w/o a seatbelt and why did you not go after your daughter? i seriously think that this person is not thinking. i am sorry they lost their daughter. i bet this fellow is thinking that they will settle out of court, i hope that it goes to court and find all the details of how he was not a responsbile driver and parent.
The campers seemed to be aware of possible weather problems. Why wern’t they more observant? Why did they expect to have someone stop them and tell them, why didn’t they stop and ask someone? I read the link to a larger article submitted by a reader, and it says the husband tried to rescue his family by shouting “Help, someone save my family” as he was standing by the creek. Why didn’t he do something? I do feel sorry for their loss, but wonder why they didn’t do more.
This is a horrible tragedy and surely one that could have been prevented, however, don’t blame the family/father for what happened to their daughter. No one can know the exact details of what happened. It’s easy to SAY how you may react in a disaster situation but when something like this happens to you directly you don’t know how you would actually react. The family is already suffering a great loss and the poor father is probably replaying this over and over again in his head and blaming himself.
JENN – are you kidding? He doesn’t blame himself at all – he blames the owners of the campground. As always, there is NO PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY here. This is tragic – and don’t doubt that.
Sandra, just because he’s transferring fault to the owners of the campgroup does NOT mean that he isn’t suffering a great personal loss in the death of his daughter. My point is that people shouldn’t judge the reactions of others in this type of situation. I agree that the owners of the campgroup should not be held liable but to place the blame on the father without knowing all the details, is also unfair.
Jenn – I don’t blame the father or the family at all for this tradegy – it was Mother Nature and she can’t be held accountable! My point was that the father is trying to blame someone who is not at all responsible for this terrible loss. These kind of things happen and it could have been avoided had the family been aware of their environment and the people around them.
Jenn, apparently he just sat there calling for help when there was no one around to hear. This is tragic, but is also appears did not DO a thing to help his own child.
ok, i read the article last nite. first of all, it truly amazes me that he does not have a radio on when camping. one of the first rules of camping is not place yourself next to the river due to an overflow. secondly, if he was so adamant about not being told, why did he not ask the other folks why they all were packing up at the same time? i bet if the little one had not been wearing a seatbelt, she might have been ejected as well. so, truly we have a tragedy, but the parent did not take proper responsibility. he sat on the bank calling for help but not doing anything. mother was holding the other child who was unconscious, while holding a tree. we see clouds overhead and it’s dumping rain, what do you think it’s going to do? the judge showed throw this out. what if the owner had not been there and had already moved out or just happened to be at the grocery store? whose fault would it have been? again, this DAD, should have been more responsible and remembered more about the so-called rules of camping.
Exactly Amazed! That was my point too! To think of all the ‘could’ve’s would’ve’s should’ve’s’ is ridiculous. You weren’t there and don’t know exactly what happened. Everyone reacts differently in a situation like this. I agree that the campground owners shouldn’t be held liable. This is just something very unfortunate that happened and finger pointing isn’t helping anyone.
well, first of all, if you read the article, it said they all got ejected out of the vehicle. which means, none of them were wearing seatbelts!!! in most states that is against the law for being without. so the young child that was in the vehicle might, again, might have been rescued. the father would have been in the vehicle getting out of a seatbelt and getting his daughter out at the same time. i agree a life lost is valuable we all grieve for such. my heart goes out to the family, but then again, he should have known many things or put at least 2+2 together.
Holy crap! The poor father? that’s just it, he hopes to NOT be poor anymore by making someone else take the fall and let him cash in…and he found an attorney with a willing, sympathetic ear, of course…this guy needs to be honest with himself!
There is some facts I have found in researching this article which have not been mentioned here, here is what I have found so far.
1.the levee up stream had let go and the flood waters were 200ft wide by approximately 8ft deep there is videos showing this on youtube and various news outlets (not even the rescue team could attempt to reach the vehicle until waters subsided).
2. the road they were crossing gave way under thier SUV on impact the father was able to get out I am unsure of his seatbelt status however he was screaming his wife and kids were still buckeled in the car.
3. a report says when the mother unbuckled her seatbelt she was able to turn and unbuckle her son at which point they were both sucked out of the car by the force of the water leaving the daughter trapped(which by this account shows 3 of them were buckled in).
Also the premise for the lawsuit which this article fails to mention is that the campground owners were on tape at a FEMA meeting prior to this accident stating that this has happened previously and that the levees upstream had a propensity to let go and had done so in the past it also states that the family had questioned the safety of making the trip to the owners and were not made aware of potential flooding problems. Just trying to add some things I found at other news outlets.
Nevau makes some interesting comments. I also ready some other information than contained in the IJ article which raised some questions. If what Nevau says is right on, then the lawsuit will easily be won by the plaintiff. The information Nevau provides seems to indicate that the campground should have been closed/relocated long ago because of its hazardous location.
Good point about earthquakes wudchuk since they would have to relocate that famous westernmost state to avoid them. If you talk about levees you would have to relocate New Orleans. However, this situation sounds like a smaller and more rickety levee. I like to camp, but I went to lakes and rivers that were made by the Army Corps of Engineers in Tennessee. We camped at the high spot and the dams were built for perpetuity by any engineering standard and they generate multi megawatts of power. The only thing I ever lost in that river was my fishing bait.
i don’t think anything will happen to this campground. you take a risk of living/camping right beside any river. we grief for his loss. what would have happened if it had been an earthquake? are you going to sue then as well? mother nature is mother nature. accept that things can happen.
excuse me, but they have no reason to say STOP – we are temporarily calling mother nature to bring lots of rain. you had already noticed that others left. now if you read the article, it says EJECTED? so was anyone wearing a seatbelt? so problem is finding why was everyone w/o a seatbelt and why did you not go after your daughter? i seriously think that this person is not thinking. i am sorry they lost their daughter. i bet this fellow is thinking that they will settle out of court, i hope that it goes to court and find all the details of how he was not a responsbile driver and parent.
As usual IJ misses some details. See http://www.woodallscm.com/2009/09/northeast-campground-sued-over-2008-flooding-death/
The campers seemed to be aware of possible weather problems. Why wern’t they more observant? Why did they expect to have someone stop them and tell them, why didn’t they stop and ask someone? I read the link to a larger article submitted by a reader, and it says the husband tried to rescue his family by shouting “Help, someone save my family” as he was standing by the creek. Why didn’t he do something? I do feel sorry for their loss, but wonder why they didn’t do more.
Exactly. Let’s see.. lots of rain.. oh, wait, twist my arm so I don’t cancel! Whose fault is that????
Sad what happened to their daughter but they put her in peril by even going there.
This is a horrible tragedy and surely one that could have been prevented, however, don’t blame the family/father for what happened to their daughter. No one can know the exact details of what happened. It’s easy to SAY how you may react in a disaster situation but when something like this happens to you directly you don’t know how you would actually react. The family is already suffering a great loss and the poor father is probably replaying this over and over again in his head and blaming himself.
JENN – are you kidding? He doesn’t blame himself at all – he blames the owners of the campground. As always, there is NO PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY here. This is tragic – and don’t doubt that.
Sandra, just because he’s transferring fault to the owners of the campgroup does NOT mean that he isn’t suffering a great personal loss in the death of his daughter. My point is that people shouldn’t judge the reactions of others in this type of situation. I agree that the owners of the campgroup should not be held liable but to place the blame on the father without knowing all the details, is also unfair.
Jenn – I don’t blame the father or the family at all for this tradegy – it was Mother Nature and she can’t be held accountable! My point was that the father is trying to blame someone who is not at all responsible for this terrible loss. These kind of things happen and it could have been avoided had the family been aware of their environment and the people around them.
Jenn, apparently he just sat there calling for help when there was no one around to hear. This is tragic, but is also appears did not DO a thing to help his own child.
Have any of you ever seen a flash flood???? Of course the father could do nothing on his own without drowning too.
ok, i read the article last nite. first of all, it truly amazes me that he does not have a radio on when camping. one of the first rules of camping is not place yourself next to the river due to an overflow. secondly, if he was so adamant about not being told, why did he not ask the other folks why they all were packing up at the same time? i bet if the little one had not been wearing a seatbelt, she might have been ejected as well. so, truly we have a tragedy, but the parent did not take proper responsibility. he sat on the bank calling for help but not doing anything. mother was holding the other child who was unconscious, while holding a tree. we see clouds overhead and it’s dumping rain, what do you think it’s going to do? the judge showed throw this out. what if the owner had not been there and had already moved out or just happened to be at the grocery store? whose fault would it have been? again, this DAD, should have been more responsible and remembered more about the so-called rules of camping.
Exactly Amazed! That was my point too! To think of all the ‘could’ve’s would’ve’s should’ve’s’ is ridiculous. You weren’t there and don’t know exactly what happened. Everyone reacts differently in a situation like this. I agree that the campground owners shouldn’t be held liable. This is just something very unfortunate that happened and finger pointing isn’t helping anyone.
well, first of all, if you read the article, it said they all got ejected out of the vehicle. which means, none of them were wearing seatbelts!!! in most states that is against the law for being without. so the young child that was in the vehicle might, again, might have been rescued. the father would have been in the vehicle getting out of a seatbelt and getting his daughter out at the same time. i agree a life lost is valuable we all grieve for such. my heart goes out to the family, but then again, he should have known many things or put at least 2+2 together.
Holy crap! The poor father? that’s just it, he hopes to NOT be poor anymore by making someone else take the fall and let him cash in…and he found an attorney with a willing, sympathetic ear, of course…this guy needs to be honest with himself!
There is some facts I have found in researching this article which have not been mentioned here, here is what I have found so far.
1.the levee up stream had let go and the flood waters were 200ft wide by approximately 8ft deep there is videos showing this on youtube and various news outlets (not even the rescue team could attempt to reach the vehicle until waters subsided).
2. the road they were crossing gave way under thier SUV on impact the father was able to get out I am unsure of his seatbelt status however he was screaming his wife and kids were still buckeled in the car.
3. a report says when the mother unbuckled her seatbelt she was able to turn and unbuckle her son at which point they were both sucked out of the car by the force of the water leaving the daughter trapped(which by this account shows 3 of them were buckled in).
Also the premise for the lawsuit which this article fails to mention is that the campground owners were on tape at a FEMA meeting prior to this accident stating that this has happened previously and that the levees upstream had a propensity to let go and had done so in the past it also states that the family had questioned the safety of making the trip to the owners and were not made aware of potential flooding problems. Just trying to add some things I found at other news outlets.
Nevau makes some interesting comments. I also ready some other information than contained in the IJ article which raised some questions. If what Nevau says is right on, then the lawsuit will easily be won by the plaintiff. The information Nevau provides seems to indicate that the campground should have been closed/relocated long ago because of its hazardous location.
Good point about earthquakes wudchuk since they would have to relocate that famous westernmost state to avoid them. If you talk about levees you would have to relocate New Orleans. However, this situation sounds like a smaller and more rickety levee. I like to camp, but I went to lakes and rivers that were made by the Army Corps of Engineers in Tennessee. We camped at the high spot and the dams were built for perpetuity by any engineering standard and they generate multi megawatts of power. The only thing I ever lost in that river was my fishing bait.
i don’t think anything will happen to this campground. you take a risk of living/camping right beside any river. we grief for his loss. what would have happened if it had been an earthquake? are you going to sue then as well? mother nature is mother nature. accept that things can happen.