Below is a very brief summary. If you care about the future of Corpus Christi and the children who will inherit it, read the article before deciding who benefited from the decisions that brought us here. Ask yourself: were public officials planning for the people—or making it easier for billion-dollar interests while tomorrow’s problems were left for everyone else to solve?
When Yesterday Becomes Your Water Plan
Most of us think a drought is a natural disaster.
This one wasn’t.
Nature delivered the drought. People failed to prepare for it.
For years, scientists warned that South Texas could become hotter, drier, and less predictable. Yet much of our planning continued to assume the future would resemble the past. Each new water study simply moved the day of reckoning closer—from decades away, to years away, until suddenly the shortage wasn’t coming someday. It had arrived.
The lesson reaches far beyond Corpus Christi.
A bridge is not built for yesterday’s traffic.
A levee is not built for yesterday’s flood.
And a city’s water system should never be built for yesterday’s climate.
Whether you believe climate change is caused by humans, by nature, or by some combination of both, one fact remains: if the weather changes, responsible planning must change with it.
Ignoring a forecast doesn’t stop the storm.
It only guarantees you’re surprised when it arrives.