This Decade of Disasters: Necessary Mourning after the Texas Flash Flood

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PSYCHIATRIC VIEWS ON THE DAILY NEWS

“Who’s to blame? Know this: That’s the word choice of losers.” - Texas Gov. Greg Abbott

So responded Gov. Abbott after the devastating flood. I wonder, though, whether it is the opposite, that the question “who is to blame” is the word choice of winners, of those who have and want to make things better. Avoiding assessing blame may be a reflection of psychological guilt.

When I think of great disasters and national mourning, I am old enough to remember the assassination of President Kennedy, the procession of his casket in Washington, DC, and the salute of his young son nicknamed “John-John.” That mourning process brought out the tears in the public as nothing else could. However, like now, there was also an unresolved war going on in Vietnam and escalating public conflicts about civil and related rights.

Another assassination, of President Kennedy’s brother, was to follow not too long after, as well as that of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Then, “John-John” died as he piloted a plane off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard. Much to mourn and wonder about. Does insufficient mourning contribute at all to later tragedies?

In recent years, our biggest national tragedy and trauma has been the COVID-19 pandemic, which began the decade. However, to adequately mourn the millions of deaths, and more, in this country is even more difficult not only because of the social conflicts that developed, but because it is unclear when the pandemic actually began and when it ended, especially given the unnecessary delay in our government’s responsiveness and that less severe forms of COVID-19 infection are still around.

Thinking about all these national tragedies and more makes me wonder about the best way to process them without going into denial or forgetfulness. Putting them out of mind prevents learning from them and leaves more future triggers to related traumas.

For individuals, the best processing we know so far is conveyed in the stages of grieving developed by the late psychiatrist Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, MD. You probably know them: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. However, people forget that all stages do not have to take place, or take place in this order, or in similar intensity. We do know that inadequate mourning can lead to the new disorder called prolonged grief.

Additionally, a stage 6 was added after her death by her protege, David Kessler, MD, JD, and is a major and important challenge.¹ The task is finding meaning in the tragedy. This addition complements the advice of the concentration camp survivor psychiatrist Viktor Frankl, MD, PhD, in his perennial best-selling book, Man’s Search for Meaning.

Perhaps the same challenge for individuals takes place collectively, with the added variables of individual variation and cultural group differences. Even so, what might be the meaning in the Texas flash floods, for example?

1. What went wrong or was inadequate in the warning process, and does that have anything to do with federal and state defunding of helpful resources?
2. Given the river’s history of flooding, what can be done, if anything, to reduce its potential to do so again, especially since the increased warming increases moisture in the air?
3. What is the underlying challenge in this flooding and that of other areas in this and other countries?

NPR just wrote “New data reveals FEMA missed major flood risks at Camp Mystic.”² I personally think that the underlying meaning is that our country, and Texas in particular, is not addressing our global climate crisis anywhere near adequately. The growth and wealth of Texas has been based on fossil fuels. If that is correct, how do we build that into the mourning process now?

My wife and I, like so many, have a connection to those who passed away in the flood. We lived in Texas for 12 years, loved the Hill Country, and went there to view the solar eclipse last spring. Serendipities can be tragic, too. A friend just sent us this obituary (names left out for now). It began with this:

“The floodwaters of the Guadalupe River took her, 76, on a fatal ride in her beloved sanctuary of Hunt, Texas, in the early morning hours of the 4th of July. Her last act was to ensure that her husband, life partner, and best fried of 58 years, escaped their sinking car as they sought higher ground. Because of her selflessness, he survived.”

The husband was essential to my career. They were married the same number of years as us.

We need leadership in our governments and in psychiatry to help the nation through the mourning process and recovery. That many victims were young girl campers only adds anguish to the task. Although the immediate disaster is still being death with, like the gruesome task of finding more bodies, it does appear that many politicians have been encouraging the mourning to begin. Psychiatry, besides our disaster readiness to help in the acute stages, also needs to educate the public and the various media about mourning.

We are only about halfway through this decade and year. To help us along, I think we need a national day of mourning beyond the Memorial Day for our fallen soldiers. I will even take the poetic liberty of suggesting when. I would wildly pick the last day of the year, December 31, to be followed by the hope and resolutions of the New Year, January 1st. Fireworks can be delayed to that day. This will allow for a sad end of the year to be directly followed by happy expectation. That is sort of like the New Orleans brass band mourning tradition as it unwinds, slowly marching and playing dirges to the funeral, then upbeat music for the future. Please join me in the Second Line in such a march for the future.

In the meanwhile, we can all do our own year-end reviews.

Dr Moffic is an award-winning psychiatrist who specialized in the cultural and ethical aspects of psychiatry and is now in retirement and retirement as a private pro bono community psychiatrist. A prolific writer and speaker, he has done a weekday column titled “Psychiatric Views on the Daily News” and a weekly video, “Psychiatry & Society,” since the COVID-19 pandemic emerged. He was chosen to receive the 2024 Abraham Halpern Humanitarian Award from the American Association for Social Psychiatry. Previously, he received the Administrative Award in 2016 from the American Psychiatric Association, the one-time designation of being a Hero of Public Psychiatry from the Speaker of the Assembly of the APA in 2002, and the Exemplary Psychiatrist Award from the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill in 1991. He presented the third Rabbi Jeffrey B. Stiffman lecture at Congregation Shaare Emeth in St. Louis on Sunday, May 19, 2024. He is an advocate and activist for mental health issues related to climate instability, physician burnout, and xenophobia. He is now editing the final book in a 4-volume series on religions and psychiatry for Springer: Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, Christianity, and now The Eastern Religions, and Spirituality. He serves on the Editorial Board of Psychiatric Times.

References

1. Kessler D. Finding Meaning: The Sixth Stage of Grief. Scribner; 2020.

2. Sullivan L. New data reveals FEMA missed major flood risks at Camp Mystic. NPR. July 9, 2025. Accessed July 10, 2025. https://www.npr.org/2025/07/09/nx-s1-5460970/fema-texas-flooding-floodplain-camp-mystic