Texas flooding disaster: Leading figure in American Ulster Scots movement urges people in Northern Ireland to pray for flooding victims
A leading figure in the Texas Ulster Scots movement asked Northern Ireland to pray for the Scots-Irish communities that were devastated by flash floods which have taken over 100 lives so far.
Glen Pratt of Amarillo, a past president of the Ulster-Scots Society of America, was speaking to the News Letter as hopes dimmed of finding any further survivors of the flash flooding.
The storms battered the Hill Country area of Texas for four days beginning early on Friday morning.
Flash floods hit camps and homes along the edge of the Guadalupe River, pulling people out of their cabins, tents and trailers and leading to over 100 deaths.
Mr Pratt had been visiting friends and relatives in the area only two days before the disaster struck.
“I have a cousin and her husband that live in the area, but they were on higher ground, and fortunately, they're safe,” said Mr Pratt.
However his best friend Robert Johnston who lives in the area of Comfort, right on the Guadalupe River, had a serious scare, he said.
“Even before I saw the floods on the news, he called me to tell me about the rain and the horrendous floods.
“Robert evacuated his girlfriend and her children from their home as they saw the water rising – her home was nearly carried away by flooding several years ago. So she was quite frightened.
“So he collected them and brought them all to his business office, which sits on higher ground.
“There was basically a cloud burst and the river rose by over 20 feet in a very short period of time in the wee small hours while most people were sleeping. That is why so many people drowned.
“So we are all asking the good people of Northern Ireland to please pray for the flood victims and their families.”
In the summer it is very common for communities in the area to cool off together in the turquoise-coloured Guadalupe river by going ‘tubing’ – sitting in inner tubes from tractor tires in the water.
“It promotes great community – these rivers are places of great happiness,” he said.
“So it's normally quite beautiful, but now it has turned into a large, brown, deadly lake. The hill country of Texas is forever changed.”
While much of Texas is prairies and plains, the Hill Country stands out because it is covered with hills or small mountains and forest.
“In the 1800s Ulster-Scots people came and settled there from the southern Appalachians or the Ozark Mountains, back in Tennessee and Arkansas,” Glen said.
“And they brought their culture with them. That's why the cultural geographers will call the hill countries of Texas Appalachian.
“It is so much like the Appalachians – famed for their Ulster-Scots heritage – in speech, vernacular architecture, folk music, food, and the agriculture they brought with them. They know their heritage.”
More recently, it has become a destination to visit quaint towns with 1800s architecture, local food and drink outlets, antique stores, barbecue joints and Texas country music venues.
Many locals would identify with the Scots-Irish book, ‘Hillbilly Elegy’, by US Vice President JD Vance, he added.
“Everybody knows the story and they would very much identify with it – the old, original settlers,” he said.