Saturday, May 12, 2012 - Lake Meredith National Recreation Area, Fritch TX
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Camped at Blue West, Lake Meredith National Recreation Area, Fritch TX, May 11, 2012
Dry
Lake Meredith is nearly dry, and has been for years. The Canadian River drainage seems to be suffering a severe drought. Ute Lake, where I camped before coming here, is also a reservoir on the Canadian and it too is nearly dry.
Night camp
Blue West - Lake Meredith National Recreation Area, Fritch TX
- Verizon cell phone and broadband service - good signal and reasonable connection speeds.
- Go to the Lake Meredith National Recreation Area website
- Locate Lake Meredith National Recreation Area on my Night Camps map
- Check the weather here
Disaster and the Failure of Authority
Disasters are almost by definition about the failure of authority, in part because the powers that be are supposed to protect us from them, in part also because the thousand dispersed needs of a disaster overwhelm even the best governments, and because the government version of governing often arrives at the point of a gun. But the authorities don't usually fail so spectacularly. Failure at this level requires sustained effort. The deepening of the divide between the haves and have nots, the stripping away of social services, the defunding of the infrastructure, mean that this disaster—not of weather but of policy—has been more or less what was intended to happen, if not so starkly in plain sight.
The Uses of Disaster Rebecca Solnit, Harpers.org, September 9, 2005