KERR COUNTY, Texas – As catastrophic floods on the Fourth of July swept through the Texas Hill Country, killing more than 100 people, one Kerr County official told lawmakers he was at the lake while another said he was sick in bed.
Testimony from Kerr County officials on Thursday revealed a lack of on-duty leadership in the key initial moments of the flooding that killed at least 136 people, including 27 youths and counselors at an all-girls camp.
The testimony came during a hearing from the state Senate and state House joint committee on disaster preparedness and flooding.
‘You weren’t here’
Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly, who is the county’s top elected official and presides over emergency management, said he was at his house in Lake Travis in the early hours of July 4.
“My wife was at home during the early hours of July 4 while I was at our lake house preparing for a family gathering,” Kelly said.
As floodwaters swept through Camp Mystic and killed dozens of girls, Kelly said that he was asleep until other officials awakened him.
“My first indication that the storm was different came when I woke up to text and calls from (Texas Department of Emergency Management) Chief Nim Kidd, Sheriff (Larry) Leitha and (Kerrville City Manager) Dalton Rice,” said Kelly, in part. “We know that by that time, the flooding had already overtaken Camp Mystic.”
Watch Kelly’s opening statements below:
Kelly said that he figured “something more serious and potentially tragic was unfolding” due to the tone and number of messages.
Kelly stated that he and William “Dub” Thomas, Kerr County’s emergency management coordinator, did not sign the disaster declaration until after he arrived at the Kerr County Sheriff’s Office.
“I quickly gathered my things and contacted Thomas, who was en route to the sheriff’s office. Together, we agreed to the disaster declaration, which was signed once I made my way there,” Kelly said.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick addressed Kelly’s delayed response.
“Judge Kelly, I never saw you on Day 1. I came here (Kerrville) from Austin. In this room, I talked to the sheriff multiple times,” said Patrick, in part. “I talked to the mayor multiple times. We had a meeting when we got here. Everyone was here, and you were not.”
Patrick said that during a meeting, he asked everyone about Kelly’s whereabouts.
“This is about as bad a day as you can have, and I’ve had a lot of bad days,” said Patrick. “Because we didn’t just lose people, we didn’t know where people were. And you weren’t here.”
Patrick said that when there was a multi-agency press conference later that night on July 4, Kelly was not there. Patrick stated he and Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha went down the list of every youth camp along the Guadalupe River, which was 15 camps, to find out who was accounted for.
“The only camp, we went down that list, we had accounted for every camp except Mystic. You weren’t in that meeting. I don’t know where you were on July 4, but you should have been here. You should have been here directing that response. That’s your responsibility,” Patrick said.
“Everyone was here that day working their a—off and you were nowhere to be found,” Patrick said.
Rep. Ann Johnson, a Democrat from Houston, asked Leitha whether the county should have a protocol in place for when three of the top county officials are not available during an emergency.
“Yes, ma’am, we can look at that real hard,” Leitha said. “Yes, I can look and maybe they can call me earlier.”
‘Quickly became clear that the situation was escalating’
Thomas told lawmakers on Thursday that he was sick for multiple days before the catastrophic flooding in the Hill Country.
Watch Thomas’ opening statements below:
Kerr County’s emergency management coordinator also mentioned that he missed two calls with Texas Emergency Management officials, although he said those calls were routinely followed with written summaries sent to other county leaders.
“I stayed in bed throughout July 3 and did not participate in the regularly scheduled 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. Texas Emergency Management Coordination Center Coordination Calls,” Thomas said.
Thomas said on the morning of July 4, he was first awakened by his wife around 5:30 a.m., more than an hour after emergency rescue operations were underway, and quickly drove to the sheriff’s office.
“There was no visible flooding on my drive into the office, but it quickly became clear that the situation was escalating,” he said.
Thomas insisted that around 6 a.m. on July 4, he was “actively coordinating our county’s response.”
Leitha also acknowledged being asleep as the crisis was unfolding.
Lack of updated warning systems
In other testimony, local officials said they needed but lacked an updated warning system when flash flooding swept away homes, vehicles and left families begging for rescue on the roofs of their homes earlier this month.
Others who testified Thursday before an audience of hundreds of people — some who wore green ribbons in memory of the victims — called for urgent improvements for better flood warnings and flood mitigation.
Kelly said residents had virtually no warning of the impending weather catastrophe until it was too late.
“We need stronger communications and better broadband so we can communicate better,” he said, adding that poor cell service did not help those along the river. “What we experienced on July 4 was sudden, violent and overwhelming.”
Leitha presented a timeline of events to lawmakers and said emergency responders realized they had an “all-hands-on-deck” situation as early as 3:30 a.m., when dispatchers received a call from a family stranded on their roof requesting air evacuation. But Leitha acknowledged that he was not alerted of the flooding until about an hour later, at around 4:20 a.m.
Residents along the Guadalupe River have said they were caught off guard and had no warning when rainfall struck. Kerr County does not have a warning system along the river after several missed opportunities by state and local agencies to finance one.
The hearing comes as authorities have begun publicly releasing records and audio — including 911 calls — that have provided new glimpses into the escalating danger and chaos in the early hours of the July Fourth holiday. They include panicked and confused messages from residents caught in trees as well as families fleeing with children from homes with water creeping up to the knees.
“People are dying,” one woman tells a 911 operator in call logs released by nearby Kendall County. She says she had a young relative at a church camp in Kerr County who was stranded along with his classmates because of the high waters.
“I don’t want them to get stuck in a low-water crossing. And what are they going to do? They have like 30 kids,” the woman says.
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