Hearing on deadly Texas floods reveals local officials missed emergency planning briefing

After 136 people died in a July 4 flash flood, Texas lawmakers are questioning why key Kerr County officials missed emergency briefings. Grieving families are calling for better alerts, accountability, and mental health support.

CNN) — All key leading officials from the Texas county hardest hit by the July 4 flash flooding that killed at least 136 people were absent from an emergency briefing call held before the tragedy unfolded, questioning from state lawmakers on Thursday revealed.

Kerr County officials were sharply confronted during the committee hearing in Kerrville, Texas, about their disaster preparedness and response following the deadly storm that swept away homes, children’s camps, and RVs primarily in their county, killing 37 children and 71 adults. Two people are still missing.

The officials faced strong criticism as lawmakers pressed for accountability in the aftermath of the catastrophe, intensifying their scrutiny since last week’s 12-hour special hearing over whether more should have been done prior to the storm or how efficiently life-saving efforts were carried out. Over 100 people signed up to speak during the public comment portions of Thursday’s hearing.

Emails from the Texas Division of Emergency Management — two asking local leaders to be on briefing calls about the weather and one showing predicted danger areas — are part of a series of opportunities local officials had to prepare.

“I didn’t see those emails,” Kerrville Mayor Joe Herring Jr. told CNN on Thursday. “I wish I had seen it. I didn’t see it.”

The Kerr County emergency management coordinator, who had been accused of being asleep in the critical morning hours of the deadly flood, said he also missed the emergency briefings because he was home sick.

“In my absence, my supervisors and sheriff’s office leadership were aware that I was off duty,” William B. “Dub” Thomas told a hearing in Kerrville of the state Select Committees on Disaster Preparedness and Flooding.

The emergency management coordinator said he 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.

‘You were nowhere to be found’

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick called out Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly specifically following his testimony, highlighting the judge’s absence on July 4, while also mentioning several officials who were there.

“I don’t know where you were on day one 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.” The lieutenant governor’s comments were met with applause from the audience.

In Texas, county judges are elected and act as the head of county governments.

Texas Rep. Ann Johnson pointed out that “the three guys in Kerr County, who were responsible for sounding the alarm, were effectively unavailable” in the midst of the emergency, she said in the hearing.

The Kerr County judge was away, the sheriff didn’t wake up until 4:20 a.m. and the emergency management coordinator was sick, she said.

“We cannot go back in time and save these children,” Johnson said, “but knowing now, what you know, is there a protocol that needs to be put in place that if the three folks who are responsible are not available at this moment for whatever reason, what should we do?”

Another local official in Travis County, Texas, also noted the important absence of a National Weather Service employee who was crucial in conveying to local officials how serious a weather event was going to be.

The employee left three to four months ago and hasn’t been replaced. His absence was felt during this major weather event, Travis County Judge Andy Brown told officials.

“He was the person who would say, ‘Hey Travis County, I know you get flash flood alerts, thunderstorm alerts all the time, but this is a big one. You need to pay attention,’” Brown said, adding that his number one request would be to fill that position.

Grieving residents blast officials, call for improved flood alert system

At Thursday’s hearing, lawmakers heard emotional public testimony from grieving residents who called for a more reliable system to warn the public about potential life-threatening floods.

Alicia Jeffrey Baker, whose parents and 11-year-old daughter Madelyn “Emmy” Jeffrey were killed in the flood, testified that officials should put in place a more effective audible alert system for flash flooding, particularly since some residents in the area lack cell and Wi-Fi service.

“My suggestion would be that instead of just sirens, we actually have sensors in the water that would then alert sirens to go off,” Baker said. “If we have gauges in water already, put a sensor on them. If it gets to a certain point, that’s when the siren goes off.”

“That’s my suggestion as someone living through a nightmare,” she added. “We need to do better for the people in this community, for the people that are suffering.”

Sobbing, Baker described the agonizing hours after the flood, when there was little communication about the whereabouts of her family. Her parents were identified that Sunday, and her daughter on Thursday, July 10, over a week after she went missing.

“The only thing that identified her at all was her charm bracelet,” Baker said.

Bud Bolton, a resident of Hunt, Texas, joined Baker in calling for a better alert system, highlighting the area’s lack of cell service as a major concern – he said he didn’t get an alert, instead he witnessed the chaos outside.

He recalled watching over 100 RVs float past him, while hearing the screams of children trapped inside, he said.

“(I heard them) screaming and hearing crashes and crashes, then tiny homes crashing and more crashing, gets dead silent and more crashes and more screams, and that went on for 15, 20 minutes,” Bolton said. “We got an alert to evacuate, after all the homes were gone. That’s when our alert came in.”

Rosa Toller, a resident of the Bumble Bee Hills neighborhood in Ingram, Texas, echoed a similar experience the night of the floods. “Our warning was screaming down the road. That was our warning, our screaming neighbors,” she said.

Williamson County Judge Steven Snell told legislators about a heroic 911 call from Sherry Richardson, a resident who was trapped in her home by rising floodwaters but begged first responders to help a home for disabled children farther up the road first.

“Few minutes later, the house was swept away by the flood waters, and she perished in the flood, but not before we were able to mobilize teams,” Snell said. “We were able to evacuate and rescue all 13 children that were residents and three nighttime workers from the home, thanks to the pleading in the 911 call of Sherry Richardson.”

Nancy Zdunkewicz and her family consider themselves lucky to have survived, she added, as many of their lifelong friends and relatives did not survive the night of the flooding. She and her 66-year-old mother clung to a tree for hours in Hunt.

“Had there been early detection of the rising water and sirens, we may have been able to leave in time to get to higher ground safely,” Zdunkewicz said. “I’ve heard someone else say, they didn’t think that was necessary or would save lives in Hunt, and they are dead wrong.”

Mike Richards, a Bandera resident whose daughter lives in Kerr County and discovered a deceased body near her home the morning after the flood, said during the hearing he recovered 10 bodies on his own, without any government assistance.

“I think the state involvement, as far as I’m concerned, is pathetic,” Richards said, also criticizing the Federal Emergency Management Agency for turning people away. FEMA had said it was inundated with a high volume of calls and not able to answer them at the peak of the flooding.

Richards recounted his attempt to secure an excavator to help recover the bodies more efficiently, but he said he was told the state would not allow him access to one.

“I ain’t worried about no laws, man, I’ll break them if you bring your equipment over just just to go out and look for these people,” he added. “I’m talking about finding bodies.”

“It was two days before I got some help. It was not from the state, not from the government. It was some good-hearted people.”

Mental health care should be prioritized

Keli Rabon, whose two sons, ages 7 and 9, survived the floods that tore apart Camp La Junta, said her younger son, Brock, lives in a constant state of anxiety and is in need of mental heath care.

“Today, my sons are physically safe, but for our family, the storm is not over,” Rabon said.

“Brock scans every room for higher ground. He checks the weather constantly. He battles nightmares of water dripping from the ceiling or his mattress being wet. His fear is so profound that he’s now anxious about the tsunami in Hawaii. He lives with the terror that no child or any person should have to carry but so many of us now do.”

Rabon said she requested help to find mental health resources for her children from FEMA but was told they cannot help.

“I shouldn’t have to rely on a Facebook group of volunteers to find trauma care for my children,” she added. “I pray that these hearings are more than just for show, because every day that we just focus on political posturing instead of people is another day that families like mine are falling through the cracks.

Rabon made three “simple, urgent requests”: immediately release emergency funds for recovery, make mental health care a core part of the state’s official disaster response and ensure all camps have publicly accessible emergency plans.

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