Kerr County Commissioners Court Silent on Initial Flood Response

The Kerr County Commissioners Court held their first meeting since the deadly July 4th flash flood.  One County Commissioner shared how his local volunteer fire department saved everyone in their community, noting their was no loss of life as a result of their response.   

The Court did not have Emergency Management Coordinator William "Dub" Thomas clarify the County's early response to escalating warnings issued by the National Weather Service regarding flash flooding. 

The National Weather Service issued a flash-flood warning at 1:14 a.m. Friday to mobile phones and weather radios. The warning was updated at 4:03 a.m. to a flash-flood emergency.

Dub's name was mentioned as staffing the Emergency Operations Center along with the County Judge.  Thomas began his role as Emergency Management Coordinator in 2015.  Two years into his term government bodies warned of serious problems from flash flooding.

 

In September 2017, the Upper Guadalupe River Authority sounded the alarm in an online video produced with Kerr County and the city of Kerrville warning about the dangers of flash floods and its historical precedent posted to YouTube.

At least 134 people are dead and 101 are missing.  The lack of information the County's early actions is disturbing for citizens expecting accountable government.  A paid professional was in that role the evening of July 3rd and early morning July 4th. 

County Commissioners went into executive session to discuss matters.  I expect they got legal advice as to the county's failure to follow their emergency plan by not issuing timely warnings to members of the public, residents and visitors, making them aware of the impending flash flood.

The public has seen this before with the White House Hurricane Katrina response, the February 2021 Winter Storm that killed hundreds in Texas and the Uvalde school shooting.

The Katrina Lessons Learned report was a disaster in itself, just a collection of hero stories and recommendations to do better next time.  It avoided a critical examination of the response which resulted in needless deaths.

It remains to be seen what information is shared and what level of disaster response analysis is actually performed.  The public deserves to know, especially those of us living in Texas.

After spending five days with no electricity in bitter cold, trying to keep us and our animals alive in Winter Storm 2021, our electricity bill went up.  Nobody ever apologized. 

The bright side is that no one ever called me "evil" for expecting the basics from our government. 

Update 7-16-25:  First responder audio revealed the first calls regarding flooding came in around 3:30 am on July 4th.  The situation deteriorated with more people experiencing flooding and needing rescue.  At 4:22 am a firefighter asked that a CodeRED be sent out warning people.  It did not go out as no supervisor was available for approval.  

Outside resources arrived that needed to be coordinated via the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) yet to be set up.  After 4:30 am the river rises from 8 to 30 feet sweeping away all manner of cars, RVs and people.  

The first mention of EOC establishment is at 6:53 am at the Sheriff's Office.  The two people responsible for EOC establishment are the County Judge and Emergency Management Coordinator.  These officials are yet to provide any information on their whereabouts, much less any response to communications about the looming, then ongoing disaster. 

Local officials are supposed to follow the disaster plan and document their actions along the way, sot their reticence to produce of a timeline seems odd.

Update 7-17-25:  Governor Gregg Abbott visited San Angelo today to address flood recovery.  Kerr County's first FEMA level "flash flood warning" was issued on July 6th, two days after the deadly event.  None were issued on July 4th.

Update 7-18-25:  During COVID "Dub" Thomas spoke to the Kerrville Rotary.  His bio stated:

....Emergency Management Coordinator for Kerr County and the City Of Ingram since November 2015 and am responsible for the Kerr County/City of Kerrville/City of Ingram Emergency Management Plan, Code Red, CERT ( Community Emergency Response Team), Kerr County Search and Rescue Team and other disaster related duties as assigned.

Update 7-19-25:  A former Kerr County IT chief told NewsNation: 

“I don’t think there’s any solution other than to replace the people that failed us.” 

 Evidence collected by KXAN – including dispatch audio and FEMA data – shows county officials did not send alerts for hours after a National Weather Service warning, and more targeted alerts did not go out for days.

It's been over two weeks for Kerr County officials to not provide account for the actions/inactions of persons responsible for the local flash flood emergency response.  The County Judge, County Sheriff and Emergency Management Coordinator need to share what they did with their community and not wait for the Texas Legislative Session.  Local government is local accountability.

Update 7-20-25:  Rep. Drew Darby will serve on one of Governor Abbott's committees investigating the July 4th flash flood and subsequent flooding events.  In an interview with an Abilene CBS affiliate Darby stated:

"There really is no early warning system and a way to notify affected people about an impending disaster."

I would challenge his statement.  There are watch and warning systems that rely on people up and down the law enforcement, fire department, emergency management, emergency dispatch, government leader chain to take those watches, begin preparations and accelerate actions when they turn to warnings at the Emergency Operations Center.  When the situation becomes a flat out emergency the EOC has to deal with conditions, resources and adapt their plans accordingly.  

IPAWS allows Alerting Authorities to write their own message using commercially available software that is Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) compliant. The message is then delivered to the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System, Open Platform for Emergency Networks (IPAWS OPEN), where it is authenticated and then delivered simultaneously through multiple communication pathways. Through IPAWS, one message is created to reach as many people as possible to save lives and protect property.

When leaders responsible for setting up the EOC don't respond then no warnings or emergency messages are sent.  None.  That's what happened in Kerr County.  If the people responsible for emergency management don't show I'm not sure what interoperability of communications will do to help.