Houston Public Media reported:
Kerr County’s emergency coordinator, Will Thomas, said he was ill and asleep as floodwaters began to rise and didn’t participate in early response calls on July 3. Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha also said he was asleep as the river rose, while Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly, who oversees emergency management, said he was out of town.
And no first responder went to their home and knocked on the door?
William "Dub" Thomas is retiring effective March 31, 2026. County Judge Rob Kelly, also retiring, said they would miss Dub and that Dub cannot be replaced. I would say as Emergency Management Coordinator Dub was critical to the "asleep, asleep, out of town" leadership approach to the County's flood disaster response on July 4, 2025.
The first disaster was the abject failure to respond, to set up a command post and coordinate efforts in a timely manner. The second was a failure of communication regarding actions not taken and not holding responsible people accountable. The third was a failure to drill for flash flooding under Dub's tenure (as the County could produce no documents of such).
The County and Dub are yet to release their "after action" report on the July 4th flood disaster. Conducting such evaluations are a basic in the emergency response arena. It could happen in the next four days, but I doubt it. This transitioned to an accountability avoidance/liability minimization exercise long ago.
These are the words that welcomed Dub to his role with Kerr County in 2015:
This is very important, the position that Dub has as Emergency Management Coordinator. The City has an Emergency Management Coordinator; now the County has an Emergency Management Coordinator. These are the guys that are literally in charge if there's an emergency, a major fire, major flood or whatever. And as the Sheriff pointed out the other day, the document is this thing, so Dub helped to prepare that. So, I think this county, with Dub in place, and with the city there, it's taken us a year to redo this thing, but I think this county is going to have the best emergency management plan probably in the state. So, welcome, Dub.
Those words did not hold up so well. All hat (plan), no cattle (implementation-flood drill or actual response).
Update 3-30-26: Hill Country Community Journal reported:
Thomas was authorized to purchase his county service weapon, a Glock 45, for $100 under a state law permitting such sales to honorably retired law enforcement officers.
"had not seen the official weather warnings before the storm, did not convene a staff meeting about the potential flooding and acknowledged that the camp did not have a detailed, written flood evacuation plan."
The cascade of ignorance and lack of preparation was widespread in Kerr County.
Update 4-16-26: The Texas Rangers have joined the case regarding camper deaths at Camp Mystic. So far, local emergency officials inability to do their job has been overlooked by investigators. Kerr County is yet to release an after action report on their disaster "response" on July 4, 2025.
Update 4-20-26: Texas Tribune reported Camp Mystic's security guard testified as to events that evening/early morning:
The security guard at Camp Mystic the night of last year’s deadly flood acknowledged Wednesday that if a general evacuation order came early in the storm, lives could’ve been saved.
Update 4-22-26: KXAN reported:
According to the House’s resolution, the committee would be tasked with investigating contributing factors, allocation of resources, effectiveness of preparedness and effectiveness of response and coordination between local, state and federal entities. The Senate’s resolution called for a broader “complete and thorough examination of the facts and circumstances surrounding the flooding events.”
So how did this broad mandate get reduced to summer camps? It appears there may never be an assessment of Kerr County emergency official's response (non-response) to the disaster.
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