Kerr County, Texas, lead emergency management official says he was asleep during deadly flooding

Editor's note: This story has been updated for clarity. 

For the first time since catastrophic flooding killed more than 100 people in Kerr County, Texas, the county emergency management director conceded that he was sick and asleep as the water rose to historic levels on the Guadalupe River.

William "Dub" Thomas, the Kerr County emergency management director since 2015, detailed his whereabouts during the crisis to the Texas House and Senate Select Committees on Disaster Preparedness and Flooding on Thursday in Kerrville, Texas.

Thomas said that after working a full day on July 2, he went home sick. He said at the time, no concerns had been raised about an elevated weather condition "beyond what is typical for the region during the summer."

Thomas said he stayed home sick on July 3 and did not participate in two meetings dealing with the Texas emergency management coordination center.

Thomas said his supervisors, including the Kerr County sheriff, were aware he was out sick.

He said he briefly woke up about 2 p.m. on July 3, but there was no rainfall at the time and no indication of the pending change in the river. He said he went back to sleep.

"I was awakened around 5:30 a.m., on July the Fourth by my wife following a call from the city of Kerrville EMC (Emergency Management Coordinator) Jeremy Hughes requesting that I mobilize," Thomas said.

He said the call was the first time he realized that an emergency was unfolding.

"By approximately 6 a.m., I was coordinating our county's response in close contact with the sheriff, the emergency operation center and Mr. Hughes, working together under rapidly changing and difficult conditions," said Thomas.

But other Kerr County officials said by that time, summer camps along the overflowing Guadalupe River were already underwater.

Thursday's hearing was the second hearing held on the flooding by the Texas House and Senate Select Committees on Disaster Preparedness and Flooding.

"We received no alerts suggesting an extreme weather event was imminent [referring to July 3]. For context, we received hundreds of alerts during the summer. This past July, we had over 80. My first indication that this storm was different came when I woke up to texts and calls from Chief Kidd, Sheriff Leitha and Dalton Rice," Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly testified.

"We now know that by that time, the flooding had already overtaken Camp Mystic, part of the hills in La Junta and several other upriver camps, something I could never have imagined. This extreme weather event was not forecast by the National Weather Service in a timely manner. Based on the volume and tone of the messages, I recognize that something more serious and potentially tragic was unfolding," Kelly continued.

"Kerr County commissioned an independent hydrology study from Waterway Engineering. It confirmed that this was a 1,000-year flood, and I've attached a copy of that hydrology assessment to my remarks there at the back," the judge said.

Kelly claimed during his testimony that there were no imminent extreme weather events forecast by the National Weather Service (NWS) prior to the catastrophic flooding.

Some of the 18 lawmakers on the panel pushed back, saying that the NWS had issued multiple flood watches and flood warnings prior to the major flood, some issued on July 3. The NWS said it sent out a forecast on July 3 for a level 2 of 4 risk of excessive rainfall hitting the area.

Many of the children who died in the flooding were at Camp Mystic. The camp owner was also killed in the tragedy.

During his testimony, Thomas said that of the 19 camps along the river, six of them had an emergency response plan filed with the county.

Committee members asked Kelly why an evacuation order was not issued.

"It was too late," he said.

Kelly also said that he was not in Kerr County when the flooding hit. He said he was at his lake house near Austin, preparing for a family gathering.

He said the storm stalled over the south fork watershed of the Guadalupe River in Hunt and Mo-Ranch in a remote area of Kerr County, where there are few rain and flood gauges.

"This storm sat. It did not pass through and it overwhelmed the watershed," Kelly said.

He said more than 12 inches of rain fell in under 6 hours, and that the river exceeded 220,000 cubic feet per second. He said the Guadalupe River rose more than 20 feet per hour during the storm.

"And by the time flooding became visible downstream, upstream communities, including multiple youth camps, were already under water," Kelly said.

Kelly said the first 911 call came in at 2:53 a.m. on July 4 from the River Inn, a resort far upstream on the Guadalupe from Kerrville. He said the initial report from the River Inn was that water was rising on a small dam it maintained.

He said that by 3:30 a.m., floodwaters had overtaken multiple river crossings in the Kerrville area, "and we were facing a historic event."

The flood killed 108 people, including 37 children, in Kerr County. Many of the children were staying at the 19 summer camps along the Guatalupe.

Sheriff Leitha told the lawmakers that one of his deputies was almost swept away in the floodwaters while out checking water levels in low-lying areas.

"My deputies on duty had no idea, no warning that there was going to be a major tsunami-like event on the south fork of the Guatalupe," Leitha said. "We had no idea that a 30- to 35-foot wall of water was going to be coming down the Guadalupe River that morning. And it came with a force, speed and devastation that no one has ever seen before in this county."

He said that in the first few hours of the storm, a two-person team of dispatchers handled more than 650 radio transmissions and more than 100 emergency calls, while also mobilizing fire crews and rescue teams.

"One dispatcher remained on the line for 24 minutes with two young children whose cabin was filling up with water," Leitha testified, adding that the dispatcher stayed on the line with the children until rescue crews arrived.

Kerr County officials recommended that the lawmakers help by funding a better system to alert residents of flooding, including installing sirens along the river and improving broadband and internet systems in the rural areas.

Kerrville Mayor Joe Herring Jr. told the lawmakers that he wants to see a flood-warning system in place along the river by next summer.

"We are grieving. We are shaken, but we are not broken," Herring said.

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who attended the hearing, said three people remain missing in Kerr County, including a child and a volunteer fire chief.

"That day will haunt me for the rest of my life," said Patrick, who was serving as governor at the time of the flood, while Gov. Greg Abbott was out of the state.

Some of the most emotional testimony on Thursday came from residents who lost loved ones in the flood.

Alicia Baker, shaking with emotion and holding back tears, described the horrors of losing her daughter and parents.

Baker told the committee she had spent her summers on the Guadalupe River since 1990, and her parents owned a cabin there for nearly 20 years.

Baker described the harrowing hours of not knowing the fate of her daughter and parents.

"I waited there for over 12 hours for news, and literally no one could tell you anything at all," Baker said. "Literally, no one was in charge."

She added, "We need to do better for the people in this community, for the people that are suffering."