As questions mount over Texas floods, a key decision-maker remains silent
'We didn't know this flood was coming,' County Judge Rob Kelly said at a news conference later that morning, in response to why summer camps along the rain-swollen Guadalupe River weren't evacuated earlier, before many were missing or feared dead.
'We do not have a warning system,' he added, referring to the sirens along the river in other counties, used to notify of imminent flooding.
The following day, at a news conference with Gov. Greg Abbott and other state officials, Kelly said of the preparedness effort: 'It's just Hill Country, and we didn't know.'
In Texas, the county judge serves many functions in addition to judicial duties, including serving as the head of emergency management and handling many administrative functions in the county.
But with a death toll surpassing 100 people — 60 adults and 36 children in Kerr County alone — and at least 176 still unaccounted for as of Friday, county officials are facing questions about what actions were taken ahead of the flooding and who was in command and communicating with the National Weather Service, particularly once the agency issued its first flash flood warning at 1:14 a.m.
Efforts to reach Kelly this week, including by phone and at the emergency operations center, his office and his home, were unsuccessful. He hasn't spoken publicly since his appearances at news conferences in the immediate aftermath of the flood.
In addition, William 'Dub' Thomas, Kerr County's emergency management coordinator, has not spoken publicly and did not return repeated requests for comment. He also could not be reached at the emergency operations center or his home.
Thomas, who has been the county's top emergency coordinator since 2015, is responsible for its emergency management plan, the emergency notification system known as CodeRed, its search and rescue team and other disaster-related duties, according to the Rotary Club of Kerrville website. Previously, while working for the Texas Department of Public Safety, Thomas helped direct the state's response to several catastrophic events, including the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Kelly, a Republican who first took office in 2018 and was re-elected in 2022, has worked as a commercial litigation attorney and, in his role as county judge, he oversees Kerr County's four-person commission and its budget. Kelly was a certified member of the Kerr County Community Emergency Response Team, according to a bio on the Rotary Club of Kerville website.
'I truly believe God has been preparing me for this position all my life,' Kelly said in The Kerrville Daily Times in 2017 about running for the county judge before the election. 'I didn't go looking for this job, it came looking for me.'
Tom Pollard, the former county judge Kelly replaced, said that in any major event, such as a disaster that requires an evacuation, the emergency management coordinator is in charge but takes direction from the county judge.
'The buck stops with the county judge's office, but the management director handles it and just gets going,' Pollard said. 'And he'll talk to a county judge every now and then, and if there's a decision that needs to be made, he'll consult with the judge who makes a decision.'
Pollard said neither he nor his wife received emergency notifications on their phone in the early morning of the flooding.
Kerrville Mayor Joe Herring said Tuesday on MSNBC that he saw no emergency alerts and was awakened only by a call from City Manager Dalton Rice at 5:30 a.m. By daybreak, the Guadalupe River had risen 26 feet in 45 minutes, according to sensor data.
Just after 4 a.m., the National Weather Service had upgraded its flash flood warning to an emergency for Kerr County, advising that it was a 'PARTICULARLY DANGEROUS SITUATION. SEEK HIGHER GROUND NOW!'
Facebook posts from Kerrville police were posted after 5 a.m. regarding 'life threatening' flooding, but it's unclear whether officials were communicating with residents in other ways before then.
Whether emergency alerts around that time would have been received on all phones is unclear. Spotty cell service or none at all is not uncommon in parts of the county, northwest of San Antonio. Others may not have had their phones with them, like the young girls who were staying at Camp Mystic in the unincorporated community of Hunt, where officials say at least 27 campers and staff members died.
Federal Emergency Management Agency records obtained by NBC Dallas-Fort Worth show that Kerr County officials didn't use its Integrated Public Alert & Warning System, or IPAWS, to send warnings with safety instructions to all cellphones in the affected area the day of the flooding.
As the water began rising in Kerr County, the National Weather Service delivered an IPAWS flood warning to phones as early as 1:14 a.m., NBC Dallas-Fort Worth reported.
However, it's up to county or city officials in general to send more urgent instructions, including whether to evacuate.
Some families said they received a CodeRed alert from Kerr County, which is similar to an IPAWS message and can be sent via the sheriff's office. But the program allows people to opt out, meaning not everyone receives it.
Dispatch audio obtained by NBC affiliate KXAN in Austin includes an Ingram volunteer firefighter asking a county sheriff dispatcher at 4:22 a.m. if they can 'send a CodeRed out to our Hunt residents, asking them to find higher ground or stay home?'
The dispatcher responds: 'We have to get that approved with our supervisor.'
It's unclear at what times CodeRed alerts were supposed to be sent. KXAN reported that one person near the flooded area said they received a voicemail at 1:14 a.m. from a number traced back to CodeRed, while another area resident received a CodeRed alert at 5:34 a.m. about the National Weather Service's 'flash flood warning,' suggesting inconsistencies among recipients countywide.
The National Weather Service's San Antonio office did not immediately return a request for comment Friday about any communications it may have had with Kerr County.
Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha said at a news conference Wednesday that his priority remains search and rescue efforts, but noted there would be an 'after-action' review of what happened on July 4.
'We'll get them,' Leitha said. 'I can't tell you when — in a week or two, OK? We're going to get them.'
Raymond Howard, a council member in Ingram, another city in Kerr County, said he has a host of questions for county officials to investigate once the rescue efforts are exhausted, from preventative measures they plan to take going forward to the timing of emergency alerts.
'I did not get a CodeRed,' Howard said, 'and I'm signed up for CodeRed.'
What's needed for the future, he said, is better planning and communication.
'It's too late for the victims and everything that's happened already, but for future floods, we can do something,' Howard said. 'It will happen again.'
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