Latest news with #CodeRed
NBC News
11-07-2025
- Climate
- NBC News
As questions mount over Texas floods, a key decision-maker remains silent
KERRVILLE, Texas — Before the flash flooding in Texas' Hill Country materialized in the early hours of July 4, Kerr County's most senior elected official said he had no inkling of the pending disaster that would sweep away structures and set off harrowing rescues across the region. '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.'
NBC News
11-07-2025
- Climate
- NBC News
FEMA records show Kerr County didn't alert all cell phones as flooding began
FEMA records obtained by NBC 5 Investigates show that Kerr County officials did not use FEMA's Integrated Public Alert & Warning System to send warnings with safety instructions to all mobile phones in the affected area during critical hours as the flooding began on July 4. Researchers who have studied the cell phone warning system told NBC 5 Investigates that policies on how and when to issue critical alerts vary widely from one county to another, potentially risking delays when seconds count. As the search for the missing continues in Kerr County, records reviewed by NBC 5 Investigates raise new questions about whether local officials could have used the nation's wireless emergency alert system to better warn people in the flood's path. Along with our partners at NBC News, we scoured a FEMA archive of cell phone alerts sent through FEMA's integrated public alert and warning system, or IPAWS. IPAWS is a system that many local counties, including Kerr County, are authorized to use to issue warnings to all cell phones in a designated area. It's the same system used to send Amber Alerts. The FEMA message archive shows that as the water began rising in Kerr County on July 4, the National Weather Service sent an IPAWS flood warning to cell phones as early as 1:14 a.m. However, weather service forecasters cannot issue instructions on whether to evacuate or wait for rescue; those messages are up to county or city officials. The FEMA archive showed that Kerr County did not send any wireless alerts through IPAWS on July 4, when the flooding began. Some families said they did receive a CodeRed alert from Kerr County, which is similar to an IPAWS message. But CodeRed only reaches people who signed up for alerts. 'Most of the people I've talked to didn't even know what CodeRed was,' said Kerr County resident Louis Kocurek. Louis and Leslie Kocurek shared a screenshot of a Kerr County dispatch CodeRed message they received, saying major flooding continues. However, the Kocureks said that the message didn't reach their phones until after 10 a.m. By then, one flood gauge in Kerr County showed the river had already risen about 30 feet, and the Kocureks had taken a photo showing that roads in their neighborhood were already cut off. 'I'm mad because, you know, like I told another lady, how many lives do we have to lose in order for them to fix the system? It's broken,' said Leslie Kocurek. Kerr County has used the wider-reaching IPAWS system to warn of flooding in the past. Last year, on July 23, the archive showed the county sent an IPAWS alert saying the Guadalupe River was 'expected to rise an additional 4 feet,' telling people to 'avoid the river' and 'move assets to higher ground immediately.' So why no county IPAWS alert before the flood this time? NBC 5 Investigates reached out to Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly and emergency management coordinator William Thomas, but they did not immediately respond to questions. At a news conference last week, Kelly was asked why children's camps along the river were not evacuated. 'I can't answer that, I don't know,' said Kelly, adding that they never expected water would rise so fast. 'We didn't know this flood was coming. Rest assured, no one knew this kind of flood was coming,' Kelly said. Researchers who have studied the IPAWS system told NBC 5 Investigates that communities across the country sometimes struggle to decide when to issue cell phone alerts, who should issue those alerts, and what the messages should say. The struggle stems, they said, in part from a lack of standardized nationwide policies. 'There is no required training. There's no certification process currently within IPAWS,' said Jeannette Sutton, an emergency alert researcher who explained it's up to each local government to write its own policies. That methodology, she said, has created differences in how effectively the system is used in each community. 'We need a lot of training, and we need the resources to help people to get trained,' said Sutton. Sutton's team at the University at Albany recently helped FEMA develop a tool for local emergency managers to use to pre-plan more effective messages before disaster strikes. 'They are generally facing a blank text box that says, 'insert message here.' And you can imagine that in a situation where there's a lot of stress and uncertainty, that writing a message from scratch is very difficult,' said Sutton. In a statement to NBC 5, FEMA said its IPAWS office '..encourages and supports practicing and exercising..' and said the agency makes training tools available '...enabling public safety officials to gain confidence using IPAWS.' 'It is really important to get it right when people's lives are on the line,' said Sutton. Sutton said cell phone alerts can be critical, especially in places like Kerr County, which doesn't have a siren warning system. But she said counties should also amplify alerts using tools like social media or even knocking on doors, as cell phone service is sometimes spotty in rural areas. On the morning of the July 4 floods, the Kerr County Sheriff's Department did use its Facebook account, posting messages around 5:30 a.m. warning of 'dangerous flooding' and urging people to 'move to higher ground.' Those messages could have reached social media users who happened to be awake and looking at Facebook, but they would not sound an alert on a phone like an IPAWS message. At a news conference Wednesday, the sheriff said the county would look into whether evacuation orders should have been issued. 'Sometimes, evacuation is not the safest. Sometimes it's better to shelter in place,' said Sheriff Larry Leitha. The sheriff also pledged to examine why cell phone alerts did not happen sooner. 'Those are important questions. Those are, we will answer those questions,' said Leitha.
TimesLIVE
10-07-2025
- Climate
- TimesLIVE
Texas officials deflect mounting questions about response to deadly flood
Officials in flood-stricken central Texas on Wednesday again deflected mounting questions about whether they could have done more to warn people before devastating flash flooding that killed at least 119 people on July 4. At a morning news briefing in Kerr County, where most victims died, Sheriff Larry Leitha defended the actions of emergency responders as the tragedy unfolded in the early hours on Friday. Pressed about how long it took for officials to respond to 'Code Red' alerts about the flash flooding, Leitha declined to respond directly, saying his focus was on finding missing people and a full analysis of what, if anything, went wrong would come later. 'We will answer those questions,' he said. 'We're not running, we're not going to hide from everything. That's going to be checked into at a later time. I wish I could tell you that time.' By Tuesday evening more than 170 people were still unaccounted for, according to figures provided by Texas governor Greg Abbott, suggesting the death toll could still rise significantly. Searchers have not found anyone alive since Friday. The Kerr County seat, Kerrville, was devastated when torrential rain lashed the area early on Friday, dropping more than 304mm of rain in less than an hour and swelling the Guadalupe River to a height of nearly 9m.
7NEWS
10-07-2025
- Climate
- 7NEWS
Crews comb flood-stricken Texas for 170 missing people
Search teams are sifting through mounds of debris in Texas Hill Country as hopes of finding more survivors dimmed five days after flash floods tore through the region, killing at least 119 people including many children. As of Tuesday evening (Wednesday AEST), there were more than 170 people still unaccounted for, according to figures provided by Texas Governor Greg Abbott. Searchers have not found anyone alive since Friday. Most of the fatalities and missing people were in Kerr County. Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today The county seat, Kerrville, was devastated when torrential rains lashed the area early on Friday, dropping more than 300mm of rain in less than an hour and swelling the Guadalupe River to a height of nearly nine metres. The death toll in Kerr County was 95 as of Wednesday morning, Sheriff Larry Leitha told reporters at a briefing, including three dozen children. That figure includes at least 27 campers and counsellors from Camp Mystic, a Christian girls' summer retreat on the banks of the Guadalupe. Authorities have warned the death toll will likely keep rising as floodwaters recede. Elsewhere on Tuesday, three people died in New Mexico, two of them young children, when a flash flood swept through the village of Ruidoso in mountains around 215km southeast of Albuquerque, the state's largest city. The flooding was sparked by heavy rain that fell on wildfire burn scars, causing a rapid runoff of water that saw the Rio Ruidoso River rise to a record 20 feet, five feet higher than its previous historical high, the village said in a statement. Public officials in Texas have faced days of questions about whether they could have warned people sooner, giving them time to move to higher ground ahead of the raging floodwaters. At Wednesday's briefing, the sheriff was again pressed to address questions about how long it took for officials to respond to 'Code Red' alerts about the flash flooding during the early hours of July 4. He declined to respond directly, saying his focus was on finding the missing victims and that a full analysis of what went wrong with the response would come later. 'We will answer those questions,' he said. 'I can't tell you when - a week or two, okay? We're going to get to them. We're not trying to deflect them.' Scientists say climate change has made extreme flood events more frequent and damaging by creating warmer, wetter weather patterns. Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice has said the amount of rainfall exceeded predictions and fell so fast that there was not enough time to order evacuations without further endangering people. Abbott said on Tuesday that the Texas legislature would convene a special session later in July to investigate the emergency response and provide funding for disaster relief.
AsiaOne
10-07-2025
- AsiaOne
Texas officials deflect mounting questions about response to deadly flood, World News
KERRVILLE, Texas — Officials in flood-stricken central Texas on Wednesday (July 9) again deflected mounting questions about whether they could have done more to warn people ahead of devastating flash flooding that killed at least 119 people on July 4. At a morning news briefing in Kerr County, where the vast majority of victims died, Sheriff Larry Leitha defended the actions of emergency responders as the tragedy unfolded in the early morning hours on Friday. Pressed about how long it took for officials to respond to "Code Red" alerts about the flash flooding, Leitha declined to respond directly, saying his focus was on finding missing people and that a full analysis of what, if anything, went wrong would come later. "We will answer those questions," he said. "We're not running, we're not going to hide from everything. That's going to be checked into at a later time. I wish I could tell you that time." As of Tuesday evening, there were more than 170 people still unaccounted for, according to figures provided by Texas Governor Greg Abbott, suggesting the death toll could still rise significantly. Searchers have not found anyone alive since Friday. The Kerr County seat, Kerrville, was devastated when torrential rains lashed the area early on Friday, dropping more than a foot of rain in less than an hour and swelling the Guadalupe River to a height of nearly 30 feet (9 meters). The death toll in Kerr County was 95 as of Wednesday morning, including three dozen children, Leitha told reporters. That figure includes at least 27 campers and counselors from Camp Mystic, a Christian girls' summer retreat on the banks of the Guadalupe. In Hunt, a community in western Kerr County, Jose Olvera's family set up a shrine near the spot where he and his wife were swept away by floodwaters outside their ranch house. The family found Olvera's body next to a nearby stream, his foot protruding from underneath a tree branch. His wife remains missing. "This could have been avoided, something like this," said Olvera's son, Macedonio, sitting outside the home and surrounded by debris. "There are ways to detect things, appropriate alerts to let the community know what is happening." Abbott on Tuesday sought to push aside questions about who was to blame for the mounting death toll. Invoking American football as an analogy, he told reporters that blame was the "word choice of losers" in the sport revered in Texas. "Every football team makes mistakes," he said. "The losing teams are the ones that try to point out who's to blame. The championship teams are the ones who say, 'Don't worry about it, man. We got this. We're going to make sure that we go score again and we're going to win this game.'" The governor said the Texas legislature would convene a special session later this month to investigate the emergency response and provide funding for disaster relief. Communication challenges The state emergency management agency warned last Thursday on the eve of the disaster that parts of central Texas faced a threat of flash floods, based on National Weather Service forecasts. But twice as much rain as forecast ended up falling over two branches of the Guadalupe just upstream of the fork where they converge, sending all of that water racing into the single channel where it slices through Kerrville, City Manager Dalton Rice has said. The amount of rainfall in such a short period of time made it impossible to order evacuations without further endangering people, Rice said. He also noted that the county is sprawling and rural, with spotty cell phone service, creating communication challenges. County officials had considered installing an early-warning system about eight years ago but abandoned the proposal after failing to secure state grant money to fund it, according to the Houston Chronicle. Kerr County sits at the centre of a section of Texas Hill Country that is particularly susceptible to flash floods, due to the terrain. Elsewhere on Tuesday, three people died in New Mexico, two of them young children, when a flash flood swept through the village of Ruidoso in mountains around 135 miles (217 km) southeast of Albuquerque, the state's largest city. The flooding was sparked by heavy rain that fell on wildfire burn scars, causing a rapid runoff of water that saw the Rio Ruidoso River rise to a record 20 feet, five feet higher than its previous historical high, the village said in a statement. Scientists say climate change has made extreme flood events more frequent and damaging by creating warmer, wetter weather patterns. [[nid:719961]]
