A Texas sheriff has revealed that the county official responsible for coordinating emergency response during the deadly July 4 floods was likely asleep at home as the disaster unfolded.
Sheriff Larry Leitha told CNN that Kerr County Emergency Management Coordinator W.B. ‘Dub’ Thomas was ‘at home asleep at that time,’ citing that Thomas had worked the evening before the floods that killed at least 136 people.
Among the victims were 27 children and staff at Camp Mystic, 15 of them were in a single cabin known as Bubble Inn.
According to the state’s official job description, the Emergency Management Coordinator is responsible for ‘coordinating responses to requests for emergency assistance and resources,’ as well as managing ‘incident information, threat warnings, weather information, bulletins, and other communications.’
The National Weather Service issued its first flash flood warning at 1:14am CT, more than three hours before the Guadalupe River surged over 30 feet, inundating the camp and nearby RV parks.
This previously unreported detail, that the key emergency official was likely not awake to receive the escalating alerts, raises serious questions about the county’s preparedness and response.
Leitha told CNN that officials are going to take a ‘hard look’ at how the response was carried out and review Thomas’s job performance leading up to and during the tragedy.
Sheriff Larry Leitha told CNN that Kerr County Emergency Management Coordinator W.B. ‘Dub’ Thomas was ‘at home asleep at that time,’ citing that Thomas had worked the evening before the floods that killed at least 136 people
Among the victims were 27 children and staff at Camp Mystic, 15 of them were in a single cabin known as Bubble Inn (pictured)
Although the deadly flooding occurred on July 4, emergency crews had already been mobilized two days earlier as Tropical Storm Barry’s projected path moved through Texas.
A detailed timeline was heard at the Capitol on Wednesday, during a hearing held by House and Senate Select Committees on flooding and disaster.
By 10am on July 3, the NWS had issued a forecast warning of a ‘slight risk’ of flash flooding. Just three hours later, at 1pm, Chief Nim Kidd, head of the Texas Division of Emergency Management, announced that resources had been staged and agencies were on standby.
That evening, a Flash Flood Watch was issued at 7:37pm. Hours later, at 1:06am, on July 4, the NWS reported ‘very heavy rain’ falling at a rate of two to three inches per hour.
At 1:14am, a Flash Flood Warning was issued, followed by a ‘very dangerous flash flood event’ alert at 3:06am
By 4:23am, the situation had escalated to a Flash Flood Emergency. Kidd said he received the first reports of people stranded on rooftops just over an hour later.
During the hearing, Kidd said: ‘There is no system in place today to ensure that [local authorizes, including the emergency manager coordinator] is getting the same information that we are getting from the National Weather Service.’
Kidd testified that his agency took proactive steps ahead of the flooding, including contacting local authorities.
The Guadalupe River surged over 30 feet, inundating the camp (pictured) and nearby RV parks
Although the deadly flooding occurred on July 4, emergency crews had already been mobilized two days earlier as Tropical Storm Barry’s projected path moved through Texas
However, he emphasized that state law limits his agency’s authority over local response efforts.
‘Under Chapter 418, elected mayors and county judges are the emergency management directors for their communities,’ said Chief Kidd.
Leitha also admitted that the county’s emergency operations center was not active during the most critical window, between 1am and 3am, when floodwaters reached their peak.
‘We’re in a rural area; we don’t have a 24-hour service, or anything open like that,’ the sheriff added.
Kidd also revealed Wednesday that he found first responders were dealing with outdated equipment when he went to Kerrville following the floods.
Kerrville, hit the hardest, was the home of Camp Mystic.
‘We’re better than that,’ Kidd said, while stressing the need for improved technological capability.
‘Now I’m not suggesting we go build a brand-new system from the ground up. I think there’s plenty of broadband, fiber technology capability, Starlink, you name it out there.’
AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Jonathan Porter told DailyMail.com earlier this month that he and his team issued an alert of life-threatening floods 30 minutes before the NWS, adding more to for response and evacuations.
Although Porter admitted that the late-night timing of the storm likely played a role in the inaction on the ground, there was still three hours before rising flood waters from the overflowing Guadalupe River peaked in Hunt, around 4:30am.
‘You can’t go to sleep and be responsible for the safety of large numbers of people,’ Porter declared. ‘That’s going to be the question in terms of, ‘Was somebody constantly monitoring that?’ They’ve got to have somebody monitoring for severe weather warnings 24/7.’