Hill Country leaders and residents urge lawmakers for better flood warning systems after losing 108 lives, including 37 children, in a July 4 tragedy.
KERRVILLE, Texas — It was an emotional day in Kerrville as state lawmakers heard from dozens of Hill Country leaders, community members and a grieving mother.
The committee hearing lasted more than 13 hours at the Hill Country Youth Center, in a room that at one point was packed with hundreds of people.
The morning began with a panel of Kerr County and city officials.
“We are grieving, we are shaken, but we are not broken,” Kerrville Mayor Joe Herring Jr. said, wiping tears from his eyes.
These very leaders have been facing difficult questions since the July Fourth tragedy, where at least 108 lives were lost in Kerr County — including 37 children. Two people remain missing, according to state troopers.
Many of Thursday’s questions focused on how much warning residents received as disaster struck.
Each leader admitted there was room for improvement in their response. However, they insisted they could not have predicted what Mother Nature brought to the Guadalupe River that morning.
“My main purpose today is to join Lt. Gov. Patrick in calling for a flood warning system to be designed and installed in Kerr County before next summer,” Herring Jr. said.
Timeline of Events: Where Were the County Leaders?
It was revealed Thursday that Kerr County Emergency Coordinator William Thomas was sick and asleep when the flooding began in the western part of the county. He said he didn’t wake up until 5:30 that morning.
Sheriff Larry Leitha said he wasn’t awake until 4:30 a.m.
However, by around 3:20 a.m., two dispatchers were already fielding hundreds of calls and radio communications. So many people were calling in that some calls were being routed as far away as Seguin dispatch.
“One dispatcher remained on the line for 24 minutes with two young children as their cabins filled with water. She stayed with them until the end,” Sheriff Leitha said.
Meanwhile, in Kerrville, City Manager Dalton Rice said patrol officers began checking low-water crossings around 2:42 a.m. and reported nothing concerning at the time.
Rice said it wasn’t until 4:14 a.m. that local dispatchers became overwhelmed with 911 calls.
Around 4:22 a.m., a Kerr County firefighter requested a CodeRED mobile alert — an emergency notification system residents must opt into. However, the alert wasn’t issued until nearly 40 minutes later, at 5:01 a.m.
“The three guys of Kerr County who were responsible for sounding the alarm were effectively not available,” said Rep. Ann Johnson, D-Houston.
There were also questions surrounding Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly, who oversees emergency management. Kelly testified that he was at his house on Lake Travis during the early morning hours of July Fourth.
In a tense moment, Lt. Governor Dan Patrick said he never saw Kelly during the initial response.
“I don’t know where you were on day one on July Fourth, but you should have been here. You should have been here directing that response. That is your responsibility,” Patrick said.
The main takeaway from officials who testified: Kerr County needs a better system to monitor the river and alert residents if water levels rise rapidly.
Upper Guadalupe River Authority President Bill Rector said he believes sirens would have absolutely saved lives in Kerr County — a view Sheriff Leitha disagreed with.
“In my view, no alert system would have changed the outcome or prevented the tragic loss of life upriver,” Sheriff Leitha said.
‘We Need to Do Better’: Survivors and a Grieving Mother Call for Change
Residents and grieving families also spoke in front of lawmakers Thursday, sharing their stories and calling for change.
“I lost 27 people I knew,” said Bud Bolton.
Another man shared that he found 10 bodies on his property. Several survivors recalled the terrifying sounds of people screaming as they were swept away by the river.
“Our warning was screaming down the road. That was our warning,” said Rosa Tovar.
Alicia Jeffrey Baker drove in from San Antonio. She lost her 11-year-old daughter and both of her parents. Her daughter had been a student at Bulverde Creek Elementary. She recalled going to Ingram Elementary School looking for answers.
“I waited over there for 12 hours for news, and literally no one could tell you anything at all,” Baker said.
She later learned their bodies had been found. Now, she’s urging lawmakers to invest in detection systems that would trigger sirens if river levels rise rapidly.
“When we know, we do better. So we need to do better — for the people in this community, for the people who are suffering. We need to give people a chance,” Baker said.
Nancy Zdunkewicz also survived the flood, along with her parents. She described how they escaped their home in Hunt as floodwaters swept through.
“So we climbed on top of our cars and then into cedar trees. I had to help my 66-year-old mom,” Zdunkewicz said. “Our cars floated away soon after that.”
She said Kerr County needs early-warning systems and more support beyond FEMA for families who lost everything.
“Had there been early detection of the rising waters and sirens, we may have been able to get to higher ground safely,” she said. “I heard someone say they didn’t think that would have helped or saved lives in Hunt. They are dead wrong — and frankly, that’s offensive.”
While Kerr County leaders insist this was an unpredictable act of nature, longtime Hunt resident Katherine Fox disagreed.
“I would like to quote Judge Rob Kelly in his testimony: ‘This just was not forecast,’” Fox said. “As someone who has lived here for 67 years — it was. But no one caught it.”
She is now pushing for stricter building codes along the river and flood gauges for creeks.
“History shows that when the National Weather Service issues a flash flood watch and mentions a subtropical air mass may stall in the Hill Country, we’d better sit up and pay attention,” Fox said.