The state department has said it had teams in place in Kerr County the day before the flooding. They won’t say who was in charge.
KERR COUNTY, Texas — The Texas Department of Emergency Management (TDEM) was getting ready for “heavy rainfall with the potential to cause flash flooding” in multiple Texas counties back on July 2.
The department had requested support from multiple state agencies by July 3.
On July Fourth, at a late press conference in battered Kerr County, TDEM Chief Nim Kidd told reporters there were already people in Kerr County the previous day.
“We’ve had folks on the ground since yesterday afternoon here, and our state operations center was open at 1:00 yesterday afternoon,” Kidd said on that day, as search and recovery efforts after the catastrophic flooding was just getting underway.
He then told reporters TDEM had people ready to jump into action the morning of the flood.
“When the rain fell and the calls came in, we immediately jumped into action along side our local partners,” Kidd said.
Still, first responder radio traffic shows there were gaps in the command structure as public safety and law enforcement personnel scrambled to respond to flooded homes and water rescues.
KENS 5 later reached out to the TDEM to ask how many assets they had in Kerr County and who was in charge of those teams as they responded to the surging Guadalupe River.
TDEM refused to answer those specific questions.
Instead, when asked how many assets were in Kerr County on July 3, TDEM sent KENS 5 a response stating, “State emergency response resources were activated and pre-staged beginning on July 2 in anticipation of increased threats of flooding. Additional resources were activated on July 3 ahead of the threat. Resources were staged across the threat areas and are adjusted as conditions warrant.”
The department also sent us a July 3 press release which did not answer the questions.
KENS 5 asked TDEM when they were able to link up with local leadership and set up incident command for local operations. TDEM refused to answer this and said to ask local officials instead. Local officials have not answered this question either.
KENS 5 asked TDEM for another, more specific response via email, but the department refused to provide it.
As a result, it’s still not clear when, or if, anyone was coordinating the emergency response in Kerr County.
Radio traffic shows one support team showing up on the county around 5:30 a.m. on July Fourth and asking who is in charge. The response from dispatch: “Sir, we don’t have an incident command right now.”
Other radio calls show responders still trying to get organized around 6 a.m. that day.
“Do we have a reunification for patients? I have PD asking,” one responder asks.
“City West Church. That’s where we need to set up accountability for that part,” another responder replies.
Other calls indicated firefighters were trying to set up a command point at 6 a.m. and other responders were trying to find out if the county had an emergency operations center available. RVs, cars and people were already getting swept down the Guadalupe River before 5 p.m.
The Texas Legislature is set to hold its first hearing on the Central Texas flooding next Wednesday as part of a special session.