Kerr County's emergency manager testified that he was sick and asleep when flash floods tore through Central Texas over the Fourth of July holiday, killing at least 135 people.

Texas

A public hearing in Kerrville, Texas, has revealed that critical emergency officials were unavailable during the recent flash floods that resulted in the deaths of more than 100 people. The emergency coordinator, William Thomas, stated he was home sick and asleep as the flooding began, only learning of the disaster hours later. Other county officials, including the county judge and sheriff, were also not present or reachable as the situation escalated. The absence of leadership during the crisis has drawn strong criticism from residents and lawmakers, especially as families continue to search for missing loved ones. Officials have defended their response, asking for patience as investigations continue.

Emergency manager says he was sick, asleep as flash floods hit Texas

Good evening, I'm Maurice Dubois. I'm John Dickerson. The East Coast is getting hit tonight by storms that are making travel difficult in the air and on the ground. Much more about that in a moment. But first, the search for answers. In the Fourth of July floods that killed more than 100 people in the Texas Hill Country, hundreds packed a convention center in Kerrville to hear from county officials about how it all went so terribly wrong. And they did not like what they heard. At an emotional hearing, they learned that as the water was rising, the man in charge of emergency management was sick in bed, fast asleep. Janet Chamlin was there. Nobody came for us. Nobody. In a room packed with heartache. My daughter was not identified until Thursday the 10th. And the only thing that identified her at all was her charm bracelet. Kerrville and Kerr County officials defended their response to the deadly flooding on July 4th. We have nothing to hide and we ask for patience as we work through this process responsibly and thoroughly. Emergency coordinator William Thomas, who previously refused to answer questions in public, said he had taken the day off and was home sick and asleep, awakened at 5.30 a.m., hours after the Guadalupe River became a torrent of tragedy. There was no visible flooding on my drive into the office, but it quickly became clear that the situation was escalating. Meanwhile, County Judge Rob Kelly said he was at a lake house in another county and Sheriff Larry Letha said he was sleeping as the storm raged and lives were lost. Lawmakers shocked. The three guys in Kerr County who were responsible for sounding the alarm were effectively unavailable. Am I hearing that right? Kerrville resident Vanessa Garza. When you heard local officials today say they were either sleeping, sick, out of pocket, at a lake house, you thought what? I thought, what the heck is going on? Why the heck were they not there? And when I found out about what happened, I immediately went to that point in my life of dropping my daughter off at camp and maybe not being able to pick her up. On Monday, it will be one month since the flooding. 108 people died here in Kerr County, including 27 campers and counselors from Camp Mystic. Tonight, two people are still unaccounted for, including one of those campers. Janet Shamlin with a stunning twist there in Texas. Thank you.

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