A five-year-old emergency management plan, obtained by The Texas Tribune late Thursday, reveals that Kerr County and Kerrville officials were operating based on a generic disaster response template. In some instances, they failed to adhere to this template when the Guadalupe River banks were inundated with over 30 feet of floodwaters on July 4.
This plan, which all counties must submit to the Texas Division of Emergency Management, serves as a comprehensive disaster playbook for local officials.
Emergency management plans outline the responsibilities of each county and city administrative leaders in the entire response to a mass disaster that could lead to severe injuries and fatalities. They designate specific tasks, such as evacuations, medical treatment tents, sanitation, and body recovery, ensuring minimal confusion and minimizing bureaucratic bottlenecks.
It remains unclear whether Kerr County and Kerrville officials utilized this plan. A request for comment was not promptly returned late Thursday.
However, if they had, there was a clear set of instructions outlining when to intensify weather monitoring once a flood watch was issued, the initial indication of impending trouble, and the appropriate time for evacuations to commence. Moreover, the plan explicitly states that all the top officials in the area recognized flash flooding and flooding as the most significant threats to Kerrville and Kerr County.
The November 2020 plan commences by acknowledging that the cities of Kerrville, Ingram, and Kerr County are susceptible to various hazards, all of which have the potential to disrupt the community, cause casualties, and damage or destroy public or private property.
Key points in the plan that seemed to have been overlooked included calls for evacuation training before a disaster and a straightforward four-step guide on when to intensify weather monitoring.
On July 3 at 1:18 p.m., a flood watch was issued for the area. According to the plan, “readiness actions may include increased situation monitoring, reconnaissance of known trouble spots, and deploying warning signs.” Once a flash flood warning was issued at approximately 1:14 a.m. on July 4, local officials could have begun informing the public about the warning and initiated evacuations of low-lying areas, as well as opening shelters to accommodate evacuees.
The plan doesn’t specify who’s in charge when a county’s top three officials are absent during a disaster.
Earlier Thursday, at a legislative hearing, testimony revealed that both Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha and William “Dub” Thomas, the county’s emergency management director, were asleep when the flooding began, causing homes to flood and Camp Mystic to be submerged. This tragedy resulted in the loss of over 100 lives. Additionally, Kerr County Judge Bob Kelly was out of town on the day of the flooding.
Local officials informed lawmakers that they received insufficient warning about the flood, which arrived too rapidly for a proper response. Thomas admitted to state Sen. Charles Perry, a Lubbock Republican, that Kerr County and Kerrville first responders had never conducted a countywide evacuation exercise.
Thomas further admitted, “We haven’t conducted a full-scale evacuation exercise.”
The 55-page plan, released by the Texas Division of Emergency Management in response to a public records request, suggests that local officials should have been better prepared. However, Kerr County officials have yet to respond to a similar request made earlier by the Tribune.
The plan emphasizes the importance of proper mitigation actions, such as floodplain management and fire inspections, in preventing or reducing disaster-related losses. It also highlights the significance of detailed emergency planning, training of emergency responders and other personnel, and conducting periodic emergency drills and exercises in enhancing readiness to handle emergency situations.
One attachment to the plan lists 12 types of emergency management training courses, along with boxes to be filled in detailing the number of personnel requiring training and those who have completed the courses. Notably, all these boxes remain blank.
Another attachment presents a grid showing which emergency task is to be performed by a list of 33 Kerr County and Kerrville employees. Each employee’s initials (P for primary responsibility, S for support responsibility, and C for coordination responsibility) indicate their respective roles in the task.
According to the grid plan, the primary role of the Kerr County sheriff was to warn residents of the emergency, with the Kerrville mayor, fire chief, police chief, Kerr County judge, emergency management director, justice of the peace, and constables playing supporting roles.
Evacuation duties were supposed to be coordinated by the county emergency management director, with the Kerrville police chief having a primary role.
The plan warned that major disasters can occur at any time and place, and some emergency situations may occur with little or no warning.