Timeline raises questions over how Texas officials handled warnings before the deadly July Fourth flood
More than 170 people are still believed to be missing, a week after the forceful floodwater hit over the July Fourth weekend. In the days since the devastation, state, federal and Kerr County officials have deflected pointed questions about preparations and warnings. Many remain unanswered.
The Associated Press has assembled an approximate timeline of the events before, during and after the deadly flash flood from sources including state and local documents, social media posts, firsthand accounts and scanner traffic archived on Broadcastify. It begins with the activation of the state's emergency response resources on July 2, the day Texas signed off on the camp's emergency disaster plan.
By daybreak on July Fourth, it was clear that some children from Camp Mystic had been swept away by floodwaters, even as others were able to escape to safety in their pajamas.
The Texas Division of Emergency Management activates state emergency response resources anticipating the threat of flooding in parts of West and Central Texas.
On the same day, state inspectors sign off on Camp Mystic's emergency protocol, according to records obtained by the AP.
10 a.m.: County judges and city mayors are invited to attend a daily call to discuss weather forecasts, according to comments by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, and a regional coordinator reaches out personally to officials in the area.
According to Patrick: 'The message was sent. It is up to the local counties and mayors under the law to evacuate if they feel the need.'
However, in Kerr County, where the devastation is most extensive, Kerrville Mayor Joe Herring said later he did not know what state emergency management resources were deployed ahead of time and that he did not receive a phone call.
1:18 p.m.: The National Weather Service's Austin/San Antonio office issues a flood watch estimating rainfall of 1 to 3 inches, with isolated amounts of 5 to 7 inches for parts of south central Texas, including Kerr County. 'Excessive runoff may result in flooding of rivers,' the alert says.
1:14 a.m.: Citing radar, the National Weather Service issues a flash flood warning for central Kerr County until 4:15 a.m., warning that it is life-threatening.
Between 3 a.m. and 3:30 a.m: Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice is running on the river trail and 'everything was fine,' he says later.
'Four o'clock, when I left, there was no signs of it rising at that point,' Rice says during a news conference. 'This happened very quickly over a very short amount of time.'
Rice says the isolated location and the fast, heavy rain created an unpredictably dangerous event, even with radar and National Weather Service warnings.
'This is not like a tornado where you can have a siren. This is not like a hurricane where you're planning weeks in advance,' Rice says. 'It hit. It hit hard.'
Between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m.: Floodwaters begin to inundate Camp Mystic. Young campers, counselors and staff are roused from sleep and begin a desperate rush to higher ground, according to social media accounts. Some girls had to climb through cabin windows. One staffer says she was on the roof with water rising toward her at 4 a.m.
3:30 a.m.: Erin Burgess wakes up to thunder at around 3:30 a.m. in her home in Bumble Bee Hills, a housing development between Hunt and Ingram. Within about half an hour, the water is rushing into her house. Burgess and her 19-year-old son eventually cling to a tree outside for an hour before the water recedes.
3:35 a.m.: The National Weather Service extends its flash flood warning for central Kerr County until 7 a.m. based on radar and automated gauges.
3:35 a.m.: A U.S. Geological Survey gauge along the Guadalupe River about 5 miles north of Camp Mystic and about 1 mile east of Hunt shows the river has reached nearly 16 feet. At that location, the river floods at 10 feet.
Between 4 a.m. and 5 a.m.: Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha is first notified about the situation from one of his sergeants.
4 a.m.: Kerrville police officers on their way to work start to encounter rising floodwaters and people in need of rescue. A sergeant comes to the intersection of FM 1340, a secondary highway, and State Highway 39 and realizes he is trapped 'on an island that was Hunt, Texas,' according to Jonathan Lamb, a community services officer with Kerrville police.
According to Lamb: 'He saw people, dozens of people, trapped on roofs. He saw people trapped in swift moving water.'
For 13 hours until 5 p.m., according to Lamb, the sergeant, a detective, several Hunt volunteer firefighters and an emergency room doctor work to rescue, evacuate and treat injuries largely on their own, until other emergency responders can arrive.
Meanwhile in Kerrville, officers are rescuing and evacuating a few hundred people as they realized low lying areas close to the river were in danger, according to Lamb: 'One of them was wrapping a 100-foot (30-meter) flex line garden hose around his waist to go into the water and rescue those people. I know that this tragedy, as horrific as it is, could've been so much worse.'
4 a.m.: Water was pooling on the floor of Jane Towler's family cabin in Hunt, just south of the town center and about 5 miles north of Camp Mystic.
4:03 a.m.: The National Weather Service names a flash flood emergency for south-central Kerr County, saying in all caps that it is a 'particularly dangerous situation. Seek higher ground now!' Citing radar and automated rain gauges, the bulletin says low water crossings and the Guadalupe at Hunt are flooding.
4:16 a.m.: Towler shoots video of muddy water rising as she and her loved ones wonder how they will survive. Furniture floats in the water. Towler calls 911 from atop the kitchen counter. The family climbs onto the roof.
4:35 a.m.: A U.S. Geological Survey gauge along the Guadalupe about 5 miles north of Camp Mystic and about a mile east of Hunt stops sending data. The last recorded river level is 29.5 feet.
5:30 a.m.: Police knock on Matthew Stone's door in a Kerrville riverfront neighborhood, urging residents to evacuate. Stone says he did not receive any warning on his phone: 'We got no emergency alert. There was nothing.'
Then, 'a pitch-black wall of death.'
5:34 a.m.: The National Weather Service bulletin reports a flash flood emergency from Hunt through Kerrville and Center Point, saying 'automated rain gauges indicate a large and deadly flood wave is moving down the Guadalupe River.'
5:38 a.m.: In a comment on a Facebook post, a woman begs the Kerr County Sheriff's Office to help her mother-in-law, who is trapped in a trailer between Hunt and Ingram.
5:52 a.m.: Minutes later, another woman comments on the same post to say Bumble Bee Hills is flooded and help is needed.
6:06 a.m.: The National Weather Service extends the flash flood warning until 10:00 a.m. The bulletin says local law enforcement have reported 'major flooding' and water rescues along the Guadalupe.
6:19 a.m.: Another person says on the Kerr County Sheriff's Facebook page that a 'friend and her family are on their rooftop in Hunt, waiting for rescue.'
6:45 a.m.: A U.S. Geological Survey gauge in Kerrville shows the Guadalupe has peaked at 34.29 feet, a preliminary figure that is subject to change. It is the third-highest level recorded at that location. The record of 39 feet was set July 2, 1932,
6:59 a.m.: The river water has receded from Burgess' home and she notes that the line of muck reaches halfway up her kitchen cabinets.
7:24 a.m.: The National Weather Service advises that the flash flood emergency extends to the community of Sisterdale.
7:32 a.m.: The emergency management agency in Kendall County, which is adjacent to Kerr County, posts on Facebook that people along the Guadalupe in the community of Comfort are under mandatory evacuation orders.
9:34 a.m.: A rescue boat brings several people to safety after they are pulled from a home on Carolyn Road in Comfort, according to communications between Kendall County dispatchers and fire personnel. The boat turns around to rescue others trapped in the house.
10:31 a.m.: According to archived radio traffic between county dispatchers and fire personnel, water levels are rising in Kendall County. One unit is asked to check whether the water is over the road at a bridge over Cypress Creek, a tributary of the Guadalupe in Comfort.
'It's just pouring in right now. I don't believe it's over the banks,' the unidentified unit answers. 'But we do have some houses in low flooding areas taking on water, but I don't believe it is over the bank at this time.'
10:52 a.m.: Comfort, Texas, sounds its flood sirens as a last resort to evacuate residents near the Guadalupe River who had not heard or heeded previous advisements to evacuate.
A small Texas community where everyone survived flooding has sirens that warned them10:56 a.m.: Kendall County dispatch requests that a team be sent to the Bergheim Campground in Boerne, Texas, near Guadalupe River State Park. They are asked to 'try to make contact with management and everybody down there to advise them that it needs to be evacuated here in the next hour or so.'
11:29 a.m.: Camp Mystic parents receive an email noting that the grounds have 'sustained catastrophic level floods' and are without power, water and internet. Parents with a daughter who is not accounted for have been contacted directly, according to the camp.
11:30 a.m.: Local officials hold their first news conference to describe the situation and response. Asked what kind of warnings went out to residents, Judge Rob Kelly, Kerr County's chief elected official, says: 'We do not have a warning system. '
Asked why camps were not evacuated, Kelly says officials did not know 'this flood' was coming.
'We had no reason to believe that this was going to be any, anything like what's happened here,' Kelly says. 'None whatsoever.'
3:30 p.m.: Two afternoon news conferences are the first to offer an initial death toll. Lt. Gov. Patrick says six to 10 bodies have been found so far. Around the same time, Leitha, the Kerr County sheriff, reports that 13 people have died. Patrick also announces that the whereabouts of about 23 girls attending Camp Mystic are unknown.
7:11 p.m.: A state agency responsible for search and rescue operations, the Texas Game Wardens, posts on Facebook to say its agents have entered Camp Mystic and 'are evacuating the campers to safety.' Roughly two dozen campers are still missing.
9 p.m.: Gov. Greg Abbott signs a disaster declaration at a news conference. Leitha reports about 24 fatalities.
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