Officials: two days’ warning, faster response prevented larger tragedy in Kerr County flooding

County and state officials described a dramatically different — and far better — emergency response to this week’s flooding than to last year’s catastrophic July 4, 2025 flood, at a joint press conference Friday that included Kerr County officials, a state representative and a U.S. congressman.

“We had heads up this time”

State Rep. Wesley Virdell said the defining difference between this week’s flooding and last year’s was advance warning. Last year, he said, residents “went to sleep” with no indication a wall of water was coming down the river. This time, the community watched neighboring areas flood for roughly two days beforehand.

“Last time last year, we were hit with the flood that when people went to sleep, there was not a lot of indication or rain or anything like that that a wall of water was going to be coming down the river,” Virdell said. “This time, the difference is we saw that our neighbors were being flooded for about two days before this flood.”

That warning, combined with the prepositioning of state resources from the Texas Division of Emergency Management, Texas Parks and Wildlife, and the Texas Department of Public Safety, significantly reduced the loss of life, Virdell said. He noted that camps upstream in the Hunt area saw little flooding this time, with the hardest-hit areas beginning around Ingram and continuing downstream. “We’re very grateful that there’s been a much better response this time,” he said.

Congressman: federal declaration in discussion

U.S. Rep. Chip Roy praised what he called “extraordinary” communication and coordination across local, state and federal teams, saying he has been in constant contact with sheriffs across Kerr, Kendall, Gillespie, Blanco, Bandera and Real counties.

“Communication has been extraordinary this year,” Roy said. “Deeply, deeply proud of the people of Texas and this county and throughout the state of Texas and the response and reaction.”

Roy said he is in active discussions with the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA regarding a federal disaster declaration, which will be determined in coordination with the governor’s office. He acknowledged that some homes flooded this week were the same ones recently rebuilt after 2025, but expressed confidence the community would rebuild again.

“We know that there’s still flooding going up and water falling — the Llano River is still going, the rainfall still happening out in Sonora,” Roy said. “We just need to finish the job of getting through the current moment and then get busy rebuilding.” He added: “The people of this community are strong people of faith, people of Texas. They came together last year to raise $150 million to respond. We’ll do it again.”

Judge Kelly: disaster declared at 3:30 a.m.

County Judge Rob Kelly walked through the timeline leading to Kerr County’s local disaster declaration. After Gov. Greg Abbott’s Tuesday declaration, county officials stood up an Incident Command Post at the sheriff’s training facility. As the National Weather Service reported rainfall totals of 20 to 24 inches, Kelly consulted with Precinct One Commissioner Tom Jones and City Manager Dalton Rice. The city and county jointly declared a local state of disaster at 3:30 a.m. Thursday.

“I was awakened again early Thursday morning about 1:30 with the report of the rainfall and the status of where we were,” Kelly said. “At that point in time I went ahead and declared the disaster. And it was 3:30 in the morning when I declared it.”

Kelly also said the Incident Command Post itself was compromised by electrical failures and water seepage during the storm, forcing a full relocation. “We had problems in the incident command room with the electricity and with water seeping in,” he said. “We had to move it. And we moved the incident command from the training room at the sheriff’s office to here in less than 30 minutes.”

Kelly closed by directing residents who want to volunteer to contact Kerr Together at 98 Coronado Drive, and those looking to donate to go through Global Empowerment Mission.

Six of 19 county bridges show major damage

Precinct One Commissioner Tom Jones, the county judge-elect, said a severe loss of riparian vegetation from last year’s flood allowed water to move faster downstream this week, worsening damage further down the county. Of the county’s 19 bridges, six have sustained major damage, though full assessments can’t be completed until floodwaters recede fully — some sites remain inaccessible.

“Currently we have 19 bridges in Kerr County. Six of those have major damage to some degree — some of them we can’t get to, we can’t see yet,” Jones said. “We’re waiting to get a total assessment on that.”

Jones said the county’s flood warning system performed as designed. Beginning at 1:36 a.m. Thursday, the county issued 59 IPAWS and CodeRED cellular alerts before activating three physical sirens — two on the South Fork and one in Hunt — based on rising water levels.

“The flood warning system — the good news is it worked, and it worked the way it was designed to work,” Jones said. “We have good fail-safes built into it, and those fail-safes worked perfectly.”

Sheriff: 234 calls, zero unanswered

Sheriff Larry Leitha commended what he described as seamless collaboration between the Sheriff’s Office, volunteer fire departments, the City of Kerrville, and state agencies including Texas Game Wardens and Texas Task Force 1 and 2. On the flood’s peak day, July 16, the county fielded 234 emergency calls for service, with zero going unanswered.

Leitha confirmed one fatality in the county: John Mark Steward, of Kerrville.

Why the briefing waited a day

Asked why the county held its press conference Friday rather than Thursday, Leitha said crews were simply too busy managing active operations Thursday to step away for a formal briefing — and that his department refused to release unconfirmed information.

He described a report that came in of two additional bodies just as the department was preparing a press release. Rather than releasing that information immediately, Leitha insisted on verifying it first. “If I put it out there, I own it,” he said. “Y’all going to come after me if that ain’t true.” Searching for the two reported bodies delayed the department roughly four hours; when searchers reached the site, they found nothing. A second unverified report came in about four hours after that, prompting Leitha to set a firm policy: the department will not identify or confirm any casualties unless a Kerr County Sheriff’s Office member personally “puts eyes on it” first.

Leitha apologized for the delay in briefing media Thursday but said waiting allowed the county to bring “good, accurate numbers” he could stand behind rather than spread false information.

He said search and recovery teams remain active at Interstate 10 and Creek Road, but emphasized there are currently no reports of missing persons countywide. “The water’s starting to recede,” Leitha said, “and the good news and the best news right now is that we don’t have any reports of anybody missing.”