A county emergency management coordinator conceded during an emotional hearing Thursday that he was asleep while floodwaters rose in the Texas Hill Country early on July 4, but William Thomas nevertheless defended his response to the disaster early this month. Hundreds of Kerr County residents attended the meeting that was planned to run more than 12 hours, the New York Times reports. Thomas told the state legislators holding the hearing that he was sick in bed and didn't attend two regular state meetings on July 3 that addressed weather forecasts. The flooding killed 108 people.
"To those who ask, what would you have done differently? The honest answer is that, based on the data we had at the time, there was no clear indicator that a catastrophic flood was imminent," Thomas said, per NBC News. "The situation evolved faster than anyone could have predicted." He did not attend a meeting last week in Ingram called to answer questions including including where Thomas was when the National Weather Service issued its first flash flood warning and who—if not Thomas—was coordinating the response in the first hours.
There also have been questions about where Judge Rob Kelly, Kerr County's top elected official, was as the threat increased. The answer turned out to be his lake house, where he said he received texts and calls in the morning. By that time, he said, Camp Mystic, a summer camp for girls, had already flooded; at least 27 campers and staff members were killed. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick told him on Thursday that, "I never saw you on day one," at the emergency operations center, per the Times. State Rep. Ann Johnson said in the Kerrville hearing that as the waters quickly rose, the three top people whose responsibility it is to respond to county emergencies were not on the job.
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