Kerr County, Texas (KXAN) – Social media posts simultaneously in Ker County a piece of clearly delay in public notification by government officials in Ker County, as the flood waters on the Guadalup river increased on Friday morning.
While the National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning at 1:14 pm for some parts of the region, it will be a few hours before posting its initial immediate instructions for the residents of local authorities of the city and county pages.
The first Kerville came from the police department, which re -prepares an NWS alert at 5:16 am, saying: “No one needs to go to high land near the Gwadalup river. The city has flooded the city and low water crossings are incompetent on the local roads. Do not drive in water.”
At 5:31 am, Ker County posted: “Stay safe and go to high ground. Don’t drive through water. Turn around – don’t drown!”
A minute later, the County Sheriff Office also repeated the information of NWS on its own Facebook page, saying: “If you are near the water, go immediately to the high ground. Stay clean from the low water crossing – turn around, turn around, don’t drown!”
The city of Kerville’s Facebook page said two hours later at 7:32 am, “If you live with the Gwadalup River, please go to the high ground immediately.”
City and county officials have so far explained the time of posts or other methods they may have informed people near water, although later posts advised the county and city’s Kerville Facebook accounts for the latest updates. KXAN has requested a record of communication between city, county and state officials – as well as with any emergency notifications – to understand better decisions about their public warnings.
In a late morning press conference, after confirming several confirmation of floods, Ker County Judge Rob Kelly claimed that the officials “did not know that it was flooding.”
“This is the most dangerous river valley in the United States, and we regularly deal with floods – when it rains, we get water,” Kelly said. “We had no reason to believe that it is going to happen as it happened here, no one.”
Later in a separate press event on Friday, Lieutenant Gove Dan Patrick said J Hall, assistant head of the Texas Division of Emergency Management Region 6, “approached judges and mayors personally in that area and reported possible floods to all of them.”
“Yesterday morning, the message was sent,” Patrick said. “It is dependent on local counties and mayors under the law that if they felt a need to empty this information. This information was passed.”
KXAN requested the record of that communication and will continue to follow this story as it develops.
