KERR COUNTY, Texas — As floodwaters receded across the Texas Hill Country, first responders in Kerr County remain at the center of an intensive search and rescue operation following the deadly July 4 disaster, officials said at a July 9 news conference.
Officials have confirmed 95 fatalities as of July 9, including 36 children. Fourteen adults and 13 children remain unidentified. Authorities say 161 individuals are still missing in the region.
Sheriff’s deputies, police officers, fire personnel and emergency medical teams have been working around the clock, battling rough terrain and treacherous conditions to recover the missing and assist survivors.
“We have over 2,100 people out here at some capacity on this incident,” Sheriff Larry L. Leitha stated. “…It’s all hands on deck. [All the personnel we have available] are out here, but also we have an additional 2,000 plus people helping us.”
In Hunt, Texas, one Kerrville patrol sergeant found himself trapped by rising water. Instead of retreating, he began rescuing people.
“And he saw people, dozens of people trapped on roofs. He saw people trapped in swift moving water. He gave them encouragement over his public address system in his vehicle. He told them to be strong, that he would get to him as quickly as he could and to hang on. And he knew he needed help,” Kerrville Police Sgt. Jonathan Lamb said. The officer then recruited a detective and joined local volunteer firefighters and an ER doctor. For 13 hours, they rescued residents, treated injuries and coordinated helicopter evacuations.
Lamb also detailed efforts closer to town.
“Our officers spent hours going back and forth. In that first hour, they evacuated over a hundred homes and rescued over 200 people.”
He recounted how officers waded through waist- and chest-deep water to carry people from trailers and RVs to safety. In one case, three officers used a garden hose as a lifeline to rescue two people clinging to a tree in floodwaters.
“Folks, I don’t know how many lives our KPD team saved in an hour in Kerrville, but I know that this tragedy, as horrific as it is, could have been so much worse,” Lamb said.
Beyond the rescues, officers have joined foot searches, combing through dense brush and debris piles along the Guadalupe River. Lamb noted that even off-duty officers volunteered to assist.
“Yesterday was the first day we were able to give a couple of them some downtime,” Lamb said. “So we sent an officer home to rest. But rather than taking a day off, a much well-deserved day off, he got up and he put on his gear, and he volunteered to go out on foot with a ground search party. And he spent his day up and down the Guadalupe River going over, under, around trees, searching for victims to try and reunite the missing with their families.”
“This is a story of tragedy, but it’s also a story of heroes,” Mayor Joe Herring Jr. added.
Captain Jason Waldrip with the Kerr County Sheriff’s Office highlighted an operation involving heavy equipment to search debris-clogged riverbanks.
“We have coordinated a team with a local construction company, the Texas Department of Public Safety, some fire departments from within Kerr County, a fire department from Acuña, Mexico, and we are looking and searching the deeply impacted flood debris along the river,” Waldrip said. “These areas are where a lot of this debris is bottlenecked. So, it’s a lot of large trees. It’s a lot of the vehicles. It’s a lot of home structures have built up in these areas. So, we are using very heavy equipment, excavators [and] skid loaders to remove this material and do a deep impact search of where this is. So, what we ask is for those who are out there working, the local residents, the families of the missing, even some of the search teams, if you see these very large excavators working, please avoid these areas.”
Officials also asked residents and potential visitors to the area to avoid “sightseeing” near the destroyed areas, as onlookers might interfere with rescue and recovery efforts, the New York Post reported.
The warning comes after multiple unauthorized drones have been spotted in the skies surrounding recovery areas, including one that crashed into a rescue helicopter, rendering it useless for recovery work.
“Our first responders were hampered by heavy traffic yesterday, mostly sightseers who are making things worse. If you’re not from here, don’t come here to see flood damage,” the KPD wrote on Facebook.
