The residents of Kerr County, Texas, are still recovering from the disastrous flooding that swept through the region over the Independence Day weekend. While the cleanup goes on, those people are (understandably) demanding some answers from local authorities about the area's warning systems, and what happened in the hours leading up to the floods.
State lawmakers have been holding hearings on the matter, and out of one of those hearings came an eyebrow-raising admission: One of the key emergency management officials was, on the night of the flood, ill and asleep.
The emergency management coordinator of Kerr County, which bore the brunt of the deadly July 4 floods in the Texas Hill Country, testified on Thursday that he was sick and asleep when the floodwaters rose in the middle of the night, eventually killing 108 people in the county.
The admission by the official, William B. Thomas IV, came at the start of an extraordinary hearing held by state lawmakers in a packed convention center in the city of Kerrville, a short walk from the banks of the Guadalupe River, which surged to record levels in the predawn darkness of July 4.
Now, we can't blame Mr. Thomas for being sick, or for taking to his bed to fight off his illness. That's what anyone would do. What's more, his co-workers and management knew of his absence.
Mr. Thomas said his supervisors were aware that he was off that day. He testified that he slept through most of July 3; awoke briefly around 2 p.m., when he said there was no indication of local rainfall; and then went back to sleep again until his wife woke him up at 5:30 a.m. on July 4.
By that point, the worst of the flooding had already surged through low-lying communities in the county, including the unincorporated town of Hunt and the summer camps and recreational vehicle parks that sit near the river’s banks.
But Mr. Thomas, as the Kerr County Emergency Management Coordinator, had responsibility for local alarms and so on. Kerry County had to have a roster for this; if one person is out for any reason, who takes over this responsibility? That seems to be what some of the lawmakers in that hearing wanted to know.
Judge Rob Kelly, who is responsible for the direction of emergency management, was on that evening at a second home in Lake Travis, and did not return until the extent of the floods was already apparent.
Kerry County Sheriff Larry L. Leitha was, according to Texas Rep. Ann Johnson (D-Houston), not awoken and informed of events until 4:20 AM.
Speaking to reporters, Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick and Texas Representative Dan Burrows (R-Lubbock) expressed some concern about this failure to communicate.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the hearing, Mr. Patrick and Representative Dustin Burrows, a Lubbock Republican and the speaker of the Texas House, expressed dismay at that so many top officials were absent at critical moments of the crisis.
“Somebody has to have the football,” Mr. Burrows said.
It looks a little like nobody really knew who was supposed to be on-call.
Read More: Watch: Trump and First Lady Tour Flood Devastation in Texas, Reveal Special Gift From Camp Mystic
Now, it's not as though there were no alarms at all. The National Weather Service, as we noted here on RedState and was also reported in many, many outlets, issued flood watches and flood warnings well in advance of the event. But the screw-up here is nevertheless something that demands answers. What part of the mechanism failed? If Person A leaves, who's in charge? If Person A and Person B are both out, who is Person C? Business management teams operate under hierarchies like this all the time, so that even if half the top brass is out on vacation, the workers all know who to go to if they need something decided.
That doesn't appear to have happened here.
The aftermath of these floods, including any political backlash, is still ongoing. Stay tuned.
Editor’s Note: The Democrat Party has never been less popular as voters reject its globalist agenda.
Help us continue exposing Democrats' plans to lead America down a dangerous path. Join RedState VIP and use promo code FIGHT to get 60% off your membership.