Officials in Kerr County struggled to provide answers on Wednesday about their response to a devastating flood that swept through the Texas Hill Country nearly a week ago, killing at least 120 people statewide.
The bulk of those deaths were in Kerr County, where the death roll reached 96 and officials said 161 people were still missing — a major increase from the numbers they were citing earlier in the week. Statewide, 173 people were unaccounted for as searchers continued to probe the muddy remains of cabins, campers and trailer parks.
Pressed about possible lapses in disaster preparation, Gov. Greg Abbott announced an agenda on Wednesday for a special session of the State Legislature this month that includes consideration of flood warning systems. But the session, which was announced last month, will address 14 other topics, including tax cuts and further restricting abortion.
Facing questions at a news conference on Wednesday about a lack of warning sirens and other aspects of their disaster response, officials in Kerr County gave an extensive account of rescue efforts as the Guadalupe River rose early on July 4, saying hundreds of people had been saved by local emergency crews.
“They rescued people out of vehicles. They rescued people out of homes that were already flooded, pulling them out of windows,” said Officer Jonathan Lamb with the police department in Kerrville, the county’s largest city. He added, “I know that this tragedy, as horrific as it is, could have been so much worse.”
But officials said other answers about preparations and response would have to wait for an extensive review. “If improvements need to be made, improvements will be made,” the county sheriff, Larry Leitha, said at the news conference.
Asked about the timeline for when increasingly urgent warnings from the National Weather Service were shared with residents, the sheriff asked for more time. “I believe those questions need to be answered,” he told reporters, adding, “We’re going to get that answer. We’re not running. We’re not going to hide.”
Governor Abbott, when asked similar questions on Tuesday about investigating what went wrong, referred to such inquiries as the “words of losers” and compared disaster response to football, saying only losing teams focused on their failures.
The governor said state lawmakers, who cut property taxes by $51 billion this year while funding only a small portion of a backlog of flood management projects totaling some $54 billion across the state, would be focused on solutions instead, pointing to the upcoming special session.
The wide-ranging agenda he announced on Wednesday included four specific items related to the floods, including a request to improve the early warning system and other preparedness infrastructure in flood-prone areas. The governor also asked lawmakers to strengthen emergency communications and other response infrastructure.
The jam-packed legislative agenda also includes proposals to further reduce property taxes, regulate hemp-derived products, redraw the state’s congressional maps and restrict public knowledge about “unsubstantiated complaints” against police officers.
Mr. Abbott released the agenda as the grim search for the missing spread further across Hill Country, and some family members received the news they had been dreading. A woman whose mother, stepfather, aunt, uncle and cousin were missing from the floods learned that the bodies of her mother and stepfather had been found.
“To have her as a mother was a treasure I will forever cherish,” the woman, Hailey Chavarria, wrote in a Facebook post about her mother, Michelle Crossland. “I’m sorry it’s not the update anyone wanted.”
The number of missing people cited by the governor on Tuesday far outstripped the number that local officials had previously acknowledged, suggesting that the statewide death toll could more than double. It’s unclear how the list of the missing was assembled, and officials did not answer inquiries about it on Tuesday evening.
Jermaine Jarmon, 52, who lives north of Austin in Travis County, was among those awaiting news on Wednesday. His 16-year-old daughter, Felicity Jarmon, was still missing. Mr. Jarmon, also known as “J.J.,” had already received word that his longtime partner, Alissa Martin, 54, and his son Braxton Jarmon, 15, had died in the floods.
The family was caught up in the fast-moving floodwaters that surged out of the creek running through their backyard. Mr. Jarmon said the family had heard no official warnings that the flood was coming. A neighbor alerted him, he said, not the fire department a mile away.
“They could have gone up and down the street with sirens on,” he said.
For now, as he waits for word of his daughter, Mr. Jarmon said he was trying to survive one day at a time. “That’s all I can do,” he said. “For the rest of my life.”
The floods, striking at a region filled with summer camps and vacationing families, now stand among the deadliest U.S. disasters for children in several decades. In Kerr County alone, 36 children were killed, including many from Camp Mystic, a Christian summer camp for girls.
Twenty-seven campers and staff members have been confirmed dead, according to the camp. The bodies of five campers and a 19-year-old counselor had not yet been recovered as of Wednesday morning, officials said.
In addition to the deaths in Kerr County, at least seven people were killed in Travis County, eight in Kendall County, five in Burnet County, three in Williamson County and one in Tom Green County.
Stories of the lost continued to emerge on Wednesday. The daughter of Katheryn Eads, who was camping in Kerr County when the floods swept through, described her mother in an email to The New York Times, saying Dr. Eads had worked in early education as a psychologist, helping children in the foster care system, and then spent time as a college professor.
“She was an incredible wife, daughter, mother, grandmother and person who spent her life helping kids,” wrote Dr. Eads’s daughter, Victoria Eads. Dr. Eads was camping in a trailer with her husband, Brian Eads, who survived by clinging to a tree.
“We both got swept away, and then I lost her,” Mr. Eads said while searching for his wife at a church shelter on the day of the floods. He tried to swim through the swift-moving dark water toward her voice, he said, but lost track of her when he was struck in the head by flood debris.
Reporting was contributed by Emily Cochrane, Jack Healy, Campbell Robertson and Jenna Russell.
Edgar Sandoval covers Texas for The Times, with a focus on the Latino community and the border with Mexico. He is based in San Antonio.
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