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The Situation Room

Texas Authorities Provide Update on Flood Recovery Efforts. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired July 09, 2025 - 11:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: Happening now, breaking news. We're expecting an update from officials in Kerrville, Texas, at any moment on the deadly and catastrophic floods that slammed this part of the state's Hill Country. We're going to have that news conference for you live.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: That's coming up.

We want to welcome our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer with Pamela Brown, and you're in THE SITUATION ROOM.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BLITZER: Breaking news out of the flood-ravaged Texas Hill Country. At any moment now, officials are expected to share the latest information on the very grim recovery efforts. This morning, the death toll is now up to 111 people, and the number of missing has jumped dramatically to more than 170. The governor of Texas warns that that number is likely to climb.

My colleague Pamela Brown is in the hard-hit community of Kerrville, where the news conference is being held.

Pamela, what are we expecting from officials this morning?

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: Well, we're just hearing that the press conference is starting, I believe, right now, is that right, in my ear. Let's listen in.

LARRY LEITHA, SHERIFF OF KERR COUNTY, TEXAS: Search efforts continue throughout Kerr County. As of 8:00 a.m. this morning Central time, there are 95 deceased.

I'm going to kind of break down the numbers for you. On adults, there's 59, unidentified 14, children 36, unidentified 13. Camp Mystic currently still has missing five campers and one counselor. Officials report there are 161 missing people in Kerr County area. Community members are asked not to conduct debris management of their property until they're directed by law enforcement.

There is also a no-burn ban in Kerr County at this time until further notice. Let me give you a visual. I know probably all of you all have been in our community capturing the aftermath of this disaster.

But, with that said, also take note the Kerr County is 1,100 square miles of beautiful, but complex Hill Country. There are rural areas that may experience extended response times, areas where cell service is spotty, where the area is single-lane bridges and low-water crossings. Sometimes, evacuations is not the safest.

Sometimes, it's better to shelter in place. The Hill Country is not a- one-size-fit-all place. First responders from emergency services throughout Kerr County promptly responded to the recent emergency as the situation unfolded.

As with other significant events that our emergency services encounter, this incident will be reviewed. You have my word. When or if necessary, if improvements need to be made, improvements will be made.

What I'd like to do right now is kind of give you a breakdown. I believe the last latest report I had, we over -- have 2,100 people out here at some capacity on this incident. As far as Kerr County Sheriff's Office, right now, what our office is currently doing, it's kind of a -- it's an all hands on deck, everybody we got are out here, but also we have additional 2,000-plus people helping us.

[11:05:14]

But as far as our Patrol Division,they're -- right now, they're involved in answering calls. You all have to remember, we still got day-to-day calls we have to handle, but they're also involved in different kinds of rescue and recovery efforts.

My CID Division, Criminal Investigation Division, is assisting with operations at the funeral home. They're also assisting with identification process. My SOD Division, Special Operations Division, is in -- searching through heavy debris with heavy equipment. They're distributing assets with the Texas Game Wardens. They are also involved in recovery operations.

Also, they're working with DPS special agents on all recovery processes, and with communications is overseeing the communication operation liaison, emergency management, Thomas is in the EOC center, also with my chief. They're both in the EOC center.

At this time, I brought a couple of the guys. I was going to let Captain Jason Waldrip say a few words. Jason has been in the field hands on deck this whole time. I haven't been able to get out of here a lot. There's a lot to manage here. He's actually witnessed several things. He's kind of going to give you a few ideas and updates on what's going on in the field, where he's been and what he's been seeing.

And then we will turn over to Sergeant Jack Lamb. Captain Jason Waldrip.

CAPT. JASON WALDRIP, KERR COUNTY, TEXAS, SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT: So the sheriff just want me kind of give you an update on some of the things that we as the sheriff department can do.

One particular thing that we have done in order to help assist in locating the missing is, we have coordinated a team with a local construction company, some fire departments within Kerr County, a fire department from Acuna, Mexico, and we are looking and searching the deeply impacted flood debris along the river.

So 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, skid loaders, to remove this material and do a deep impact search 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. We are trying to control these worksites. We have spotters on the ground. So as the material is being removed, we are looking for anything of a sign of a person that may be within this material.

These operators have very limited vision with these large excavators, so please avoid these areas that they're working. We are still spotting areas up and down the river where we can take apart these materials and hopefully locate some more of the missing. So that's one main thing that we have been doing along the river to help this process.

LEITHA: Sergeant Lamb.

JONATHAN LAMB, COMMUNITY SERVICES OFFICER, KERRVILLE, TEXAS, POLICE DEPARTMENT: Thank you, Captain.

Good morning. Jonathan Lamb, Kerrville Police Department.

We want to remind folks that if you have reported a loved one missing and they have returned home safely or been found safely, it's vitally important that you let us know that that person is no longer among the missing. We need to keep an accurate count, as accurate as possible.

So if you have reported somebody missing and they have been recovered safely, please let us know. Go to the Web site, Kerrvillemissing.DPS.Texas.gov, or call 830-258-1111. Once again, Kerrvillemissing.DPS.Texas.gov, 830-258-1111. We are actively looking, actively working to ensure that we have an accurate count, so that we know who to look for.

And now I want to talk to the people here in this community inside the city limits of Kerrville, people in Kerr County, a few things. We know that folks are beginning to clean up. We have large debris piles. We ask them not to use heavy equipment to take down those debris piles until they have been checked by a search party, because it's possible there are victims in that debris pile.

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And we don't want to disturb that. Please give us a call or non- emergency numbers at the police department and the sheriff's department and let us know that you have got a debris pile that needs to be checked before you begin that level of cleanup.

Sheriff Leitha mentioned the burn ban. That's countywide. We need people to respect that. Do not burn during this time. And we continue to ask people to steer clear of the area and let our first responders work. Again, this operation is ongoing and continuous.

Our first responders are trying to get to places to do their jobs. And people coming here from outside the community and people within the community who want to go sightsee and look at the river and see the flood damage, it's making our job very hard. We ask folks to give us room to work.

I want to talk a little bit about the events that happened on the morning of July 4, what the Kerrville Police Department and other first responders were doing in those early morning hours. I want to start outside of Kerrville out in Hunt.

For those of you who went out there yesterday with the governor, you all know that Highway 39 crisscrosses the Guadalupe again and again and again. And all of those low-water crossings, when they flood, they create islands where you can't get in and you can't get out, trapping people in their homes, trapping people in vehicles.

And that's what happened on the morning of July 4. One of our patrol sergeants lives out there in Hunt. And he got up and got ready to go to work. And he realized when he hit the intersection of FM 1340 and Highway 39 that he was trapped on an island that was Hunt, Texas.

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 him to be strong, that he would get to him as quickly as he could and to hang on. And he knew he needed help. He went to another detective, Kerrville Police Department detective who lives out there, and he woke him up and he said: "It's bad. I need you to get your gear on and come find me."

And then he went back out. And for 13 hours, those two officers, along with some Hunt volunteer fire department firefighters and an emergency room doctor, provided care to that Hunt community. When it was safe to do so, they waded into the water and they rescued people. They got people down off of roofs. They collected them there at the Hunt School.

There was a young boy with a pretty severe leg injury that was given first aid treatment throughout the day. Other people came. Many of them were injured. They provided first aid. They coordinated helicopter evacuations for the most critically injured, communicated the situation back to our emergency dispatch center at Kerrville Police Department. When the waters began to recede, they knew that vehicles would be

making their way out there when it was safe to do so. So they went back and forth, clearing out debris to clear a path for those vehicles. They saw helicopters flying back and forth, making recoveries upriver, evacuating those summer camps.

And they were by themselves on that island that was Hunt, Texas, doing what they do, serving, protecting, and helping until, about 5:00 in the afternoon, when other emergency workers, high-profile vehicles, were able to get out there.

And here in town, the early morning hours are still dark. Our officers realized that areas of town that traditionally don't flood were going to flood and that low-lying areas close to the river were in danger. Our officers spent hours going back and forth.

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In that first hour, they evacuated over 100 homes and evacuated and rescued over 200 people. And to say that doesn't even come close to explaining the actions that took place, door to door, waking people up, convincing them that, yes, the floodwaters are coming and you need to leave now.

They rescued people out of vehicles. They rescued people out of homes that were already flooding, pulling them out of windows. They entered water. There's a trailer park that flooded in minutes. One officer was there by himself and he realized, I need help. He sounded a siren driving up and down those streets that were beginning to flood, calling on his P.A. system for folks to wake up and evacuate.

And then two other officers joined him through first thigh-deep, then waist-deep, then chest-deep water, as they went from R.V.s and trailers and rescued people, carrying them to safety through the water.

Out on old FM 689, there were two people trapped in the water, clinging to a tree. Two officers were there when the third one drove up, and one of them was wrapping a 100-foot flex line garden hose around his waist to go into the water and rescue those people. And those three officers went into the water and one of them held that hose and acted as an anchor, while those other two made their way to those two victims.

And they were able to evacuate them safely. 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.

And, finally, I want to tell you about a member of our KPD team. These guys have been working around the clock. Fourth of July traditionally is an all-hands-on-deck event for us because we hold an amazing concert on the river.

On July 4, it was an all-hands-on-deck event for a very different reason. But our officers had been working without time off, without any downtime, 16-, 18-, 20-hour shifts, without complaint. Yesterday was the first day we were able to give a couple of them some downtime. 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.

I think that is Texans helping Texans in the greatest sense of the word. That's what community is. And that's what's important right now. I want to continue to thank you all for helping us spread the messages that need to be spread.

Before I open this up for a very few questions, just ask you to please -- I'm sorry. Just ask you to please say your name and who you're with before we do that.

Yes, sir, right here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The mayor.

LAMB: Oh, I'm sorry.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The mayor.

LAMB: The mayor is supposed to speak now. I apologize.

Mr. Mayor, I'm sorry.

JOE HERRING JR., MAYOR OF KERRVILLE, TEXAS: Good morning, everyone.

As Jonathan Lamb has said, this is a story of tragedy. There's also a story of heroes.

Captain Waldrip, thank you for all you have done. Every first responder, thank you for all you have done.

The recent numbers reported break my heart. And they break the heart of everyone up here, everyone who's been working since July the 4th. I want you to know, I think it's important for the public to know, I think it's important for the families to know, in that emergency operations center, there's not little silos of departments and agencies.

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They're working as one team with one goal, to find the missing and bring them home. I'm grateful for every first responder, every helper in every field, those who are feeding the hungry, those who are providing shelter to people who have no home, those who are providing clothing who no longer have a wardrobe.

I'm also grateful for the generosity of the world. Two companies that are hometown companies, companies that started in Kerrville, Texas, announced today and yesterday that they will be donating to the relief effort. Everyone in Kerrville is proud of H-E-B and James Avery Artisan Crafts -- Artisan Jewelry. Had a different name for so long. I'm sorry.

Those two companies started here. Their heart is here. We are committed to helping others. After you all go home or go to the next story, we will still be here. We live here. We have lost friends here.

If you feel able to donate to the relief fund, the best source we are recommending is the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country. That's the Community -- their Web site is communityfoundation.net. There's a link at the top of that page to help you donate.

Now, listen, I'm married to a retired first grade teacher. And I learned a little bit about classroom management from her. If you yell questions at us, we're probably going to pick someone else to answer, OK? So if you feel the need to yell your questions, I will feel the need to not answer the question.

In first grade, they raised their hands. That might be a good start. Yesterday was a disaster, and I was embarrassed. Our town was embarrassed. Your viewers were embarrassed. And I don't want that to happen again.

I'm going to do something I have been told to do. I'm going to turn it back to Jonathan Lamb to start the question-and-answer period. However, please make my retired first grade teacher wife proud and raise your hands. Thank you.

LAMB: OK, well, once again, just say your name please and who you're with. And I had already called on you, so, yes sir.

QUESTION: Thank you, sir.

Ernie Zuniga with KSAT 12 in San Antonio. Question for the sheriff.

The code red alert system has come under a lot of scrutiny in recent days. And now there's reports of a timeline on Friday morning where an Ingram Volunteer Fired Department commander asked a Kerr County sheriff dispatcher for the code red to be issued. The dispatcher says: "I can't. I have to get a supervisor's approval for that."

Almost six hours passes until 10:00, when -- 10:04, when the code red is issued. How do you account for that lapse in time? What happened and what could have happened in that time?

LEITHA: OK. As I have said earlier, with every significant event we're going -- with every emergency, you know what, we're going to have to -- there's going to be an after-action.

Please, you all, listen to those words, after-action, OK? Those questions are going to be answered. I believe those questions need to be answered to the family of the missed loved ones, to the public, to the people that put me in this office, those -- and I want that answer and we're going to get that answer.

And I know that's going to be asked over and over. Please understand that we don't have -- we're not running. We're not going to hide from anything. That's going to be checked into at a later time. I wish I could tell you that time. I don't know that time.

Let me share something with you all. One of the main things I have been doing is going to visit the family. We still have some of those missed loved ones here. I go visit them twice a day. As a sheriff, you know what, what I want is, I want closure for those people, OK. And those are important questions.

Those are -- we will answer those questions. I wish you all would bear with me in that, OK? Bear with me. We will get them. I can't tell you when a week or two, OK? We're going to get them. I'm not trying to deflect them, OK?

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My primary -- I ask you. I have been in this business 36 years. I don't know if any of you all or how many of you all have gave notifications, death notifications. I have done them. What is worse, a death notification or telling somebody I don't know where your loved one was?

That's my priority, OK? Now, please don't understand that.

(CROSSTALK)

LAMB: Tammy from "The Hill Country Community Journal."

QUESTION: Yes. We have talked a lot about the recovery effort, and it's amazing, but I wonder what we can tell that displaced families, where do they go, how do they get in touch with FEMA. I think there's a lot of that and we haven't had a chance to discuss it.

LAMB: Right.

So, unfortunately, I don't have the FEMA number. I know there is a FEMA hot line specifically for this, and I don't have it at my fingertips, and I apologize for that. We are pushing out the recovery information. There's -- through our social media posts.

The First United Methodist Church, 321 Thompson Drive, is still the shelter operation for displaced persons through this disaster. They are fully equipped and still accepting folks.

(CROSSTALK)

LAMB: Yes, sir. (INAUDIBLE)

QUESTION: Yes, Sergeant Lamb, yesterday, the governor's office said there was 161 missing. Is that a Kerr County number, or is that a roll-up number? Where are we at with the number of missing?

LAMB: Well, it's my understanding that that -- the number that the governor referred to was a Kerr County number. And, again, I have no reason to doubt that number, and it was compiled from the best available information.

But we are asking folks to make sure that the numbers that we have are accurate. So, if somebody has been reported missing and they have now been accounted for, please let us know that so we can revise those numbers and make sure that they continue to be accurate.

Yes, ma'am?

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: Thank you. Thank you (OFF-MIKE) with Telemundo NBC.

Yesterday, Governor Abbott said that, two days prior to the disaster, he had provided resources, and they were here on the ground. I don't know if this is a question for you or for the mayor, but he said you guys were prepared, that you had those essentials. What happened?

Did you guys have those resources?

LAMB: Yes, listen, I'm going to just say what has already been said. At the appropriate time, all of that is going to be reviewed and checked into. I don't have the answer to that question right now. I don't have that information. And rather than speculate, it would be irresponsible for me to do that. So...

QUESTION: Mayor, could you speak on that?

HERRING: Repeat the question, please.

QUESTION: Yesterday, Governor Abbott said, two days prior to the disaster, he had provided the town with more than enough resources to respond to the disaster. Were those resources here? Locals tell us they didn't see any resources. They didn't see one until hours after the disaster.

HERRING: Thank you.

QUESTION: What resources did you guys have? And why wasn't there any response?

HERRING: OK, I didn't see the governor's remarks. I haven't seen the governor's remarks. Last night, we had a city council meeting, and I was required to be there.

And so I can't -- I'm sorry. I don't know what resources TDEM had in place at that time. I know when I arrived at the emergency operations center on the morning of July 4, there were TDEM personnel there. But what assets they were able to use that morning, I'm sorry, I do not know.

(CROSSTALK)

HERRING: Listen, people are yelling, and I didn't really want...

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: If you offer only three questions, then you're going to have people yelling.

HERRING: Guess what? You're in Kerrville, and we're going to do it my way.

QUESTION: I understand that.

(CROSSTALK)

HERRING: Morgan Chesky, please.

QUESTION: Mr. Mayor, records show that the concept of flood warnings have been discussed at least two dozen times by the county. What's the biggest reason that these systems have not gone into place at this point?

HERRING: You know, Morgan, you and I grew up here. And I wasn't in office during those discussions. And, frankly, I'm more focused on the future than the past, as you know.

What I can say is, the governor, the lieutenant governor, the speaker of the Texas House have all provided us support, and they have all said this is a priority for the upcoming special legislative session. As mayor of Kerrville, as someone who grew up here, I am grateful for their support, and I look forward to what they proposed during the special session.

My last question will be you.

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, SENIOR CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Thank you, sir. Shimon Prokupecz with CNN.

The lieutenant governor said that, on July 3, that the county judges and city mayors were invited on a daily call Thursday to discuss weather forecasts. Were you on that call? Were you invited to that call? Do you know if the county judge was also on that call?

HERRING: I can't speak to -- for the county judge. That would be hearsay. And I'm not going to contradict the information you have. But I will tell you, personally, I did not receive a telephone call.