William B. Thomas, the emergency management coordinator for Kerr County, has come under fire for his response during one of the state’s most catastrophic natural disasters. The floods those communities experienced on July 4 tore through neighborhoods, bringing widespread destruction that was particularly severe in low-lying, often predominantly Black communities. In reality, Thomas slept throughout the entire crisis.
At a recent TxDOT hearing in Kerrville, hundreds of Kerr County residents packed the room to hear. It was the first time, since the floods, that Thomas addressed the public directly. He had a specific reason for wanting to state where he was during this catastrophe. He disclosed how he had been ill and sleeping most of July 3rd, the day before the flooding began. Despite planning to take the day off to “fulfill a commitment to my elderly father,” Thomas awoke briefly around 2 PM, when there were no indications of local rainfall.
Thomas’s brief wakefulness did not last long, and he returned to sleep until his wife woke him at 5:30 AM on July 4. By that point, the worst of the flash flooding had already rolled through the region. Hundreds of thousands of residents soon discovered that they were in grave danger.
“What we saw on July 4 was unexpected, sudden, violent and overwhelming,” said Thomas during his testimony. He and fellow official Larry Leitha came in for stinging criticism for failing to be awake and responsive as the emergency snowballed.
All the people we talked to who survived the flooding were angry, disappointed, or scared that warnings had not come in time. As one displaced resident put it, “no notice period, no notice whatsoever. When asked about crisis communication, Thomas stressed that he was satisfied with the National Weather Service’s alerts. He had great faith in their powerfulness. Furthermore, he claimed that further warning would have been superfluous at best.
Thomas noted that the lack of cell service along the river made the communication and coordination issues during the emergency even worse. He said the community doesn’t want a flood warning system based on unapologetic, wailing sirens. He felt like that wasn’t going to move the needle much given the current state of play.