A timeline of the catastrophic Texas floods : NPR
A man looks at the floods caused by a sudden flood at the Guadalupe river in Kerrville, Texas on Saturday.
Ronaldo Schemidt / AFP via Getty Images
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Ronaldo Schemidt / AFP via Getty Images
In the early hours of Friday, flood Broan Texas Hill Country. The Guadalupe river increased by 26 feet in 45 minutes, according to state officials.
The floods killed at least 14 children and 18 adults, officials said at a press conference on Saturday afternoon. Frenzy research efforts are continuing for 27 girls from a local Christian summer camp – Camp Mystic – which remains disappeared, as well as other disappeared people. Officials added that more than 850 people have been saved, including more than 100 conservatives from the region.
Friday, when asked why the region’s summer camps were not evacuated, Kerr’s county judge Rob Kelly, the highest elected official of the county, said: “I cannot answer this. I don’t know.”
On Wednesday, the Texas (TDEM) emergency management division (TDEM) activated State emergency intervention resources, saying that there were “threats increased by floods in certain parts of the west and center of Texas”. The rapid water rescue teams, as well as other types of rescue equipment, were moved to the region because a modeling predicted high levels of precipitation.
“But listen, everyone obtained forecasts from the National Weather Service…. Friday.
The American representative Chip Roy, R-Texas, who was in the region for the celebrations of July 4, asked people to focus on the current rescue work. “I was just coming [ask] Everyone like, a break, take a breath for the recriminations and the quarter of Monday morning, “he said SATURDAY. “Let’s focus on the search for those who can be found, so we can always assess what we have to do later in the future.”
Kristi Noem, internal security secretary, said on Saturday afternoon, “for decades, for years, everyone knows that time is extremely difficult to predict.”
“I respond to your concerns to the federal government, President Trump and and we will do our best to repair these kinds of things that could have been a failure for you and for members of your community,” she said, adding that Trump “works to upgrade the technologies that have been neglected”. A few have raised questions on the question of whether the reductions of the National Weather Service and other federal emergency management agencies have had an impact on the ability to provide precise weather warnings.
NPR has compiled a calendar from the moment when local, state and federal officials have published warnings on social networks as well as the calendar of events presented by local officials.
Wednesday July 2:
The Division of Emergency Management of Texas (TDEM) announcement that he activated state emergency resources due to the threat of floods.
At 4:41 p.m., the first violent time advice arrived a post On X by the National Weather Service Austin / San Antonio who said: “Moderate to strong dispersed showers continue to develop and develop in the country of the hills.”
Thursday July 3:
At 9:47 a.m. Texas Emergency Management Division poster On X, the weather advice in English and Spanish, informing subscribers of what to do in a flood, adding: “While we head for the holiday weekend and the threat of the floods in West & Central TX continues, stay aware of the weather!”
At a given time in the morning, Lieutenant-Governor Dan Patrick later said in a press conferenceThe TDEM Region 6 assistance chief had “personally contacted the judges and mayors of this field and had informed all the potential floods to them”. He said he was not clear exactly where in the region the storm was going to strike.
“The message has been sent,” said Patrick, “it is up to local counties and mayors under the law to evacuate, if they feel a need. This information has been transmitted.”
At 3:35 p.m., the National Weather Service Austin / San Antonio announcement Surveillance of floods on X, saying that “heavy rain pockets are expected and can cause floods”. A flood is used when weather conditions allow a flood, but that does not mean that a flood will occur.
Friday July 4:
At 12:42 p.m., the National Weather Service Austin / San Antonio poster On X improving its flood watch to a flood warning for part of the affected area. In a job From 2 a.m., this area was extended. A flood warning occurs when the floods are imminent or that already occur.
At 1:26 am, the National Weather Service Meteorological prediction center said “sudden floods probably overnight with significant impacts possible”. This message was published on X a minute later.
Around 3:30 am, the director of the city of Kerrville, Dalton Rice, said that he was released for a jog early in the morning along the Guadalupe river and had seen “not a drop of rain”, according to the Lieutenant-Governor Dan Patrick, who tell His conversation with the director of the city. Rice added that he had left about 4 am when “there was a very light rain … We saw no sign of the river go up at that time.”
At 4:06 a.m., the National Weather Service Austin / San Antonio poster On X: “A very dangerous sudden flood event is underway.” He finished: “Turn, don’t drown you!”
Then, at 5:15 a.m., the National Weather Service San Angelo poster On x that there was a sudden flood urgency. The Austin / San Antonio office poster On his X account on the emergency at 5:23 a.m., this type of alert is “extremely rare“And used when there is a” serious threat to human life and catastrophic damage “, according to the National Meteorological Service.
Between 4 a.m. and 6 a.m., the Guadalupe river jumped, with water levels increasing rapidly up to 30 feet, according to representative Roy. Local television images have shown the empty foundations of the houses, where everything else had been carried away.
Kerrville City Director Rice said that he had started to get calls around 5 am on floods. He said that upstream of the city, two branches converge in the Guadalupe river and that the two forks had received more rain than expected. “It was about seven feet on the south fork, and in a few minutes it was up to 29 feet,” Rice tell Later Friday.
After 1987 floodAlarms have been installed along the river. However, Rice said he thought it was south of Kerrville. “There [are] No alarms all over the river, “he said.
He added that it is a very difficult decision when issuing evacuation orders. “There is a balance between evacuating you and putting chaos on the road and potentially risk that people find themselves stuck on a road? It’s Hill Country … There are a lot of water passages,” he said. “Many of our operations plans – in particular with these camps, that is to say – the plan is sometimes a shelter in place to bring them to these known heights, then wait for the rescue.”
At 6:16 a.m., the police service in the city of Kerrville poster On his Facebook page, his first warning on the weather, noting that it is an “event endangering” and “anywhere near the Guadalupe river must move to higher grounds now”. Kerr County Sheriff poster On his Facebook page for the first time on the floods at 6:32 am
At 7:22 a.m., Kerrville town hall poster On Facebook: “The essential rain has swept Kerrville overnight, but the disadvantage is that serious time can have an impact on many events scheduled for July 4. At 7:33 am, it published road closings due to floods. At 8:32 am, it posted:” If you live along the Guadalupe river, please pass immediately on higher ground. “
KIDD – The Chief Emergency Management of Texas – said that the boats and other pre -positioned equipment began to respond immediately, although it did not specify at what time. “These were immediately used as soon as the rain fell and the 911 calls began to enter. They were already there,” he said.
Speaking Friday, Lieutenant-Governor Patrick said that there were 14 helicopters, 12 drones, nine rescue teams as well as “swimmers in the water who save adults and trees from trees”. He said that there were 400 to 500 people on the ground while helping the rescue effort.
Research and rescue operations continued overnight, according to the director of the city of Kerrville, Rice, who said that the teams had a lot on helicopters and used specialized equipment that detect heat sources to help find people blocked.
Saturday July 5:
Around 8 am on Saturday, Rice said that “boots on soil operations” were able to start. The teams began southwest of Hunt, TX-southwest of Camp Mystic-and “these people will travel very difficult field … and we will start getting information,” he said at a press conference on Saturday morning.
Officials said more than 1,000 local, state and federal staff were on the ground by helping the rescue operation.
On Saturday afternoon, Governor Greg Abbott said that a word had been used more than anything during this natural disaster: prayer. “All we know is that prayer works,” he said.
