AUSTIN (KXAN) — This month’s deadly floods in Kerr County carry echoes of another Hill Country disaster that took place 38 years ago this week. Some wish those lessons had left the region better prepared.
“The [Guadalupe] River is the most beautiful river in Texas,” said Dallas attorney Mark Nacol. “But she ain’t no lady.”
In the early morning hours of July 17, 1987, a deadly flood killed 10 campers at Pot O’ Gold Ranch, a Christian camp in Comfort. Nacol represented the families at the time in a civil lawsuit that settled.
“I was involved in those children’s lives and their parents,” said Nacol, “and the horror of losing those children.”
A flash flood warning was issued just after 1 a.m. Less than two hours later, at 2:45 a.m., the Guadalupe River at Camp Mystic rose 15 inches, according to National Weather Service Archives. The warning noted: “Reports of people trapped in rising waters.”
“Remarks by old timers note the flooding taking place reminds them of the 1978 Hill Country Flood,” according to excerpts from warnings and statements by the Weather Forecast Office for Austin/San Antonio.
Flash flood alerts and warnings sent July 16-17, 1987 (Courtesy National Weather Service)
“It’s just too fast. It comes down immediately,” recalled Nacol, who has practiced law for 53 years. “It’s a wall of water.”
That quickness was seen again this month with the Guadalupe River in and around Kerrville and Kerr County quickly surging over 20 feet, killing at least 132 people during the July Fourth storm. More than 100 people remain missing, officials said.
“It horrified me,” Nacol said. “A lot of feelings I had buried in 38 years.”
Asked if officials should have known this type of flooding was a possibility, Nacol responded: “Of course they did; they know it.”
Indeed, in 2017, the City of Kerrville along with Kerr County and the Upper Guadalupe River Authority produced a “Be Flood Aware” video on YouTube. Citing the potential for “monstrous and dangerous” flash flooding, the video highlighted previous devastating events in August 1978 and July 1987, where a meteorologist interviewed in the video noted it rained 15 inches in three hours.
Kendra Wright was a counselor at a camp in Hunt during the 1987 flood and recently shared her story with KXAN.
“The same helicopter that rescued my friend had to go and rescue a bus of children on that church bus,” she recalled.
For Nacol, the lesson then is the hope now — that lawmakers, during the special session starting July 21, will pay for warning sirens.
“There’s going to be more deaths unless people are willing to put the money to put in a system that’ll burst your eardrums at three in the morning and there’s no doubt the floods coming,” he said. “Everybody knows it and they get out.”
He said if summer camps are going to be in flood zones, alert system preparations should be required. In March, the Comfort Volunteer Fire Department announced it upgraded its warning siren and added another near Cypress Creek, which feeds into the Guadalupe and is prone to flooding.
Kerr County did not have warning sirens. Critics point out they can be expensive, are meant to only be heard outdoors and often require frequent maintenance. Cities that use sirens have called them a “vital tool” for emergency preparedness when combined with other measures like weather radios and mobile alerts.
“This was not an act of God. This was an act of nature,” Nacol said. “It’s going to do it again. You’re going to get another front — it may not be another 38 years, it might be two years.”