AUSTIN (KXAN) — In the hours before catastrophic July 4 flooding killed at least 117 people in Kerr County, it was business as usual for Kerrville Police — until it wasn’t.
Newly released records, obtained by KXAN through a public information request, reveal calls to police and 911 before, during and after the flood. On July 3, showing no obvious signs of the impending storm, police responded to typical small city problems: traffic accidents, residential and business alarms going off, harassment, a welfare check, a disabled vehicle, “suspicious” activity. The first emergency call for help came the next morning around 3:34 a.m. requesting a “Water Rescue.”
What followed was a series cascading pleas for lifesaving response.
At least nine more water rescues, a dozen requests for assistance, more than 40 medical calls. The calls came from across the county, as Kerrville police handle 911 calls for the region, not just their city.
Then at 9:10 a.m., the police call log shows its first report of an “unattended death” in Center Point. Two minutes later another report in Kerrville. From July 4 through July 5, the call log lists 20 such cases — an early sign of the death toll — including several children and counselors at a nearby summer camp — that would rise in the days ahead.
More than a month later, two people are still missing in Kerr County.
The logs do not offer details about the calls other than the type of service requested. Kerrville police would not answer KXAN’s follow-up questions or provide clarifying details related to the records requested and would not offer a specific date for releasing other records — including audio of the 911 calls. In an emailed response to KXAN Thursday, Kerrville Police Chief Chris McCall said he was “sorry we cannot assist you further.”
“The Texas Public Information Act does not require governmental bodies to provide answers to general inquiries,” McCall wrote. “It simply requires that governmental bodies make available information they collect, assemble, or maintain …In light of the number of requests we have received, we need to focus on responding to pending requests in order to comply with our legally-mandated deadlines.”
Still, the records released, so far, offer an early glimpse of the calm before the chaos, then standard calls returning relatively quickly. Around 9 p.m. on July 4, police were responding to a DWI and a smattering of city ordinance violations.
But just an hour later, another call and a reminder of the recovery that was just beginning: “unattended death.”