Speaker 1 (00:00):
That's JIC@KerrvilleTX.gov, and I'll repeat that again in just a minute. Our unified PIO team will confirm your interview, your time, and who you're going to be able to interview at least an hour in advance. You're welcome to request specific leadership such as the Sheriff, the City Manager. However, due to the fluid nature of response and the quantity of requests that we're likely to give, we cannot commit to honoring 100% your requested interviewees.
(00:35)
Footage. Our joint PIO team will be in the field today and we're going to be collecting images and B-roll of response and recovery efforts. As soon as it can be made available, a link will be emailed from our JIC email address for you to download material for your own use.
(00:58)
Contact information. If you signed in yesterday and provided us with your contact information, you should be part of our media list and should have received a confirmation email last night. If you did not get on that list and you want be part of our media list, please email JIC@KerrvilleTX.gov. That is J-I-C @ K-E-R-R-V-I-L-L-E- T-X .GOV. I'm going to try and find out about when we're expected to start. Hopefully it'll be shortly.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
[inaudible 00:01:42]
Speaker 3 (01:38):
[inaudible 00:04:30]-
Speaker 4 (01:38):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
All right. We're good.
(04:30)
All right. Y'all ready? Okay. This will be our July 7th, 10:00 AM briefing. Search and rescue operations are ongoing throughout Kerr County. We're using assets from local, state, national first responders, hundreds of trained first responders are working every aspect of this emergency. As of 8:30 this morning we recovered 75 deceased bodies here in Kerr County, including 48 adults and 27 children. Of this 48 adults and 27 children, 15 adults and 9 children are pending identification.
(05:29)
At present, there are 10 campers from Camp Mystic unaccounted for and one counselor. We continue to offer our condolences to those affected. Reuniting the families remain our top priority here on this operation. Please note that Highway 39 and Old Ingram Loop remains closed to the public, other than those who live in that area would not be allowed out there. I will now turn it over to Senator Cruz…
Senator Cruz (05:57):
City manager.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
Oh. Sorry. Sorry, City Manager Dalton Rice.
City Manager Dalton Rice (06:01):
Good morning. Dalton Rice, the city manager for the City of Kerrville. As everybody knows, we are working in conjunction with the city under a unified command response. And again, a lot of devastation. Our hearts go out to the families and the victims. We want to continue to work together as a community. We love the media support on this to be able to communicate that message, communicate family, communicate togetherness, and we really appreciate all the support in helping us be able to do that.
(06:32)
As the Sheriff said, search and rescue operations will continue today from Hunt in North Kerr County all the way to Canyon Lake in Comal County. Now we're only focused on the Kerr County side, but we wanted to talk about that because a linear from Hunt all the way to Comal County and a straight line distance is over 100 kilometers. This is a massive field that is happening, and again, this is unprecedented flood events. So we are still currently in the primary search phase, which is the rapid one. They are running it. We have different segments that are gridded out. Each one of those segments are taking anywhere between an hour to three hours, up to two kilometers for each segment.
(07:14)
So what that means is they're running into a lot of technical challenges with terrain, with water, even potentially with weather in the rising fields. We've talked about this before. Volunteers, stay out of the way because if we start getting weather reports and all the other complications that are out there, we then have to pull off of those search and rescue missions to be able to communicate to those volunteers to get off, to make sure that they don't become victims themselves.
(07:42)
Those operations involve 19 different local and state agencies. In addition to conducting primary and secondary searches, they'll be conducting welfare checks on areas in North Kerr County impacted by power outages. When we say search and rescue operations, that is boat, walking on the ground, dogs, drones, again, keep personal drones out of the air, helicopters. We do have other assets that are continuing to search as well. As of present KPUB, which is the Kerrville Public Utility Board is reporting continued power outages between Hunt and Ingram along the south fork of the Guadalupe River and Hunt in the south fork area. There are approximately 40 downed power lines and significant infrastructure damage.
(08:25)
KPUB has brought in additional utility personnel to help with restoration, but it's not possible at this time when the power is going to be restored. There are some substations along with those power lines that we are still trying to get access to just from debris buildup or them being completely wiped out. So, again, we do not have an estimated timeline when those are going to be fixed.
(08:46)
We continue to have substantial number of requests for volunteers, as I said before, and donation opportunities. We are asking those who want to volunteer to contact the Salvation Army in Kerrville by phone at 830-
City Manager Dalton Rice (09:00):
… 30-465-4797. Or, in person at 855 Hays Street in Kerrville. Monetary donations can be made on the community foundation of the Texas Hill Country's website at www.communityfoundation.net. They have a Kerr County Relief Fund set up on that site. And I will now turn it over to the Mayor, Joe Herring.
Joe Herring (09:31):
Thank you for being here. I need to tell my community and those families who are waiting, this will be a rough week. Primary search continues and we remain hopeful. Every foot, every mile, every bend of the river, our work continues.
(09:56)
You need to know that we have been blessed with help from the community, from the state, and the nation. We have trained experts who are helping in this effort. If you want to volunteer, it is important that you contact Kerrville Salvation Army and register. Dalton gave that number, but I'm going to give it again, 830-465-4797. We need focused and coordinated volunteers, not random people just showing up and doing what they do. We need to work together.
(10:42)
As Dalton said, donations have been flowing in from around the world to the Community Foundation. Again, that website is communityfoundation.net. Please follow the City of Kerrville's Facebook page for updates. They're accurate. We take a lot of time to make sure we send out information that will be helpful, not only to residents, but those who are visiting. I've said this a hundred times and I will say it again. We need your prayers. We need your prayers. Thank you. And now, Senator Ted Cruz.
Ted Cruz (11:27):
Texas is grieving right now. The pain, the shock of what has transpired these last few days has broken the heart of our state. As of yesterday, the confirmed death toll was 82, and those numbers are continuing to go up. The children, the little girls who were lost at Camp Mystic, that's every parent's nightmare, every mom and dad. Last week we were picking up our daughter from camp here in Hunt. Our girls have gone to camp here for a decade.
(12:11)
The Hill Country is an incredible part of Texas, part of the country. The natural beauty here is incredible. The camps that have raised generations of little girls and little boys and instilled character and love and faith are extraordinary institutions. And I'll tell you the pain in our state, and it's every part of the state. You've got Texans from all over the state who were here celebrating the 4th of July. A week ago this was a time of great celebration. You're dropping your little girl off at camp, your little boy off at camp. You're celebrating Independence Day. You know that your child is going to be swimming and canoes and horseback riding and doing archery and making lifetime friends. And then suddenly it turns to tragedy.
(13:06)
Over the last several days, I've spoken to multiple parents, scared out of their mind, "Do you know anything? Where is my daughter?" There's still 10 girls and one counselor from Camp Mystic that are unaccounted for. And the pain and agony of not knowing your child's whereabouts, it's the worst thing imaginable.
(13:34)
But I want to say in the face of all of this, it is simultaneously inspiring. Every time there's a tragedy, every time there's a natural disaster in Texas, Texans come together. Texas is a big state. We got 31 million people and we have hurricanes, we have tornadoes, we have wildfires. Tragedies hit this state. Natural disasters hit this state. And without fail, 100 out of 100 times when that happens, we see Texans coming together, helping each other, engaging in acts of heroism. There have been over 850 high water rescues since this flooding began. 850. You look at extraordinary stories, stories of Eagle Scouts pulling campers out of harm's way. I was just hearing a story of one counselor whose head was right at the water, holding up two mattresses with campers on those mattresses. That kind of courage. That kind of selflessness.
(14:40)
And then there are the first responders, the local first responders. I want to thank every one of the first responders at the local level, at the city level, at the county level, at the state level, at the federal level. In the first few hours of this flood, I was on the phone with Governor Abbott. I was on the phone with Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick. I was on the phone with Nim Kidd, the head of the Texas Department of Emergency Management. And then I called President Trump. I called President Trump. He was having dinner at the time. It was still early in what was transpiring. And I wanted him to know. I said, "Mr. president, everything we're hearing right now, this appears to be bad, really bad. There may be a very significant loss of life unfolding right now in Texas."
(15:26)
And I will tell you, the president said, "Ted, anything Texas needs, the answer is yes. Whatever assets you need, whatever resources you need, yes, let us know and we will provide everything." Within hours, we had helicopters, over a dozen helicopters in the air. National Guard, DPS, game wardens, Coast Guard, doing search and rescue, reaching down. We've all seen the videos of little girls being pulled up, hoisted out of harm's way. Incredible courage and heroism. Search and rescue is the first stage, but the process of coming together and rebuilding is going to take longer. And I will say to all the grieving families, to all of those who've gotten the worst news imaginable, that your little girl, she's gone. I will say for many of us, those are friends and neighbors who've lost children. I got multiple kids who go to school with my girls.
(16:39)
The mayor asks for prayers. And I want to say thank you to the millions of Texans, to the millions of Americans, to the millions of people all over the world right now who are praying, praying for Texas, and praying for those parents. Going through this grief, it is going to take love, it is going to take friends and family, embracing and hugging and holding them while they weep. And it's going to take the church.
(17:10)
With every disaster one of the things we see here in Texas is the church steps up and the church helps and the church feeds and clothes and comforts. This morning, I met with a group of chaplains who've been going through the incredibly difficult process of talking to mom and dad, after mom and dad who just lost the most precious person they ever knew. And those chaplains are just trying to love them and show God's love.
(17:42)
So, I want to say we will come through this. To those in the midst of grief right now that might seem hard to fathom, but Texas will come through this. And I just want to say thank you. I want to say thank you to these gentlemen here who are working. They're not
Ted Cruz (18:00):
… not sleeping. They're working every day. Thank you to the families. Thank you to the Salvation Army. Thank you to everyone who is just reaching out and saying, "How can I help?" We will come through this, and we'll come through this together. Thank you. Now we'll take questions.
Speaker 5 (18:20):
Senator, you talked about how you know kids here, how you've taken your own kids to camp. Was it ever communicated to you that there was a need, that it was a priority, to have a warning system so people had a chance to escape something like this?
Ted Cruz (18:35):
Well, listen, I think any time you're dealing with major rivers, there's a risk of flooding, and there's always been a risk of flooding, particularly on the Guadalupe River.
(18:46)
I will say in the wake of every tragedy, there are things that are predictable. One of the things that's predictable is that you see some people engaging in, I think, partisan games and trying to blame their political opponents for a natural disaster. You see that with the hurricane, with the tornado, with the wildfire, with this flooding, where people immediately say, "Well, the hurricane is Donald Trump's fault." Look, I think most normal Americans know that's ridiculous, and I think this is not a time for partisan finger pointing and attacks.
(19:23)
Now, after we come through search and rescue, after we come through the process of rebuilding, there will naturally be a period of retrospection where you look back and say, "Okay, what exactly transpired? What was the timeline, and what could have been done differently to prevent this loss of life?" That's a natural process. I think it should not happen in a bitter and partisan sense, but it should happen in a reasonable sense of saying, "What lessons can we learn?"
(19:54)
I will give an example. Houston's my hometown. If you live on the Gulf Coast, we get hurricanes. That's part of living on the Gulf Coast is hurricanes hit. I do think Texas as a whole has learned over time how to deal more effectively with hurricanes. So you look here, we know the National Weather Service put out an emergency warning just after 1:00 AM and a second emergency warning just after 4:00 AM. Now, obviously most people at 1:00 AM and 4:00 AM are asleep. So I think we will have a reasonable conversation about A, are there any ways to have earlier detection? Some of that, the limits of a flash flood, they're very difficult because they can arise so quickly. But everyone would agree in hindsight, if we could go back and do it again, we would evacuate particularly those in the most vulnerable areas, the young children in the cabins closest to the water. We would remove them and get them to higher ground if we could go back and do it again.
(20:55)
Obviously everyone would. The people in RVs by the river's edge. We know in disasters like this, RVs and mobile homes are particularly susceptible. Whether a flood or a hurricane or a tornado, they're particularly susceptible to that. So my hope is in time we will learn some lessons to implement to next time, and there will be another flood, there will be another disaster. But next time there's a flood, I hope we have in place processes to remove especially the most vulnerable from harm's way. But I think that's gonna be a process that will take a careful examination of what happened and how can we implement processes better in the future to prevent this same loss of life.
Speaker 6 (21:42):
Senator, there were claims that the National Weather Service sent that first flash flood warning that should have alerted phones at 1:14 in the morning. But we have a federal public database maintained by PBS, PBS WARN, that says the first emergency alert wirelessly here in this area to Kerr County was not until after 9:00 AM. That was more than four hours after the severe flooding had come through this area. Did you know that? Have you seen that? What's your response knowing the state and cuts to NWS in recent months by this administration?
Ted Cruz (22:12):
So I don't know the source for what you're saying. All of the public reporting I've seen is that there were two alerts that went out, one just after 1:00 AM, one after 4:00 AM. I can tell you, I talked about the partisan finger pointing, I think there have been some eager to point at the National Weather Service and say cuts there led to a lack of warning. I think that's contradicted by the facts.
(22:38)
If you look at the facts in particular, number one, that these warnings went out hours before the flood became a true emergency level. But number two, the National Weather Service here, New Braunfels is where they were headquartered, they had additional manpower. In fact, they had three additional people working that night anticipating that it was going to be a very dangerous weather situation.
(23:04)
I also think it's worth noting that the National Weather Service Union, which has been very critical of the DOGE cuts, has publicly said that they don't believe that the reduction in staffing had any impact whatsoever on their ability to warn of this event.
(23:19)
So look, I think it is reasonable over time to engage in a retrospective and say at every level, "What could have been done better?" Because all of us would want to prevent this horrific loss of life. But I think just immediately trying to use it for either side to attack their political opponents, I think that's cynical and not the right approach, particularly at a time when we're dealing with a crisis, and we're dealing with grief.
Speaker 7 (23:47):
But does it make you question whether there should be cuts at the National Weather Service and FEMA? I know you've been supportive of FEMA.
Ted Cruz (23:52):
Look, I am very supportive of FEMA. I'm very supportive of the National Weather Service. They both perform essential roles. I think it is critical in every federal agency, particularly when you're dealing with public safety, that we make sure that critical roles are maintained. That's a longer and broader discussion. But as I said, everything from the public evidence indicates that that was not a contributing factor to what occurred.
Speaker 7 (24:15):
Is it possible to get Dalton in just to talk about that and the National Weather Service alerts because there were escalating forecasts throughout the day from the National Weather Service. What did the emergency managers of the county and other local officials do with that information starting at 1:15 and onward where you had the dire river forecast at 6:30? Were emergency managers doing anything to put any processes in place to warn people on the river?
City Manager Dalton Rice (24:40):
So overall, we were preparing for the July 4th weekend. So we had national AMR on site, basically stood up kind of an incident command post, if you will, to prepare for that event. So most everybody was kind of up looking at weather. We looked at the weather before.
(24:56)
When you looked at the National Weather Service flood map, it spanned all the way from the west side of Texas, with Kerr County kind of being in that upper northeast corner of it. So everybody, including the National Weather Service, was looking at where's the rain gonna hit? We know it's somewhere in here, but with rain, especially when you're dealing with [inaudible 00:25:17], you got to figure out, sometimes you don't know until it falls. So once it starts falling, then you got to figure out, okay, how's the watershed going to do this? How's the science going to work?
(25:26)
When you have that North and South Fork that we had talked about before, it all converged into one. We do know that a lot of the camps were looking at this just as much as everybody was. With the rainfall percentages, even the National Weather Service had looked at, and don't quote me on the numbers, but it was anywhere between one to seven inches. We got significantly over that.
(25:48)
Again, when it goes into very congregated areas and how that watershed shifts into the rivers, that impacts things. So the camps, obviously, we've heard stories where campers were getting up. They were up at 3:30 in the morning. They were trying to move to higher ground. That's the other interesting part of the train, and we've talked to UGRA folks as well. This is the headwaters of the Guadalupe. This is the beginning. This is where everything forms when it comes into the North and South Fork.
(26:20)
So as those things develop, it develops very rapidly, very quickly. This rose very quickly in a very short amount of time. So those campers that were able to do that, it worked. There's been the other question … I'll just give this one out … Evacuation. Well, why didn't we evacuate? Well, evacuation is a delicate balance because if you evacuate too late, you then risk putting buses or cars or vehicles or campers on roads into low-water areas trying to get them out, which then can make it even more challenging because these flash floods happen very quickly as well.
Speaker 7 (26:53):
We saw that in 1987, but was there, [inaudible 00:26:57] earlier, but when it wasn't too late? Was there any discussion
Speaker 8 (27:00):
… about [inaudible 00:27:01]?
City Manager Dalton Rice (27:02):
Sorry, repeat your question.
Speaker 8 (27:03):
Was there any discussion to evacuate or activate any emergency plans before it was too late where it would be very dangerous like that?
City Manager Dalton Rice (27:09):
Well, so again, just like disasters in Texas everywhere, it's very tough to make those calls. What we also don't want to do is cry wolf. We don't want to make sure that we activate it at the right time. It is very difficult, very challenging. Especially with this, we're looking at a hundred kilometers, right? That's a big straight line distance that's not even along the river. These areas take a lot of time to get out to. So even when first responders were on the ground at 3:30 in the morning and we had reports, we had first responders that were getting swept away actually responding to the first areas of rainfall. That's how quick it happened. First responders who have experience, who are swift water qualified, as soon as the rain started falling, were driving to these areas and one of them got swept off the road.
Speaker 9 (27:56):
[inaudible 00:27:57]. One last question everybody, one last question.
Speaker 6 (27:59):
Was there any communication between 1:00 and 4:00 AM from local law enforcement to the camp saying, I know you can't get buses in an hour, but was there anyone telling the camp between 1:00 and 4:00 AM, "You need to get the girls to higher ground," at the very least even if you have to walk up there in the rain that many of them actually ended up doing. Was there any communication from local law enforcement to anyone at that camp between 1:00 and 4:00 AM.
City Manager Dalton Rice (28:21):
That I don't know of of the top of my head. What I do know though is there's 55,000 people in Kirk County. Kirk County is a massive, massive area. From here to those camps is 45 minutes on a good day. And so obviously one of the big challenges that we have, even when you have cell service, a lot of those areas don't even have cell service. Radio communications towers, radio towers within the hill country becomes very challenging.
(28:44)
So there's a lot of areas, especially when weather comes in, where cellular towers are down or you already have bad service. So there's a lot of factors that play in a lot of variables in there on communication. That again, I think as we work through this process, we know everybody has a lot of questions regarding what are the next steps and what's next.
(29:04)
And I think all of these things, these are all great questions and as we continue search and rescue and as we continue to move to the next step, we definitely want to dive in and look at all those things from cell service tower, to radio communications or emergency alerting, any of those things I think we all really need to take a look at and review and we're looking forward to doing that once we can get this search and rescue safely complete.
Speaker 6 (29:25):
In regards to the total number of… Before I say anything else, I just want to say thank you to you, to all the first responders, everyone involved. We've been praying.
City Manager Dalton Rice (29:33):
Thank you.
Speaker 6 (29:34):
The [inaudible 00:29:35] been praying, the media's been praying. Thank you guys for doing that. I've got two questions, one for you. Trying to get an accurate count on the number missing. I know we don't know what we don't know, but do we know a rough idea on total estimates that are still missing overall throughout the county? And then one other follow up, this may be for Senator Cruz, a lot of speculations being made about this being somehow man-involved with the weather modification with some of the rainmaker technology working with farmland. Do you think any of that is going to be any investigations into that or do you communicate anything on that?
City Manager Dalton Rice (30:11):
Let me answer your first question. I am definitely turned that second one over to him. So on the first question with missing persons, so obviously we have the knowns, the can't-miss-the-kids, which is the numbers coming down as the sheriff has stated. And then we have the unknowns, but we don't know what we don't know. We actually have a five hotline line. It fluctuates between three and five, but we're working on it. We get calls 24 hours, seven days a week. We haven't hit the weeks yet, but we're still taking in calls. We are collecting all that information, so we don't have a solid number that we're willing to talk about right now. We do know that it is a lot because we also are getting a lot of fake calls. This is a worldwide discussion and we're dealing with scammers, victims' families are being reached out to saying that they have their kids, "Pay me money."
(30:59)
It's heartbreaking. It's absolutely heartbreaking. We're dealing with mental health issues where people are calling saying they have visions. All of these things we're dealing with on a day-to-day basis and we're having to vet this information and it becomes very taxing on our people. Again, this is an extremely heartbreaking, this is if not the worst, one of the worst disasters in this region in a very, very long time, even beyond 1987. But we're-
Speaker 6 (31:26):
Best estimate like dozens or hundreds or just to give people an idea.
City Manager Dalton Rice (31:29):
A lot.
Speaker 8 (31:29):
At what point do you-
Speaker 6 (31:37):
Just a follow question. Not to get into the weeds on… People are asking lots of questions and where should we start the investigation after?
Ted Cruz (31:43):
To the best of my knowledge, there is zero evidence of anything related to anything like weather notification. And look, the internet can be a strange place. People can come up with all sorts of crazy theories. What I know is a reality is that a whole lot of Texans are grieving right now. I will tell you, I was visiting with one parent who was talking about online being harassed online because their information was public, that they had a little girl who was missing at Mystic.
(32:14)
And look, there are a lot of people who are messed up and my call for everyone, there's a time to have political fights, there's a time to disagree. This is not that time. This is a time just to reach out, support each other, go volunteer at the Salvation Army, give them money, go volunteer at your church. Go… you know what I did when this happened, just go hug your kids because I got to tell you, I hugged my girls with tears in my eyes because every one of us who's a parent, there but for the grace of God, go I.
(32:52)
And nothing will fill the void in these moms and dads hearts, but they'll make it through it. And every one of us, we have an obligation to come through and help them make it through it. And look, Texas will come through it. Let me say Kirk County, the Hill country is incredible. It is beautiful. And these summer camps, camp Mystic is an incredible Texas institution. For a century it has made a difference helping young girls become strong women in Texas and across the country. And so for me at least, I'm praying for these camps. I'm praying for all the campers, everyone implicated, everyone impacted, and I hope we come together and stand as one doing that. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
Good morning folks. If you were not here earlier, I put out some housekeeping notes. I want to repeat that. A couple of important things to note. Temporary flight restriction is still in effect. Flying drones will and they have interfered with search and rescue operations. We're asking everyone to adhere with that direction. Excuse me, can we keep it down or shut the door?
Speaker 10 (34:19):
Can you start from the beginning? Sorry.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
You bet. TFR is still in effect. You can't have the media flying drones. They've interfered with our air operations and it has to stop. It's our intent to set aside an hour each day to make some of our leadership available to you all for one-on-one interviews. This is above-