(The Center Square) – There are 87 confirmed deaths in Kerr County as of Tuesday morning, Sheriff Larry Leitha said at a news conference, where he and others were grilled about the county’s failure to issue an evacuation order.
As of 8 a.m., “87 deceased have been recovered in Kern County, including 56 adults and 30 children. Identification is pending for 19 adults and 7 children, with one additional person still unidentified,” the sheriff said.
Five campers and one counselor from Camp Mystic remain unaccounted for, he added.
“This is a tragic time for us, we’re so grateful and thankful for all the resources that have been provided to us to do this job. I can assure you we will not stop until this mission is completed,” he said.
There are more than 100 emergency personnel on the ground working to reunite families, the sheriff said. A large-scale search and rescue effort, including local, state and federal authorities, is ongoing.
The sheriff again asked private boat owners to stay off the Guadalupe River to allow search and rescue teams to operate without any interference. On Monday, he and other city officials asked people to stay off the river and to ground their drones because they were interfering with search and rescue efforts, The Center Square reported.
Lt. Col. Ben Baker with Texas Game Wardens said 300 game wardens have been involved in recovery efforts since July 4. They’ve searched 26 river miles, made 440 rescues and recovered 30 dead bodies.
The search is extremely treacherous and time consuming, he said, adding, “It’s very tragic when you see loss of life, but when you see a child, it’s extremely tragic.”
The press conference took a turn when the sheriff and Baker couldn’t or wouldn’t answer questions about the county’s failure to issue a warning or evacuation notice ahead of the storm.
Reporters asked the sheriff for a specific timeline of emergency response after state warnings were issued on Wednesday and Thursday and a National Weather Service flash flood warning was issued at 1:14 am on Friday.
He said he was first notified between 4 and 5 a.m. Friday and his office was in the process of putting together a timeline. “That’s going to take a little bit of time,” he said. “But that is not my priority.” His priority is three-fold, he said, locating people, identifying them and notifying their next of kin.
Reporters pushed back saying community members are asking the question because survivors say they weren’t notified ahead of the storm and no evacuation notice was given. There would likely not be a large search and rescue mission and not as many people would have died had they been notified ahead of time, critics argue. Survivors consistently said they were given no warning, The Center Square reported.
Despite state and federal warnings, the county, different city officials, and Camp Mystic didn’t implement an emergency warning system or evacuation orders enabling people enough time to get to higher ground or leave the area to avoid drowning.
“What happened, when did it happen, was the emergency manager awake at the time, did they push the button to issue an emergency alert?” one reporter asked.
“Sir, it’s not that easy,” the sheriff replied, saying, “I can’t tell you at this time.”
When asked who runs the emergency operations in the county, the sheriff said they have an emergency dispatch. But when it comes to monitoring the weather, who was in charge and didn’t issue an evacuation order, reporters asked, a city manager, county manager, the judge, none of whom were at the press conference, officials wouldn’t answer the questions.
“You should be able to answer who was in charge of the emergency operations center at the time” the national emergency warning went out, a reporter told Leitha and Baker.
Baker shut down the questions and the press conference saying their focus was on search and recovery and ignored the reporters who continued to ask questions.
The sheriff also said it was impossible to know how many were missing and could only confirm the number of dead bodies authorities had found.
