‘I Think We’re Gonna Stay’: Texans Hang On in Tragedy-Stricken Hill Country

Search and rescue teams were still combing the mangled banks of the Guadalupe River Tuesday at Patti and Kent Richardson s mildewing home in Center Point Vultures and helicopters circled overhead looking for the same thing the Richardsons had so in recent months just narrowly avoided death As they were making their morning coffee early on July Kent received a text from his brother asking if they had flooded Opening his front door to take a look he directly heard the roar of the river just across Center Point River Road He called his brother who noted he d seen a weather overview showing images of people on the roofs of flooded homes in Ingram another Kerr County town only six miles away The couple crossed the road toward the berm on the other side to check things out They d never before seen the river that high Within minutes it flowed onto the road By the time they had a chance to put on proper pants and shoes water was already filling the low-lying areas of their yard Kent waded through the floodwaters toward the shed where he kept a ladder By the time he set it up to reach the outside entrance of the attic floodwaters were rushing onto the property Patti went up first Kent grabbed the dog and followed They made it just in time to watch the waters rise more than six feet surrounding their home They were marooned The Richardsons already knew a lot about flood dangers too much They moved to this riverfront property from Port Aransas about five years ago to escape hurricanes as Kent put it They had thrice evacuated their Port Aransas home including during Hurricane Harvey in after receiving clear warnings and evacuation orders This time they say the communication with Kent s brother was their first and only warning Overnight they d never heard anything about flood watches or warnings via cell phone Kent Richardson determined out the flood was coming from his brother Candice Bernd In particular procedures they felt lucky Their son s family normally lives with them in an RV on the property but had traveled out of town for the Fourth of July holiday It was this blessing that was foremost on their minds as they watched the floodwaters rise We just kind of sat there and I announced Kent I m so glad my kids aren t here my grandkids aren t here Patti noted That blessing was put into even sharper relief as the flood receded in the following days Traveling back and forth from a relative s house in nearby Comfort the couple watched as rescue crews began searching the banks outside their house It wasn t long before a first responder narrated Kent that at least six bodies had been located just across the river Those flood casualties are part of a death toll that reached as of Wednesday with even more than that still missing as a consequence of the July Hill Country flash flooding In Kerr County alone the toll includes dozens of children a great number of from the Christian summer retreat Camp Mystic The Richardsons are among the tens of thousands of Kerr County residents at the epicenter of flash flood alley in the Texas Hill Country who were caught off-guard in the early hours of the morning as the floodwaters rose during torrential rains as much as inches fell in chosen places in only hours While the National Weather Amenity NWS issued its first flash flood warning for the county at am on July it remains unclear how countless residents genuinely received that notice via cell phone or whether local county officers saw it in time to meaningfully mobilize The Texas Newsroom has broadcasted that first responders requested Kerr County s own mass-emergency alert system be triggered early on the morning of July seemingly contradicting an earlier declaration given by Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly stating that the area had no alert system Local dispatchers reportedly delayed volunteer firefighters a m request for a CodeRED alert saying they required preauthorization County executives have continued to deflect questions at press conferences about what actions they took after NWS warnings came out when countless were asleep saying they remain focused on search and rescue operations The Richardsons don t know why they didn t receive any cell phone alert from the NWS But they communicated the Texas Observer they would have absolutely benefitted from outdoor sirens something that had been considered but not implemented by the county The county had also requested state help paying for an upgraded warning system but been denied as shared by the Houston Chronicle The conditions change-fueled torrential downpour that caused the Guadalupe to rise more than feet in three hours in what is already the state s deadliest flood since has now put the county s lack of sirens into the spotlight Texas lawmakers had a chance just earlier this year to establish a statewide council to lay out a new calamity response plan including outdoor sirens but the measure failed The Salvation Army in Kerrville on July Candice Bernd The Richardsons want to see the same kind of studies and outlay in Texas Hill Country communities that the state s coastline receives Living on the coast look at Houston and look at Louisiana we have hurricanes People need to be evacuated And here s the same way these flash floods this is not new It s happened several times Patti advised the Observer The couple has received an outpouring of patronage from everyday Texans in the Hill Country Area residents including those directly impacted have rapidly organized mutual aid networks that have not only kept the Richardsons supplied with hot meals water and other essential items but are also helping them clean up and recover We had so various people here the last day It was like too a great number of people all trucks just lined up and people just working working working It was amazing Patti explained At the Salvation Army office in Kerrville dozens of contributors worked to deliver supplies in a steady rotation in and out of the building Tuesday while others organized kits for delivery A Salvation Army staffer speaking on background because she wasn t authorized to give an interview stated the Observer that more than people had signed in to volunteer since July Multiple more she says have completely shown up without registering It was a similar scene at Kerrville s Cross Kingdom Church where the exhausted pastor Justin Carpenter advised the Observer that the city approved the church to become a distribution center on the afternoon of July Almost every church in the area he says has become a distribution hub The Richardsons say part of their property is in the designated floodplain but their home was elevated enough to be considered outside it According to estimates from a statewide floodplain project still under review by the Texas Water Maturation Board million Texas homes are on flood-prone land A Houston Chronicle analysis of federal flood maps revealed that selected buildings at Camp Mystic and other Kerr County camps where countless of the dead were staying are likewise situated on lands administrators consider extremely hazardous Those state flood maps which were required to be updated under a law passed post-Hurricane Harvey remain in draft form and have not all been published Others add that in preponderance Texas counties the older Federal Crisis Management Agency FEMA flood maps are vastly underestimating risks to Texans by failing to account for increased rainfall patterns as a end of rising global temperatures With context change which we don t talk about in Texas the greater part of our floodplain maps are obsolete They re out of date The rainfall amounts are not nearly large enough to predict the type of floods we re going to have So whatever Texans think it is it s worse than they think revealed Jim Blackburn a Rice University professor specializing in environmental law I am so tired of hearing people talk about Oh it s a -year event We re not analyzing it correctly The Hill Country flooding is already among the deadliest floods in Texas history Candice Bernd The state typically treats floodplain maps as environmental red tape instead of as pivotal planning documents that need to be followed Blackburn commented allowing for continued overdevelopment in the state s majority climate-sensitive areas Overdevelopment of the Guadalupe River watershed is something Patti stated the Observer she s also worried about The Richardsons house is still one of the only residential properties along Center Point River Road but she stated there s been a lot of construction in the area since they moved in You have a river that saturates the land and then you have people start building concrete concrete concrete concrete Central Texas already has densely packed soils that are a big part of why the area is dubbed flash flood alley The region s hills and porous karst limestone formations act like a sieve for rainfall channeling runoff into the area s creeks and rivers more rapidly than occurs in other parts of the state Continued enhancement is turning that sieve into a perfect funnel But a project that Texas A M had been running to help rural counties gather more flood evidence and try to predict flooding ran out of money a related effort by Rice University has only enough funding to help two counties To make matters worse President Donald Trump now hopes to axe the federal agency responsible for flood mapping and for federal flood relief programs saying he intends to phase out FEMA wholly after hurricane season ends in November That would put the responsibility for mapping back onto the state something Blackburn mentioned he thinks the state doesn t have adequate guidance to do alone Other federal agencies crucial to mapping and prediction of future flooding are also under the knife The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration and the National Weather Organization have taken substantial hits from the Trump administration s so-called Department of Ruling body Efficiency cuts Advertisement Still it s unclear whether more accurate maps could have done much to prevent the tragedy at Camp Mystic and elsewhere along the banks of the Guadalupe The camp was well outside of Kerrville s city limits and county leaders lack the jurisdiction to implement zoning rules to limit or bar improvement in the -year flood plain Older structures are typically grandfathered in from federal flood rules enacted in the s that normally would bar expansion inside the more hazardous river floodways though those rules may prevent them from being rebuilt Blackburn mentioned The housing affordability situation also impacts the issue Homes in the floodplains are rapidly becoming a more viable option not only for those flocking to the state from more expensive parts of the country but among the state s own growing population The Hill Country has grown in population by more than percent since Even if it s ultimately impossible to keep people out of the state s greater part dangerous flood zones accurate setting input remains crucial to informing Texans of the true risks of living there as well as to warning them of imminent threats The Richardsons commented they d rather rebuild here than pick up and leave the life they d made altogether I think we re gonna stay here At the coast in Port Aransas we reliably had a to-go bag We had a plan We had an evacuation passage something we knew to do And we inevitably evacuated Patti says After last weekend she reported the couple plans to start following the same protocol here We are going to have a to-go bag you know if it even rains a little bit we re going The post I Think We re Gonna Stay Texans Hang On in Tragedy-Stricken Hill Country appeared first on The Texas Observer