Questions have emerged over whether there was sufficient warning ahead of flooding in Central Texas that has killed over 100 people, with many focusing on a lack of an alert system in hard-hit Kerry County.
Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly, a top local government official, said in the wake of the flooding that the area does “not have a warning system.” When pressed about emergency alerts at news conferences, several officials refused to answer directly and instead said they were focused on finding the victims.
But John David Trolinger, Kerr County’s former IT director, tells CBS News he helped install CodeRED — a third-party alert system that costs the county about $25,000 a year — sometime around 2009, and provided recordings in which first responders can be heard asking the system be activated in the early morning hours of July 4.
When he woke up on Friday around 1 a.m., Tolinger said he immediately tuned into emergency radio transmissions. The nearby Guadalupe River was rising fast, and people were in danger, he said. By 3:26 a.m., firefighters warned the dispatcher that certain areas had become impassable.
“That’s an emergency,” Trolinger told CBS News.
The CodeRED system allows prerecorded voice messages and text messages to be sent to phones registered to receive the alerts.
Trolinger recorded the moment volunteer firefighters requested a CodeRED alert be sent. It came as early as 4:22 a.m., but dispatchers delayed because they needed special authorization.
“Is there any way we can send a code red out to our Hunt residents asking them to find higher ground or stay home?” one firefighter is heard saying in recordings Trolinger gave CBS News.
“Stand by, we have to get that approved with our supervisor,” the dispatcher responds.
The river continued to rise, and Trolinger’s recordings show emergency responders calling in various emergencies, such as cars and RVs with people still inside being swept away.
By 5:11 a.m., as first responders were carrying out rescue operations in the flood waters, the CodeRED alert still hadn’t been sent.
“I didn’t know who was in dispatch,” Trolinger said, recalling the morning of July Fourth. “It’s been an hour. Someone should have been standing — someone should have gotten up and been there to say, ‘OK, send the code red.'”
Trolinger has been retired for six years, and told CBS News he doesn’t know who is responsible for approving the emergency alerts anymore. But when he was working, he said it was the sheriff’s responsibility. The sheriff’s office did not respond to CBS News’ request for comment.
Trolinger told CBS News he even tried calling the dispatchers himself, but said the phone lines were jammed and he figured it might make things worse.
“I thought, ‘Man, someone could die because I’m there arguing with a dispatcher that doesn’t know who I am or remember my name,'” he said. “And there was no way I was gonna interrupt their process because it’s, you know, it’s five o’clock, someone’s gotta be in dispatch besides just the night, the overnight people.”
Although there were no alerts sent by local government officials in Kerr County or neighboring Bandera County, CBS News analysis shows there were 22 warnings sent by the National Weather Service for Kerr County and the Kerrville area.
Among those was a 4:03 a.m. alert sent to Bandera and Kerr counties that said, in part, “This is a PARTICULARLY DANGEROUS SITUATION. SEEK HIGHER GROUND NOW!” and “Move to higher ground now! This is an extremely dangerous and life-threatening situation. Do not attempt to travel unless you are fleeing an area subject to flooding or under an evacuation order.”
But many people in the area say they never received any warnings. Among them, the Roberson family, who told CBS News they’re lucky to be alive after flood waters forced them out of their home in the middle of the night.
The family became separated, and Phil Roberson said he rode out the storm on the roof of their house. “It’s just cars floating at the house, and there’s cars bouncing off the house, and I had no idea where they were,” he said.
Jack Roberson, 15, and his mother, Lindsay Roberson, tried to drive away, but the water rose too fast, and he was forced to grab onto a tree to keep from being swept away.
An 18-minute recording shows Jack Roberson’s legs underwater as trees and other debris engulfed him.
But the family said they don’t plan on moving.
“We probably will run a few drills and talk about where we’re going. Getting separated was awful.” Phil Roberson said.
