In the first hour as authorities responded to the flash floods that swept Texas Hill Country killing at least 119, police rescued over 200 people and evacuated over 100 homes, Kerrville Police Sgt. Jonathan Lamb said as he recalled the morning of July 4.
“I don’t know how many lives our KPD team saved in an hour in Kerrville, but I know that this tragedy, as horrific as it is, could have been so much worse,” Lamb said.
The sergeant explained how a local highway crisscrosses the Guadalupe River and when the area flooded, it created islands in the low lying areas, trapping people in their homes and vehicles. One of those trapped people was a patrol sergeant leaving his home in Hunt, Texas, on his way to work in Kerrville. The flooding cut him off and he became stuck in Hunt, where he saw dozens of people trapped on roofs in the swift moving water, according to Lamb. The patrol sergeant, a Kerrville detective and some other first responders “provided care to that Hunt community,” Lamb said. At points they waded into the water to rescue people, got people off of roofs, provided first aid and cleared debris from the roads for emergency crews until other emergency workers could make their way into the area.
In another situation, a lone Kerrville police officer realized a trailer park was quickly flooding and drove through the streets with his siren blaring, calling over his PA system to wake people up and tell them to evacuate, Lamb recounted.
“Then two other officers joined through first thigh deep, then waist, then chest deep water as they went from RVs and trailers and rescued people, carrying them safety through the water,” Lamb said.
In another part of the city, two people were trapped in flood water, clinging to a tree, when three officers responded by wrapping a 100 foot garden hose around an officer’s waist to go into the water and rescue them, according to Lamb.
“That doesn’t even come close to explaining the actions that took place, door to door, waking people up, convincing them that, yes, the floodwaters are coming and you need to leave now,” Lamb said. “They rescued people out of vehicles. They rescued people out of homes that were already flooding, pulling them out of windows.”
Lamb described his officers dedication as community, “Texans helping Texans.”