July 11, 2025 • 7 mins
Jim Ryan talks with Mendte in the Morning about the tragedy in Texas one week after the floods hit.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, it's been one week now since the tragedy in Texas,
since the floodwaters started to rise. The tragedy continues, and
so does the cleanup and the search for victims. Let's
get right to Jim Ryan, who has been covering this
brilliantly since it broke from Texas. Jim, what is the
latest today, hy, Larry.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Yeah, the search goes on. It involves something like two
thousand people from all over the country trained first responders
who have been brought in and are helping with this effort.
One hundred and twenty one people are known to have
died across six counties. Even more than that, one hundred
and sixty six people are missing. That one silver lying
in all of this right now, Larry, is that one
(00:41):
hundred and sixty six missing is lower than it was
yesterday and the death count did not rise. That means
that people who might have been vacationing or in an
RV or something down in the hill country and left
before the flooding came has now checked in with loved ones.
Those people have checked in and let first responders know
that hey, I'm safe. That's good. So we may see
(01:02):
more of that in the coming days, but undoubtedly there
will be more discoveries of bodies out there. This already
has gone down as the deadliest inland flooding events since
nineteen seventy six, when one hundred and forty four people
were killed in Colorado. This is likely to surpass that
at some point.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Larry, Yeah, unfortunately, but what a wonderful phone call to
get saying I'm missing.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
But guess what, I'm alive. I made it out. You know.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Thanks can only imagine.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Yeah, yeah, thanks for worrying about me. But some of
the people that have been found were miles away right
from where the flood waters hit them.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Yeah, ten twelve miles in some cases. It's just remarkable,
I mean, and it tells you the power of this
water as it came crashing through when it reached Kerville,
was about thirty feet high, just a wall of water
pushing through and everything with it. Everything in its path
was being driven along with it, the vehicles, buildings, enormous
(01:58):
trees from This is going to take years. I think
their recovery will be forever, and some places will never recover,
and some people are just going to have to move
away if their homes were completely lost. So all they
can do now is try to figure out a way
in the future, if not, how to mitigate flooding, how
to warn people that flooding is cuming.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Larry, what is that going to entail? It's going to
entail money. I know that, and there's no way. I
know the legislature voted this down once that there's no
way they're going to vote it down. Now, what are
the plans at this point any.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Yes, Well, the legislature actually it was local voters there
in Cerville who voted it down who said they didn't
want a siren system because it's too noisy, it's too expensive,
et cetera. But in nearby Comfort, little town whose name
now is appropriately Comfort in Kendall County, twenty two hundred
people live in that small community, they do have sirens there.
(02:55):
Those subs went off a week ago when the storm
was coming, when the waters were rising up in the
Glade Alpe River. Every person in that town made it
out alive, whereas in Kerrville you had dozens of people
who died. So I think this physical, old school siren
system may be the way to go, and that's what
the legislature will be looking at later this month.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
We were talking yesterday and Matt Gutman asked such a
great question about why there wasn't a warning. He even
asked it was somebody in the Sheriff's department of sleep
at the wheel at that point. Do we know what
happened there?
Speaker 2 (03:30):
That's a great question. I don't think we have determined
that yet. Why the one system that is in place,
this code red system which sends alerts out to cell phones,
what the delay was? Why there was an hour at
least until that was sent out. The phone call that
was made by a firefighter in the town of Hunt
to the Kerr County Sheriff's Department saying, hey, we need
(03:51):
to activate this system. The water's rising up. She said, yeah,
that's great, but I got to talk to my supervisors.
So those calls were made. Eventually there was permission or
approval given, but it was late. It was an hour later.
So the one you know, flimsy if you will, system,
the one unreliable system, the text system to get messages
out in a place where cel sever coverage is pretty
(04:13):
low and spotty wasn't used anyway, So a lot of
breakdowns here.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Yeah, and just to back up for a second, when
I was talking about when I said the legislature didn't
devoted it down. It was the Texas Senate who wouldn't
approve money for a system. And so I don't know
what happened locally. It sounds like mistakes were made up
and down the chain. But that's what I was referring
to when I was talking about the Senate. But also
(04:40):
there have been stories that we all cling to, these
stories of miracles, these stories of survival, and we need them,
We need them in a tragedy to hear them. What
are some of the ones that you have heard?
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Well, yeah, the amazing stories of people who were found
alive miles away from where they were swept into the
river and are going to be okay. But I think
more than that are these stories of people who are
coming in from all around the region to try to
help out with this, to try to help bring some
comfort and answers and relief to those people. I was
just looking this morning at a fire at a photograph
(05:15):
of a boat, an inflatable boat, with some rescue workers
on board in their gear and they're motoring pasted a
destroyed camp site that was washed away by the water.
And I happened to notice the name on the boat.
It said you Value Fire Department. You Valid, of course,
is the community that was struck by this school shooting
(05:38):
in twenty twenty two. So yeah, folks are coming from
Florida first, or smartitors from California, but also from places
that have felt their own pain within the last couple
of years.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Yeah, just amazing. So what is it just going to
be clean up now? I mean, is that what's going
to be happening now for months and months and months
and months as they look for survivors.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Yeah, well, in the short term, it's a careful cleanup,
you know, because of the likelihood of finding more victims
out there. Local officials are using heavy equipment. They've got
backos in there to try to do some digging to
find people and find areas that are likely to contain victims.
And they've asked local people, people home owners who've suffered
(06:20):
damage to her property owners to hold off on their
own excavations and recovery efforts so that this meticulous search
for victims can go on. That's the short term. Long term,
it's just a matter of trying to get something back
like what the whole country looked like.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
Before, and I agree with you.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
I think some of these areas will never come back,
and even the ones that do come back may may
never be the same Camp Mystic.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
Are there plans to rebuild there?
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Have not heard. I wouldn't doubt it. I mean, the
place has been around forever and ever. Talked to a
woman the other day. She was out on the Guadalupean
and she told me that she was a camp at
Camp Mistick in nineteen fifty seven, and that's how long
this place has been going. And by the way, she said,
that year we had a flood two wasn't anything like
(07:08):
we're looking at right now. But now the water does
occasionally rise up there in the hill country.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Well, thank you so much, Jim. Congratulations. You did a
great job covering this week. I know it's a difficult story,
but you've been great to talk to. I appreciate it.
Jim Ryan, ABC News corresponded in Dallas.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
Nobody better
Well, it's been one week now since the tragedy in Texas,
since the floodwaters started to rise. The tragedy continues, and
so does the cleanup and the search for victims. Let's
get right to Jim Ryan, who has been covering this
brilliantly since it broke from Texas. Jim, what is the
latest today, hy, Larry.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Yeah, the search goes on. It involves something like two
thousand people from all over the country trained first responders
who have been brought in and are helping with this effort.
One hundred and twenty one people are known to have
died across six counties. Even more than that, one hundred
and sixty six people are missing. That one silver lying
in all of this right now, Larry, is that one
(00:41):
hundred and sixty six missing is lower than it was
yesterday and the death count did not rise. That means
that people who might have been vacationing or in an
RV or something down in the hill country and left
before the flooding came has now checked in with loved ones.
Those people have checked in and let first responders know
that hey, I'm safe. That's good. So we may see
(01:02):
more of that in the coming days, but undoubtedly there
will be more discoveries of bodies out there. This already
has gone down as the deadliest inland flooding events since
nineteen seventy six, when one hundred and forty four people
were killed in Colorado. This is likely to surpass that
at some point.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Larry, Yeah, unfortunately, but what a wonderful phone call to
get saying I'm missing.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
But guess what, I'm alive. I made it out. You know.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Thanks can only imagine.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Yeah, yeah, thanks for worrying about me. But some of
the people that have been found were miles away right
from where the flood waters hit them.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Yeah, ten twelve miles in some cases. It's just remarkable,
I mean, and it tells you the power of this
water as it came crashing through when it reached Kerville,
was about thirty feet high, just a wall of water
pushing through and everything with it. Everything in its path
was being driven along with it, the vehicles, buildings, enormous
(01:58):
trees from This is going to take years. I think
their recovery will be forever, and some places will never recover,
and some people are just going to have to move
away if their homes were completely lost. So all they
can do now is try to figure out a way
in the future, if not, how to mitigate flooding, how
to warn people that flooding is cuming.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Larry, what is that going to entail? It's going to
entail money. I know that, and there's no way. I
know the legislature voted this down once that there's no
way they're going to vote it down. Now, what are
the plans at this point any.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Yes, Well, the legislature actually it was local voters there
in Cerville who voted it down who said they didn't
want a siren system because it's too noisy, it's too expensive,
et cetera. But in nearby Comfort, little town whose name
now is appropriately Comfort in Kendall County, twenty two hundred
people live in that small community, they do have sirens there.
(02:55):
Those subs went off a week ago when the storm
was coming, when the waters were rising up in the
Glade Alpe River. Every person in that town made it
out alive, whereas in Kerrville you had dozens of people
who died. So I think this physical, old school siren
system may be the way to go, and that's what
the legislature will be looking at later this month.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
We were talking yesterday and Matt Gutman asked such a
great question about why there wasn't a warning. He even
asked it was somebody in the Sheriff's department of sleep
at the wheel at that point. Do we know what
happened there?
Speaker 2 (03:30):
That's a great question. I don't think we have determined
that yet. Why the one system that is in place,
this code red system which sends alerts out to cell phones,
what the delay was? Why there was an hour at
least until that was sent out. The phone call that
was made by a firefighter in the town of Hunt
to the Kerr County Sheriff's Department saying, hey, we need
(03:51):
to activate this system. The water's rising up. She said, yeah,
that's great, but I got to talk to my supervisors.
So those calls were made. Eventually there was permission or
approval given, but it was late. It was an hour later.
So the one you know, flimsy if you will, system,
the one unreliable system, the text system to get messages
out in a place where cel sever coverage is pretty
(04:13):
low and spotty wasn't used anyway, So a lot of
breakdowns here.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Yeah, and just to back up for a second, when
I was talking about when I said the legislature didn't
devoted it down. It was the Texas Senate who wouldn't
approve money for a system. And so I don't know
what happened locally. It sounds like mistakes were made up
and down the chain. But that's what I was referring
to when I was talking about the Senate. But also
(04:40):
there have been stories that we all cling to, these
stories of miracles, these stories of survival, and we need them,
We need them in a tragedy to hear them. What
are some of the ones that you have heard?
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Well, yeah, the amazing stories of people who were found
alive miles away from where they were swept into the
river and are going to be okay. But I think
more than that are these stories of people who are
coming in from all around the region to try to
help out with this, to try to help bring some
comfort and answers and relief to those people. I was
just looking this morning at a fire at a photograph
(05:15):
of a boat, an inflatable boat, with some rescue workers
on board in their gear and they're motoring pasted a
destroyed camp site that was washed away by the water.
And I happened to notice the name on the boat.
It said you Value Fire Department. You Valid, of course,
is the community that was struck by this school shooting
(05:38):
in twenty twenty two. So yeah, folks are coming from
Florida first, or smartitors from California, but also from places
that have felt their own pain within the last couple
of years.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Yeah, just amazing. So what is it just going to
be clean up now? I mean, is that what's going
to be happening now for months and months and months
and months as they look for survivors.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Yeah, well, in the short term, it's a careful cleanup,
you know, because of the likelihood of finding more victims
out there. Local officials are using heavy equipment. They've got
backos in there to try to do some digging to
find people and find areas that are likely to contain victims.
And they've asked local people, people home owners who've suffered
(06:20):
damage to her property owners to hold off on their
own excavations and recovery efforts so that this meticulous search
for victims can go on. That's the short term. Long term,
it's just a matter of trying to get something back
like what the whole country looked like.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
Before, and I agree with you.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
I think some of these areas will never come back,
and even the ones that do come back may may
never be the same Camp Mystic.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
Are there plans to rebuild there?
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Have not heard. I wouldn't doubt it. I mean, the
place has been around forever and ever. Talked to a
woman the other day. She was out on the Guadalupean
and she told me that she was a camp at
Camp Mistick in nineteen fifty seven, and that's how long
this place has been going. And by the way, she said,
that year we had a flood two wasn't anything like
(07:08):
we're looking at right now. But now the water does
occasionally rise up there in the hill country.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Well, thank you so much, Jim. Congratulations. You did a
great job covering this week. I know it's a difficult story,
but you've been great to talk to. I appreciate it.
Jim Ryan, ABC News corresponded in Dallas.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
Nobody better
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