Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Seven to twenty one are time here in Houston's forty
news News Radio seven forty k TRH. We are joined
by Texas State Representative West Verdell. As they said, his
office for his district is in Curveville. I can't even
imagine what life is like in Curveville right now. Representative
Verdell fell us in a little bit on what you've seen.
I'm sure you have toured around the community to see
(00:23):
the aftermath of this funding. Have you ever seen anything
like this?
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Hey, Jimmy, you know, I've seen some flash floods, but
I've never seen it like this.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Just giving you an idea right now.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
I'm standing and everybody's doing shift change right now and
search and rescue guys. There's probably I'm betting two hundred
guys here you know that are changing over, getting ready
to go back out again to look more today. But
it is hard to imagine until you see it. I
had a guy with me yesterday, very well known, and
I took him out to the river and he was
(00:53):
shocked at what he saw. I mean, He's seen a
lot of things in his life and he was shocked
at how bad this was.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Yeah, you begin to account how many vehicles. At one
point time I saw a video of cars floating down
the Guadalupe and they just looked like it was one
vehicle after another. There's probably hundreds of cars that ended
up in that river, and in some cases we're hearing
that not just not just vehicles, but people were carried
by that reverie. Some of the ones that were rescued
(01:21):
twenty miles away from where they went into the river. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Yeah, that's uh, you know, that's actually not real uncommon
in flash floods like this for people to be carried
that far. We've seen somebody had ridden a door one time,
I think about twenty miles whenever Lando River flooded in junction.
And it's I mean, it's amazing the strength people can
find to hang on and how long they could stain
a tree if if they managed to grab a tree
(01:44):
or something like that. So we're really grateful that there
were a lot of people that were able.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
To be rescued.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Unfortunately, there are people that did not make it, and
the search and rescue teams have been working day and night.
A lot of people out there really really working hard
to try to find everybody they can.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Well, we know the Daity two have died so far.
Do you have any idea of how many are still missing?
How many people are they still looking for? No, that's
you know, I'm sure that there is a number. But
one of the problems we had is it was Fourth
of July weekend.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
They were going to have a lot of Fourth of
July festivities here, so a lot of people came from
out of town and we're camping on the river and
it's possible that there are people that it's not even
known that they're missing yet.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Yeah. Yeah, So do you have a feel yet for
when this becomes I know it's still considered a search
and rescue mission at this point, but we're in the
day four now. Do you have any sort of feeling
for when this becomes just a recovery effort at this point?
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Yeah? I think the reality is is we're probably at
that point. We're hoping that we find people alive. I mean,
you know, I'm just going to keep holding hope that
we find somebody that's made it through this. But the
reality is, as we're shifting into a recovery recovery mode
right now, and then the other thing that they're also
now shifted over towards looking at infrastructure and trying to
(03:04):
figure out where the damage is throughout the river. It's
about thirty miles of river that comes through here, and
and I've been out there several times. And there's a
real famous place a lot of people listen and probably know.
It's called the Hunt Store. And water was ten feet
above the roof of that. I mean, it's just it's
wiped entire houses away. It's pretty hard to imagine. Yeah,
(03:27):
we're kind of having really gotten in that mode yet,
have we. It's awfully early here, But do we have
any sort of a feel for a price tying for
this disaster? How many millions or how many billions of
dollars it'll take in order to get things right again?
You know, I'm just estimating, but I'm betting it's going
to be in the billion range. That's the number of
houses that are gone. And fences. That's another thing, is
(03:49):
a lot of fences have been wiped out to you know,
livestock getting out and everything else. And so county commissioners
are doing a great job trying to assess throughout the county.
I was up there with the county commissioner yesterday from
the precinct that got hit really hard in Ingraman hunt,
and you know, he's grown up. There's he just they
couldn't believe all the places that he used to know
(04:11):
were there and they weren't there anymore.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
You know, there's been a lot of chrisis from past
administrations as far as the response rate for these types
of disasters. I got the impression that that the Trump
administration has kind of turned that around. The President was
informed of this right away. Christy Nome came to town
right away. I'm sure you're seeing federal assets at work
in that community right now. Yeah, we're starting to see
(04:35):
them here.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
I want to you know, I want to complement state
the state agencies how great they've done, Text Parks and Wildlife, DPS,
several others te them which was extremely critical in this
as text Department of Emergency Management.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
You know, I rushed over here as soon.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
As soon as we found out what was going on.
And when I got here, the chief of TETAM was
already here on the ground and very quickly he figured
out what building to base everybody out of, how do
we get all the agents together, and the amount of coordination.
I think Texans have a lot to be proud of
how well their government was able to get here quickly
and respond to this.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
All right, Wes, thanks for joining us. Good to hear
from you, sir, Glad you're well. Thank you. That is
State Representative West ver Dell. And by the way, again,
if you'd like to make a donation that will go
directly to helping the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill
Country the Kerr County Flood Relief Fund, go to Communityfoundation
dot net. We have a link actually at KTRH dot com.
We'll make it a whole lot easier. Just go to
(05:32):
ktrh dot com and click on that link and they'll
take you there and you can make a donation there.
Seven to twenty one are time here in Houston's forty
news News Radio seven forty k TRH. We are joined
by Texas State Representative West Verdell. As they said, his
office for his district is in Curveville. I can't even
imagine what life is like in Curveville right now. Representative
Verdell fell us in a little bit on what you've seen.
I'm sure you have toured around the community to see
(00:23):
the aftermath of this funding. Have you ever seen anything
like this?
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Hey, Jimmy, you know, I've seen some flash floods, but
I've never seen it like this.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Just giving you an idea right now.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
I'm standing and everybody's doing shift change right now and
search and rescue guys. There's probably I'm betting two hundred
guys here you know that are changing over, getting ready
to go back out again to look more today. But
it is hard to imagine until you see it. I
had a guy with me yesterday, very well known, and
I took him out to the river and he was
(00:53):
shocked at what he saw. I mean, He's seen a
lot of things in his life and he was shocked
at how bad this was.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Yeah, you begin to account how many vehicles. At one
point time I saw a video of cars floating down
the Guadalupe and they just looked like it was one
vehicle after another. There's probably hundreds of cars that ended
up in that river, and in some cases we're hearing
that not just not just vehicles, but people were carried
by that reverie. Some of the ones that were rescued
(01:21):
twenty miles away from where they went into the river. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Yeah, that's uh, you know, that's actually not real uncommon
in flash floods like this for people to be carried
that far. We've seen somebody had ridden a door one time,
I think about twenty miles whenever Lando River flooded in junction.
And it's I mean, it's amazing the strength people can
find to hang on and how long they could stain
a tree if if they managed to grab a tree
(01:44):
or something like that. So we're really grateful that there
were a lot of people that were able.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
To be rescued.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Unfortunately, there are people that did not make it, and
the search and rescue teams have been working day and night.
A lot of people out there really really working hard
to try to find everybody they can.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Well, we know the Daity two have died so far.
Do you have any idea of how many are still missing?
How many people are they still looking for? No, that's
you know, I'm sure that there is a number. But
one of the problems we had is it was Fourth
of July weekend.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
They were going to have a lot of Fourth of
July festivities here, so a lot of people came from
out of town and we're camping on the river and
it's possible that there are people that it's not even
known that they're missing yet.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Yeah. Yeah, So do you have a feel yet for
when this becomes I know it's still considered a search
and rescue mission at this point, but we're in the
day four now. Do you have any sort of feeling
for when this becomes just a recovery effort at this point?
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Yeah? I think the reality is is we're probably at
that point. We're hoping that we find people alive. I mean,
you know, I'm just going to keep holding hope that
we find somebody that's made it through this. But the
reality is, as we're shifting into a recovery recovery mode
right now, and then the other thing that they're also
now shifted over towards looking at infrastructure and trying to
(03:04):
figure out where the damage is throughout the river. It's
about thirty miles of river that comes through here, and
and I've been out there several times. And there's a
real famous place a lot of people listen and probably know.
It's called the Hunt Store. And water was ten feet
above the roof of that. I mean, it's just it's
wiped entire houses away. It's pretty hard to imagine. Yeah,
(03:27):
we're kind of having really gotten in that mode yet,
have we. It's awfully early here, But do we have
any sort of a feel for a price tying for
this disaster? How many millions or how many billions of
dollars it'll take in order to get things right again?
You know, I'm just estimating, but I'm betting it's going
to be in the billion range. That's the number of
houses that are gone. And fences. That's another thing, is
(03:49):
a lot of fences have been wiped out to you know,
livestock getting out and everything else. And so county commissioners
are doing a great job trying to assess throughout the county.
I was up there with the county commissioner yesterday from
the precinct that got hit really hard in Ingraman hunt,
and you know, he's grown up. There's he just they
couldn't believe all the places that he used to know
(04:11):
were there and they weren't there anymore.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
You know, there's been a lot of chrisis from past
administrations as far as the response rate for these types
of disasters. I got the impression that that the Trump
administration has kind of turned that around. The President was
informed of this right away. Christy Nome came to town
right away. I'm sure you're seeing federal assets at work
in that community right now. Yeah, we're starting to see
(04:35):
them here.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
I want to you know, I want to complement state
the state agencies how great they've done, Text Parks and Wildlife, DPS,
several others te them which was extremely critical in this
as text Department of Emergency Management.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
You know, I rushed over here as soon.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
As soon as we found out what was going on.
And when I got here, the chief of TETAM was
already here on the ground and very quickly he figured
out what building to base everybody out of, how do
we get all the agents together, and the amount of coordination.
I think Texans have a lot to be proud of
how well their government was able to get here quickly
and respond to this.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
All right, Wes, thanks for joining us. Good to hear
from you, sir, Glad you're well. Thank you. That is
State Representative West ver Dell. And by the way, again,
if you'd like to make a donation that will go
directly to helping the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill
Country the Kerr County Flood Relief Fund, go to Communityfoundation
dot net. We have a link actually at KTRH dot com.
We'll make it a whole lot easier. Just go to
(05:32):
ktrh dot com and click on that link and they'll
take you there and you can make a donation there.
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