Texas officials defend response to deadly floods: 'We saved as many people as we could'

CENTER POINT, Texas — Local and state officials who responded to the catastrophic flooding this month in Central Texas defended their actions in an interview with NBC News, saying they did everything in their power to save lives and are now considering what more could be done to prevent future tragedies.

“Our teams did everything that they possibly could with this gruesome, devastating situation that happened, and we would not change the way we did that. And I think we saved as many people as we could,” Dalton Rice, the city manager of Kerrville, said.

He spoke with NBC News alongside Jeff Holt, a Kerr County commissioner, and state Rep. Wes Virdell, over the weekend, before a new round of heavy rain and flooding threatened parts of the region. The officials said they did their best to coordinate evacuations and rescues against uncontrollable forces of nature, but noted that a permanent emergency operations center, more diversion dams and better cellphone service in certain areas might help save lives in future floods.

Hundreds of people were rescued in the early morning of July 4 as the Guadalupe River surged to unprecedented heights in less than an hour, its intractable current carrying homes and vehicles for miles downstream. At least 132 people died in the flood, including campers and counselors at a girls’ summer camp, while the number of people believed to be missing was adjusted lower, to 101 people, after Gov. Greg Abbott said Monday that it's unclear if all were "swept away by the storm."

https://www.yahoo.com/news/texas-officials-defend-response-deadly-223904652.html

You had the opportunity to do some of the things in the third paragraph, but you turned the money down.