Deadly Texas Flooding: Sunday, July 18 morning update

Across the Texas Hill Country are improving after days of historic flooding, but the danger isn't over yet. State officials say rivers are still rising in some areas. At least two people have died after parts of Uvalde and Kirk counties were hit with more than two ft of rain on Friday, a bridge in Uvalde County collapsed under the pressure of water. Governor Greg Abbott has now signed a disaster declaration. He says state resources will help clear debris, repair roads and support recovery efforts. Even if rain is not falling because of the flow of water downstream, residents and leaders need to understand the rivers will still rise and still pose life threatening danger because of everything that was learned and experienced in the flood last year. Everybody in Texas has been far more prepared to deal with what has happened this year. Washed out roads have left several Texas camps along the Guadalupe River isolated. Now game wardens are airlifting food and water to residents. Officials confirmed flood warning systems worked, but the need for relief remains critical. And this morning, residents and local officials continue to clear the damage left behind in the aftermath of this week's deadly flooding. Foxworth meteorologist Josh Johns is live in Kirk County as those floodwaters now recede. Josh, good morning. Hey, good morning to see you. We have been tracking this yesterday when we first got down here midnight Thursday and then came in here yesterday morning. The river was much higher than it was yesterday. It's down about 2 to 3 ft from where it was yesterday. Uh, you could tell, though, still a little higher than the typical level here, splitting back a little bit towards the park. But I saw some deer this morning down in here as well. They're just perusing, looking for some food here. But compared to where it was yesterday, you couldn't even see the dam behind me that continues to allow the water to flow eventually down the south. So it's coming down a little bit. It's no longer near flood stage. Thankfully, still, you can tell all the damage that was left from the flooding and some of the damage that you're looking at behind me was actually left from last year's flooding as well. Remember, Kerrville got last with extreme flooding last year. The Guadalupe River actually got higher in Kerrville last year than it did this year. Different as you went down the stream towards, say, center pointer comfort. That's where it actually exceeded levels that it was last year. But some of the biggest flooding we experienced going through Kerrville was actually on the creeks that fed in the Guadalupe River. We have some video from yesterday we can show you, and I do believe that this is some of the video that we saw first around the park. This is zoomed in in the park behind me. We also have some video, though, as we went through Town Creek Town Creek right there showed a lot of flooding. This was a little small creek that floods into the Guadalupe River. We also saw Goat Creek, which is back closer towards Ingram that flooded over, and that's where we actually had multiple RVs turned over and multiple RVs and trucks that were carried downstream and Goat Creek. And again, these air little creeks that aren't supposed to see 15 to 20 inches of rain like what they saw come through here. And with the Guadalupe getting its eyes, it did that didn't allow these creeks to flow into the Guadalupe efficiently. They backed up and they reached levels that some say they haven't seen since the 19 thirties. We spoke with some locals that did describe that as well. So certainly a lot of flooding damage that they're still gonna have to sort through here in Kerr County, even though the Guadalupe itself did not get to levels that exceeded July 4th, at least in Kerrville proper. We had a bridge that was shut down downtown. It's actually that direction a little bit off camera, but it is now down to one lane instead of being completely shut down like it was earlier. That was because a barge actually hit the bridge. This busted loose from down in the dam, which is a little further upstream in Kerrville. And what they were doing there was actually cleaning up damage from last year. So as they were cleaning up damage, you get another flood wave coming through here. It busted that loose, and now they're gonna have to clean up that, too. So still a lot of time to go for folks to get get back to normal here in Kerr County. I do want to show you this from the newspaper, though. This is what it said when we first got in last, uh, third or this past Thursday, a flood watch issued for local area. Other parts of Texas. The forecast saying 5 to 10 inches of rainfall. Today's Kerrville Daily Times, or at least this weekend, talks about how thankful the county is for their response. It also mentions that folks in Ingram received 25.67 inches of rain and folks in Kerrville above 20 inches. So it really exceeded the forecast. It shows to show you you can plan as much as you can. But sometimes Mother Nature is just going to throw things that you don't expect, and you've got to do your best to deal with them. And I think the folks in Kerr County did. As far as we have heard, there have not been at least the paper reporting not been any missing. I know we did have a loss of life, but compared to what we saw last year, that is a much better situation. Of course, we don't want to see anyone lose their life, but thankfully not a mass tragedy situation like last year. Absolutely. And, you know, you did mention the historic flooding from last year that took away lives. Uh, devastating the situation there, and it's incredible to hear just that they're still cleaning up the mess from last year. But, you know, with this happening now, what lessons should Texans take away from this event as we move through the rest of the summer? I think that preparedness is highly important, and I think that Kerr County residents did their best to prepare. We heard stories of the warning sirens actually working here. I know they really worked hard to install those up the Guadalupe River. Of course, a different situation. The heaviest rain this year fell over a large area that included Kerrville and Point South. Last year, it was on the headwaters of Guadalupe, so it all flowed down the Guadalupe, whereas in this point, I think the heaviest rain actually fell south towards Uvalde. That went down the Frio. I think the other thing Texas need to take away is that we need to respect our mighty rivers. When they get swollen, they can get up there fast, and you do not want to cross flooded roads. You want to heed any sort of information the authorities provide and any sort of information the state's providing as well. I think a lot of folks have done that so far, thankfully, and have actually taken this seriously, and I think that's what we always need to do about flooding. You know, flooding one of the bigger killers in severe weather. We think about tornadoes. We think about severe storms all the time, but flooding kills more people and can really escalate fast compared to when you're tracking a hailstorm coming towards you. You're tracking a tornado coming towards you. You have a little bit more time to react as opposed to sometimes these rivers really sneak up, especially in hill country. They shoot up fast because the ground is all limestone. The water runs off. It does not soak into the ground like it does, say, around Dallas. If this had happened in Dallas, we'd be dealing with flooding. Yes, but we'd also be doing a lot of mud. When I've been walking around here, I haven't been dealing with a ton of mud except in the river bottoms. So that tells us that that soil layer very thin that runs off very quickly. But I think the big takeaways here, yes, that we need to prepare and we need to respect the warnings when they come. Yeah, you just never know. Preparedness is very important. Josh, thank you so much. We'll check back with you soon and you can help the people in central texas as they begin to clean up the community foundation of the texas hill country launched a flood relief fund. Now the money will provide emergency assistance and long term help for impacted families. You can go ahead and scan the QR code on your screen to donate now or we have the link on Fox four news dot com.