Lt. Gov. Patrick criticizes Kerr County judge’s absence during flood aftermath

Local officials involved in the deadly Kerr County flood response testified to lawmakers on Thursday about issues and operations during the disaster.

At the end of the hearing, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick turned his attention to the top senior elected official in the county, Judge Rob Kelly, and his absence in the aftermath.

“Judge Kelly, I never saw you on Day 1,” Patrick said. “In this room, I talked to the sheriff multiple times. I talked to the mayor multiple times. We had a meeting when we got here. Everyone was here, and you were not.”

Patrick said it was Kelly’s responsibility to direct the emergency response.

As county judge, Kelly serves as the head of emergency management.

“We received no alerts suggesting an extreme weather event was imminent,” Kelly said in his testimony Thursday.

On the day of the flood, Kelly said he was at a vacation home in Lake Travis and didn’t wake up until approximately 5 a.m., after getting calls and texts from law enforcement officials.

“My wife was at home during the early hours of July 4 while I was at our lake house preparing for a family gathering,” he said.

Kelly was at an initial press conference at 11 a.m. in response to the flooding on the morning of July 4 at the Hill Country Youth Event Center.

When pressed for answers during the conference about how parents could find out the status of their children at camps in West Kerr County, Kelly told parents to “call the camp.”

Patrick said that when there was a multi-agency press conference on the night of July 4, Kelly was not there. Patrick stated he and Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha went down the list of every youth camp along the Guadalupe River, which was 15 camps, to find out who was accounted for.

“We had accounted for every camp except Mystic. You weren’t in that meeting. I don’t know where you were on July 4, but you should have been here,” Patrick said. “You should have been here directing that response. That’s your responsibility.”

Kelly also described the destruction of his property along Texas 39 in Ingram during the July 4 morning press conference. He said water did not get in the house; it got into his offices and outbuildings on the property and caused damage to the gate and fencing.

“When you look out your front door and you see the Guadalupe River running, it’ll wake you up. Let me tell you,” Kelly said, suggesting that he was possibly at home at the time of the flooding.

Kelly appeared at another press conference at 2 p..m. on July 4, but was not seen at another until the afternoon of July 5. 

“This is about as bad a day as you can have, and I’ve had a lot of bad days,” said Patrick on Thursday in reference to the deadly flooding. “Because we didn’t just lose people, we didn’t know where people were. And you weren’t here.”

The July 4 flooding of the Guadalupe River caused 108 deaths in Kerr County alone, including 27 campers and counselors from Camp Mystic in Hunt.

“I just want to set the record straight, everyone was here that day working their ass off, and you were nowhere to be found,” Patrick said.

This article was originally published in the Aug. 2, 2025 edition of the Kerrville Daily Times.