(AUSTIN) — The deadly floods that struck Texas on the 4th of July caught local officials off guard as the torrential rains caused the Guadalupe River to rise to near-historic levels in a matter of minutes, officials said at a press conference Saturday.
A Flood Watch was in effect for parts of New Mexico and western Texas Thursday afternoon as rounds of slow-moving thunderstorms packing heavy rain moved through the area. By Thursday evening, five inches of rain had fallen in parts of western Texas, including Midland and Odessa.
The National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning for Kerr County, where the river is located, around 1:14 a.m. Friday.
The Guadalupe River rose 26 feet in 45 minutes that morning, Kerrville Mayor Joe Herring told reporters Friday.
“This came at night, when people were asleep in bed,” he said.
The river reached its second-highest height on record, surpassing a 1987 flood level, the National Weather Service said.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick told reporters that it is up to local mayors and counties to evacuate if they feel the need and many were unsure where the storm would land.
At a news conference Friday, Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly said the county does not have a warning system on the river.
Kelly was pressed by a reporter as to why evacuations didn’t take place Thursday, but the judge said, “We didn’t know this flood was coming.”
“We have floods all the time. This is the most dangerous river valley in the United States, and we deal with floods on a regular basis. When it rains, we get water. We had no reason to believe that this was going to be anything like what’s happened here, none whatsoever,” he said.
Rain continued to hit the region Saturday, prompting flash flood emergency warnings for much of Burnet County and western parts of Williamson County and Travis County.
ABC News’ Emily Shapiro and Kyle Reiman contributed to this post.
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