Texas’ early deployment of choppers, boats may have saved hundreds of lives during devastating flooding

Texas launched emergency-response operations two days before devastating floods smashed through the state Friday — a move that may have saved hundreds of lives, officials said.

The Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM) began preparing for a potential crisis Wednesday after some forecast models said the incoming July 4 storm could drop more than the 6 inches of rain that most models predicted.

“Heavy rainfall with the potential to cause flash flooding is anticipated across West Texas and the Hill Country,” the TDEM said in an advisory issued at noon Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported.

By Thursday, the TDEM had raised raised its alert level to an “escalated response” and began deploying units in areas forecast to be hit the hardest.

Those efforts included rescue choppers, squadrons of boats, marine units and heavy vehicles capable of reaching stranded cars and people — while mules and horses were dispatched in some places after the storm hit.

Some of the early-response teams were deployed in Kerr County — which was the hardest hit in Friday’s flooding — by noon Thursday.

Once the storm hit — dropping 15 inches of rain in some places and turning the Guadalupe River into a 26-foot wall of water in under an hour — first responders sprang into action, with agencies from across the country even swooping into Texas to begin saving lives, too.

Among them was a US Coast Guard unit based out of Corpus Christi, Texas, which raced by helicopter to Camp Mystic in Kerr County. The camp had nearly 200 kids, staff and other survivors who were trapped after the Guadalupe spilled its banks and swamped the grounds.

More than two dozen little girls and counselors were washed away and died.

Coast Guard Petty Officer Scott Ruskan — a 26-year-old former accountant from New Jersey — was on his first mission with the Coast Guard and directed to coordinate efforts on ground while choppers ferried campers to safety. By the time his work was done hours later, 165 people had been rescued.

The rescue effort carried on across the region, too, with local police, volunteers and the National Guard hoisting people to safety by chopper, paddling through water to reach desperate survivors trapped in their vehicles and homes and even plucking soaked and shaking animals from the carnage.

By Sunday, at least 525 people had been rescued thanks to the efforts of National Guard units such as the Texas Army and Air National Guard.

At least 366 people were saved by helicopter, while 159 were rescued by ground units, according to the National Guard.

President Trump called the flooding a “100-year catastrophe” and praised responders efforts as they continued — saying without them the situation could have been considerably worse.

“The response has been incredible,” Trump said at a cabinet meeting Tuesday. “A lot of lives have been saved. As bad as it was, you could have lost double or triple. It was just really horrible.”

But not all of the rescue efforts were successful. Officials in hard-hit Kerrville — located in Kerr County, where at least 87 people have been confirmed dead — said Tuesday that nobody has been found alive there since Friday.

Critics have questioned whether Kerr County officials did all they could to warn residents of the impending catastrophe, with reports emerging that the county passed on a siren-based alert system in 2017 after it lost out on a $1 million grant.

Planned Trump administration cuts to the National Weather Service have also faced scrutiny, with Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York requesting an investigation into whether they had any effect on storm preparedness and forecasts.

The cuts don’t take effect till October.

Some Texans who were on the ground and saw the worst of the chaos said they don’t know what more could have been done.

“There was no way anyone could have predicted that. No way,” said Lorena Guillen, who watched helplessly as dozens of RVs and cars full of panicking families were washed away from her campground on the Guadalupe on Friday.

“It’s inconceivable how peaceful and quiet it was the evening before and a few hours later. It was not expected. I don’t think no official, nobody could have predicted that. It was an act of God, that’s what I think it was,” Guillen said.

“I think they did the best they could with what they had,” she added. “The river flooding authorities not having a budget enough to have censors and alarms installed that’s the part that should have been changed. Without having a budget or resources, their hands are tied as well.”

At least 110 people have been confirmed dead from the flooding as of Tuesday, while 161 are missing. Both figures are expected to climb.