TDEM Chief Nim Kidd

Update on Catastrophic Flooding in Central Texas

delivered 6 July 2025, Austin, Texas

Audio mp3 of Address       Audio AR-XE mp3 of Address

[AUTHENTICITY CERTIFIED: Text version below transcribed directly from audio]

Thank you, Governor. And I want to -- want to remind everyone: Life safety is still our number one priority. And...what I mean by that is -- and Colonel Martin said it very well -- Kerrville and Kerr County have great local emergency managers and responders. They really do. But they're a community of about 55,000 people and they had a lot of people there that were not from that area visiting, vacationing. And their resources -- and this is what state agency, what the state government does when a local community gets overwhelmed as we send in additional resources. So, our hats are still off to all of those local responders that live and work in that community, and that their homes and families were also impacted, and they're still there on the job. We owe them a great amount of gratitude.

Second, we continue with our search, not only in Kerr County but everywhere that we know we have missing people. And I -- I need your help in being very cautious. Let's not get wrapped around the axle¹ on the word "recovery." You're going to start hearing the word recovery used in a lot of different contexts. Be very careful how you use that word, because I'm going to be careful how I use that word as well.

We are going to begin recovery operations. That is debris cleanup. That is opening roads. That is [does] not mean we are no longer doing search for live victims, because we still are.² We are still out there in very much hopes [sic], very much fueled by the compassion that we show for these families that we're doing everything we can to find their missing loved ones. So please help me in making sure that we're not wasting our time and efforts on debating over the meanings of words. Let's get clarity when we ask those questions.

Second [Third], I'm asking -- We've driven around Kerr County and the other areas a lot. We have lot of people that are traveling in because they want to see firsthand the damage. I'm asking you, if you're not from the community and if you're not involved in our response and rescue and recovery efforts, stay out of the area. Stay out of the area because you don't know the area. Another thing I'm getting right this minute during this press conference is reports of an additional wall of water coming down some of the creeks going into the forks. Now, I want you to think about that for a second. If you're not from that area and you don't know the low-water crossings, you could find yourself in a very dangerous situation.

The next thing is, we see a lot of information on social media about volunteers and spontaneous volunteers being frustrated because they can't help. We are evacuating parts of the river right now because we're worried about another wall of water coming down in those areas. If you're a volunteer there that you're not checked into our operations, we have no way of accounting for you right now. There is a process that we use to get volunteers into the response, and I'm asking for your help and to get that message out. It's not that we think we don't need any help. It's that we want to make sure everyone helping is doing the job that we need, where we need it and when we need it, and [that] we have the ability to communicate with them.

And then finally, I want to talk a little bit about the word recovery as it relates to the President's disaster declaration. We are very excited to begin those recovery operations with our federal partners who have been here with us in the Emergency Operations Center since last Thursday, since before all of the actual flooding and disaster started. And we're going to work very close with those partners to help our local communities and our families that are impacted by this recover from this disaster as fast as possible.

Thank you, Governor.

¹ Useful metaphor with an interesting linguistic history as covered by Grammarphobia

² Second of two distinctios, this one clearer and thus more effectively deployed

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Audio Note: AR-XE = American Rhetoric Extreme Enhancement

Page Updated: 7/7/25

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