Dan Patrick Brands County Judge as MIA
as Finger Pointing Intensifies at Hearing
Capitol Inside July 31, 2025
GOP State Senator Charles Perry of Lubbock warned last week that a special legislative investigation would not get sucked into the blame game that erupted on the same day that the Guadalupe River went on a killing spree with a monster flood in the Texas Hill Country on July 4th. As the co-chair of a Select Disaster Preparedness & Flooding Committee, Perry reiterated at a hearing in Kerrville on Thursday that he didn't want people to "throw rocks" at the event.
But Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick didn't get the memo or simply chose to ignore it when he showed up at the hearing and accused Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly of being AWOL during the disaster in a scorching assessment of the local leader's performance.
“I’m not pointing a finger," Patrick told Kelly before an audience with hundreds of people packed into an auditorium. "I’m not blaming you. I just want to set the record straight."
Then Patrick lowered the boom. “Everyone was here that day working their ass off," the lieutenant governor said to the county official. "And you were nowhere to be found.”
The committee's 18 House and Senate members wore looks of disbelief at times during the emotion-charged meeting in the epicenter of the most deadly flood in Texas in more than 100 years. At least 137 people died in the catastrophic event including more than two dozen young girls at Camp Mystic.
The Kerr County emergency coordinator William "Dub" Thomas made his first public appearance since the disaster when he told the joint committee that he'd been feeling ill and was sleeping when the river started surging in the early morning hours on the Fourth.
But Thomas defended his actions - saying that he reported to the sheriff's office when the flooding was in its early stages. Thomas said he did not issue a cell phone alert at that point because the National Weather Service had sent one out.
"To those who ask, what would you have done differently? The honest answer is that, based on the data we had at the time, there was no clear indicator that a catastrophic flood was imminent,” Thomas told lawmakers. “The situation evolved faster than anyone could have predicted."
Democratic State Rep. Ann Johnson of Houston that Camp Mystic officials appeared to be aghast at the testimony before the special committee.
“It is my understanding that there were little girls with water around their feet at 2 a.m. that were told - stay in your cabin," Johnson said. "And those little girls did what they were told. What was the protocol to warn people when that scenario comes up?”
But Thomas said Camp Mystic officials failed to contact the sheriff's office. Patrick in the meantime focussed on the top leader in the county where the vast majority of deaths from the holiday flooding were recorded.
“Judge Kelly, I never saw you on day one," Patrick told the local official. " I came here from Austin. 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 refused to relent. "You should have been here directing that response. That’s your responsibility,” the Texas Senate president told the county judge.
“This is about as bad a day as you can have, and I’ve had a lot of bad days,” Patrick added. “Because we didn’t just lose people, we didn’t know where people were. And you weren’t here.”
Kelly said he was at a family home on Lake Travis during the disaster but moved swiftly to get a disaster declaration in motion.
