The fatal floods that Texas met on 4 July caught overwhelmed by local officials, because the torrent rains ensured that the River De Guadalupe stood in a matter of a few minutes to near-historical level, civil servants said at a press conference on Saturday.
A flooding watch was in force for parts of New Mexico and West-Texas Thursday afternoon when rounds of slow-moving thunderstorms moving heavy rain showers through the area. By Thursday evening, five centimeters of rain fell into parts of West -Texas, including Midland and Odessa.
Eric Vryn/Getty Images – Photo: reported dead after flooding in Texas Hill Country
The National Weather Service gave a flash flood warning for Kerr County, where the river is on Friday around 1:14 am.
More: Flood updates from Texas
The Guadalupe River rose 26 feet in 45 minutes that morning, Mayor Joe Herring told reporters on Friday.
Eric Gay/AP – Photo: Extreme weather Texas
“This came at night, when people slept in bed,” he said.
The river reached its second highest height on record and surpasses a flood level of 1987, said the National Weather Service.
Lt. Gov. Then Patrick said reporters that it is up to local mayors and provinces to evacuate if they feel the need and many were not sure where the storm would land.
During a press conference Friday, Rob Kelly of Kerr County said that the county has no warning system on the river.
Kelly was put under pressure by a reporter why evacuations did not take place on Thursday, but the judge said, “We didn't know this flood would come.”
Eric Gay/AP – Photo: Extreme weather Texas
“We have floods all the time. This is the most dangerous river valley in the United States, and we regularly treat floods. If it rains, we get water. We had no reason to believe that this would be something like what happened here, not at all,” he said.
More: Video Deadly 'Catastrophic floods' in Texas
Rain continued to hit the region on Saturday, so that the emergency warnings of the flood were requested for a large part of Burnet County and western parts of Williamson County and Travis County.
ABC News' Emily Shapiro and Kyle Reiman have contributed to this message.
