John Trolinger was monitoring county radios as the devastating flooding began.
KERR COUNTY, Texas — John Trolinger has been working with radios since he was a kid. He still remembers his first CB radio growing up. When Trolinger started getting National Weather Service alerts for possible flooding on July 4th, he had his radios ready to go.
“I felt like something big was going to happen. I was prepared the day before.” Trolinger said. “It’s coming, we were going to have a flood.”
He won’t forget what he heard anytime soon.
Trolinger first started hearing first responders on the radio at 3:26 a.m. It sounded like fire department personnel were the first to report problems. The calls started coming across the radio:
“Water rescue. Caller’s house flooded. All residents are on their house.”
“Checking if we need to tone out for special ops team for a swift water rescue…Respond for swift water rescue.”
“The water is three to four feet deep and we will not be able to navigate.”
At 4:22, Around an hour after the calls started, a firefighter asked a dispatcher if the CodeRED system could be activated to warn people in hunt. The county has an emergency alert system, called CodeRED, that is supposed to notify people who living in the county when there is an emergency.
“Is there any way we can send a CodeRED out to our Hunt residents asking them to find higher ground or stay home?” asked the firefighter.
The dispatcher responded with, “Stand by, we have to get that approved with our supervisor.”
Trolinger doesn’t remember any CodeRED being sent out at that time but believes there was one after 10 a.m. CBS News reported that some survivors claimed to have received something at 5:30 a.m. or 6 a.m.
Of course, by 5:10 a.m. the Guadalupe river had already risen 30 feet in the Hunt area and first responders were risking their lives to get people out of the water.
“We’ve got one female pulled out of the water. If you’ll have more units come down rolling trail, and go through the gate… She’s going to need medical attention,” an exhausted first responder said.
Trolinger is still moved by the rescue.
“He went into the flooded raging water in the dark Guadalupe river and pulled that woman out,” Trolinger said.
He said those responders should be honored for the bravery they showed.
“It’s amazing how quickly they had boat teams and special operations people.” he said. “You’ve got to be proud of these people. The city officers. The county sheriff’s office were out there and not just the ones on patrol.”
KENS 5 is still investigating where Kerr County leaders were during the early hours of the flooding.
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