KENDALL COUNTY, Texas – A Kendall County Sheriff’s Office deputy was recorded on July 4 on a non-emergency line referring to the Hill Country floods as “bull---- water flood stuff,” according to audio records obtained by KSAT Investigates.
The deputy, who had not been named as of Thursday morning, was also recorded about 20 minutes earlier scoffing at a dispatcher after the dispatcher relayed a message from the Comfort Volunteer Fire Department to close down all low-water river crossings through Waring, a community in northwest Kendall County.
“Yeah, I’ll jump right on that,” the unnamed deputy said sarcastically in the recording.
A City of Boerne spokesman confirmed Thursday the comments were made by a Kendall County Sheriff’s deputy. They referred additional inquiries to KCSO, since the person does not work for the Boerne Police Department or the city of Boerne.
A KCSO lieutenant told KSAT Thursday the comments were not made by the sheriff or a member of the KCSO command staff, and that KSAT’s request for the name of the deputy had been sent to Sheriff Al Auxier for a response.
>> ‘We still need somebody’: 911 calls released from July 4 flooding in Texas Hill Country
More than 100 people were killed in neighboring Kerr County during the historic flooding event.
Nine additional bodies were recovered in Kendall County, but officials there have said those victims were not Kendall County residents and had been swept downstream from other communities.
The Boerne Police Department’s 911 Dispatch Center handles all emergency calls in Kendall County.
Boerne police this week released more than 100 calls made to and from its non-emergency line on July 4.
Many of the calls were from residents asking if water was covering certain roads in Kendall County.
A member of Comfort VFD contacted the number at 5:13 a.m., and informed the dispatcher that the department was setting up a command post and advising people along the Guadalupe River to get away from the river.
First responders, in several calls, estimated that a wall of water would reach Kendall County by late morning.
Read more reporting on the KSAT Investigates page.