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The city manager of a Texas town severely impacted by flooding sent a disrespectful text about Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem just hours after sharing a public platform with her.
Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice branded the DHS Secretary ‘basically homeland Barbie’ when asked about her by another local lawmaker on July 5.
This information surfaced through a significant release of records this week, accessed via requests from KSAT, also indicating that the local authorities were caught completely off guard by the unexpected flash floods.
These floods tragically claimed 108 lives in Kerr County alone, with a total of at least 137 fatalities resulting from the calamity across the state during the Fourth of July holiday weekend.
In texts between Rice and Kerrville Mayor Joe Herring Jr. on July 3, the night before the floods, the two discussed having big plans for the community to celebrate, unaware of the impending devastation.
‘Big day tomorrow at LHP,’ Herring Jr. told Rice, apparently referring to the site of Kerrville’s Fourth of July celebrations at Louise Hays Park.
The celebrations at the park never happened, after torrential flooding tore through the area, with Herring’s next text to Rice coming at 6.37am on July 4 when he asked for the location of the emergency operations center.
The records release also revealed that as city councilors were informed of the flooding, councilwoman Delayne Sigerman responded: ‘Whoever prayed for this should pray for cease fire in Israel.’
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was dubbed ‘basically homeland Barbie’ by the city manager of a Texas town that she visited after it was devastated by flooding
Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice, seen back left in blue behind Noem, was seen texting about the Trump cabinet member in newly released records that highlighted the city’s lack of preparedness for the floods
City Council members were stunned by the sudden onset of the flooding on July 4, and Kerrville’s lack of emergency preparedness has come under scrutiny in the weeks since.
In the text threat where Sigerman brought up Israel, Councilwoman Brenda Hughes also responded: ‘Ugh!!! Not what we needed today (sad face emoji).’
One of the most devastatingly hit areas was the Camp Mystic campsite on the Guadalupe River, where 27 campers and camp counselors died in the floods.
At 10.43am on July 4, Herring texted Rice for an update on the campsite, the newly released records showed.
‘Everything is still unconfirmed,’ Rice responded.
The area’s lack of preparedness extended far beyond the absence of flood alerts, as the records also showed that Kerrville’s fire department did not tell its off-duty personnel to report for service until 8.55am on July 4.
This was hours after the floods had torn through the city and had already killed dozens by that time.
The floods killed 108 people in Kerr County alone, and at least 137 people lost their lives to the disaster across the state over the July 4th holiday weekend
The newly released records showed that Kerrville’s much-scrutinized response to the natural disaster also meant fire stations were not alerting off-duty staff until hours after the flooding hit
Another message between Herring and Rice on July 4 saw Rice tell the mayor someone was an ‘(expletive) joke’, however it is not clear who he was referring to.
The next day, Rice took part in a press conference that Noem also appeared in, leading a city staffer to text him: ‘Just saw you met Homeland Barbi, how is she?!?!?!’
He responded: ‘Beahahaha basically homeland Barbie.’
The moniker has become a popular nickname for Noem to mock her since she became DHS Secretary earlier this year.
Rice did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the exchanges.
Amid criticism of the response to the floods, Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha admitted that Kerr County Emergency Management Coordinator W.B. ‘Dub’ Thomas was ‘at home asleep at the time’ that the disaster hit.
Leitha told CNN are going to take a ‘hard look’ at how the response was carried out and review Thomas’s job performance leading up to and during the tragedy.
Among the victims were 27 children and staff at Camp Mystic, 15 of them were in a single cabin known as Bubble Inn.
Among the victims were 27 children and staff at Camp Mystic, 15 of them were in a single cabin known as Bubble Inn (pictured)
The National Weather Service issued its first flash flood warning at 1.14am CT, more than three hours before the Guadalupe River surged over 30 feet, inundating the camp and nearby RV parks.
But this admission from the sheriff shows that the key emergency official was likely not awake to receive the escalating alerts, raises serious questions about the county’s preparedness and response.
Although the deadly flooding occurred on July 4, emergency crews had already been mobilized two days earlier as Tropical Storm Barry’s projected path moved through Texas.
