By Katherine Adams
When Tyler Morrison was driving to Austin the morning of the Fourth of July last year, he was listening to reports about the rapidly deteriorating weather conditions along the Guadalupe River in Kerrville—and immediately felt compelled to do something.
Morrison, senior exercise physiologist in the Outpatient Occupational and Physical Therapy Clinic in Galveston, and his friend and coworker Austin Johnson, a physical therapist assistant in the same clinic, decided they had to step up.
Morrison and Johnson, both veterans with EMS training and search-and-rescue experience, were stunned by the magnitude of the disaster. A certified diver, Morrison connected with the United Cajun Navy and the two arrived in Center Point, a small, unincorporated community in Kerr County, where they were stationed for the next three days.
“We are Texans, and we love the water, but I never thought I would see or do something like this on the Guadalupe River, where I’ve had so much fun,” Morrison said. “When I heard that a lot of kids were involved in this, it made it more real to me. I have two kids. I felt even more compelled to be part of the rescue effort. And since it was a water-related emergency, I knew there would be divers in the water, and that’s what I knew my primary task should be.”
The United Cajun Navy had been very active in sharing its efforts on social media, Morrison said, and he knew that was the right organization to support.
“Tyler was a major initiator in this for me,” Johnson said. “When you see a tragedy like this, and you know while you’re sitting on the couch that you have the skills to help with this, you have to do something. I was happy to hitch my wagon to Tyler’s and follow him out there.”
The two became part of a dive team—Johnson as a tender and Morrison as a diver.
“As a tender,” Johnson explained, “I stood on the riverbanks, with one end of about 150 feet of rope tied to me and the other end tied to Tyler. I helped ensure that he was hitting every area in the search zone, every single square inch. A few times we had to go back and hit the same area again. At one point, Tyler was caught in a 10-foot branch. He didn’t know until he was down there how deeply stuck it was.”
Their task was to clear the rock quarries that ran off from the Guadalupe, and they were part of the first team to dive into parts of the river that had not yet been cleared.
There was so much debris, Johnson continued, but everyone worked together as a team to get it done.
“You get turned around in the river, and you don’t know where you’ve just searched, but we make sure we search every square inch. The topside is just as important as the diver in the water,” he said.
They both said the lack of visibility in the river had been a major obstacle in the search-and-rescue process.
“We spent three days there, with the first day receiving our assignments, and the next two days diving,” Morrison said. “The visibility was minimal. I had to use my hands to search every area, where there was so much sand, silt and mud, you couldn’t see two inches in front of your face. I would dig my arms in everywhere to see if I could feel anything. I could feel rocks and sticks, but you can’t see anything and you’re on the bottom, going inch by inch.
“It’s hard to understand the magnitude of what water can do,” he said.
Their team remained in the water for extended periods, changed tanks and then got back in the water.
“We didn’t want to leave anything to question,” Morrison said. “I would want someone to do the same thing if it had been my kids.”
The areas they had searched had not turned up any victims, the UTMB team said, However, upon their arrival, the number of missing was about 114.
“By the time we were done, that number had decreased to single digits. It was a big effort with a lot of people doing their jobs,” Morrison said.
Both said they were ready to assist if another disaster occurred.
“We’re still in contact with our dive team,” Johnson said. “There are a lot of veterans and ‘regular’ people who work with them—it’s a different breed and a different mindset of people.
“Anyone who’s worked in police, fire or military understands that hierarchy and chain of command, which is why they are so efficient,” he said. “The United Cajun Navy welcomed us, and we were grateful to work with such a reputable organization.”
Overall, Morrison said, the search-and-rescue operation was amazing.
“We met so many people, and our dive team was top notch,” he said. “These are people we would otherwise never have crossed paths with. We had a phenomenal team dynamic, with the United Cajun Navy as our main command, along with another search-and-rescue team called Woods and Water. If there’s any beauty in a tragedy, it’s that it brings so many people together.”
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Tyler Morrison and Austin Johnson worked alongside the United Cajun Navy in the aftermath of the flooding in Kerr County.