Since 2016, the topic of a “flood warning system” for Kerr County has come up at 20 different county commissioners’ meetings, according to minutes.
The idea for a system was first introduced by Kerr County Commissioner Thomas Moser and Emergency Management Coordinator Dub Thomas in March 2016.
Moser noted that neighboring counties had much more advanced flood warning systems than Kerr County, “even though this is probably one of the highest flood-prone regions in the entire state.”
Kerr County’s existing water monitoring mechanisms were not “flood control or flood warning systems,” Thomas explained, adding, “I think we need a system that can be operated or controlled by a centralized location.”
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Following the March 2016 meeting, the flood warning system was discussed at 10 more commissioners’ meetings that year. But after the county failed to secure FEMA grant funding to implement the system, it appeared to fall off the agenda.
In a November 2020 discussion of a new FEMA emergency alert program, Thomas noted, “We’ve been trying to get a new Flood Warning System here. We haven’t been able to do it.”
The last time commissioners mentioned the flood warning system was in July 2021, meeting minutes show. But since then, other local government bodies in Kerr County have discussed the possibility of a new flood warning system for the area.
In April, the Upper Guadalupe River Authority, a government body that manages the watershed, convened a special meeting of its Board of Directors. The board voted unanimously to select a firm called Kisters “to develop a Flood Warning System in Kerr County.”
Meeting minutes show the company was slated to receive a contract worth up to nearly $73,000 as part of the proposed system, the status of which is currently unclear.
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When the area flooded on Friday, Ingram City Council Member Ray Howard got three flash flood alerts from the National Weather Service, but none from Kerr County authorities, he told ABC News.
“The river came up so fast,” Howard said. “There’s nothing you can do about that, but there should be early warning systems to get something, a warning, faster.”
Howard noted that money has been a barrier to implementing such a system.
“We need to get funding for that,” he added, “for sirens or something that’s going to help out the community.”
But 2016 meeting minutes show there was also opposition to a flood warning system among some commissioners, with one saying, “the thought of our beautiful Kerr County having these damn sirens going off in the middle of [the] night, I’m going to have to start drinking again to put up with y’all.”
Another commissioner voted against submitting a grant application for the warning system, saying he thought “this whole thing is a little extravagant for Kerr County.”
Instead, several county officials argued that the county’s informal system of “river calling” — essentially a phone tree to warn camps of imminent flooding — was sufficient.
Howard disagrees: “Obviously calling from one place to another isn’t fast enough,” he told ABC News.
