Following another river flood in the Texas Hill Country eight years ago, Kerr County officials discussed whether more work was necessary to construct a warning system along the Guadalupe River’s banks.
Along the river, a number of summer camps were frequently crowded with kids. Local authorities used a word-of-mouth strategy to keep them safe for years: When floodwaters began to surge, camp leaders upriver alerted others downstream of the impending water surge.
Was that sufficient, though? Along with other cutting-edge communications instruments, officials thought about adding river gauges and sirens to the system. Tom Moser, a Kerr County commissioner at the time, stated that no matter how much water-level monitoring we perform, it won’t be worth it if the public isn’t informed in a timely manner.
Ultimately, not much was accomplished. Neither alarms nor early flooding monitors were in place when devastating floodwaters swept through Kerr County last week. Rather, some households received text messages late, while others ignored or failed to read them.
In 2017, the rural county with a population of just over 50,000, located in what is known as Flash Flood Alley in Texas, considered constructing a flood warning system but decided against it because it was too costly. According to the minutes of the county commission meeting, the county, which has an annual budget of around $67 million, lost an attempt to obtain a $1 million grant to finance the project at the time.
During a budget meeting in May, county commissioners discussed the possibility of using a flood warning system that was being built by a regional agency.
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