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Kerr County asked Texas to help pay for a flood warning system for 8 years. Can it happen now?
Houston Chronicle ^ | July 7, 2025 | Neena Satija, Keri Blakinger

Posted on 07/08/2025 9:33:22 AM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege

Nearly a decade before catastrophic flash flooding in Kerr County…several local officials were hard at work convincing their peers to buy into a new early flood warning system. The once “state of the art” program installed along the Guadalupe River back in the 1980s was in desperate need of an upgrade, they argued…

“I’m not trying to put a dollar on a life or a flood, but the fact of the matter is floods do happen, and we need to be prepared for them,” then-Kerr County Commissioner Bob Reeves noted during a series of public meetings that began in 2016. And, his former colleague Tom Moser pointed out, “We also have more summer camps than anybody else along the Guadalupe River.”

The wide-ranging discussions back then — captured in transcripts archived online — proved to be a chilling precursor to the disaster that unfolded early on July 4…

But the new warning system never became reality. Though local officials agreed to spend $50,000 on an engineering study, which made specific recommendations for such a project in 2016, they never secured the $1 million they estimated would be needed to implement it – despite asking for help from state officials at least three separate times.

“We never were successful in getting that funding, or putting the matching funding with it to do anything,” said Moser, who retired in 2021, in a phone interview. He said he hopes the county can “go back to the drawing board on this, and hopefully it’ll be a model that could be used all over the United States.”

(Excerpt) Read more at houstonchronicle.com ...


TOPICS: Local News; Weather
KEYWORDS: climate; fakenews; flashflood; flood; houstoncomical; keriblakinger; kerr; kerrcounty; neenasatija; severeweather; tds; texas; tx; weather
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To: TexasGator
Camp Mystic was founded in 1926.

I doubt all 100+ deaths were all staying at camp Mystic.

61 posted on 07/08/2025 12:00:20 PM PDT by eastexsteve
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To: eastexsteve

Current reports suggest around 30 lost souls from Camp Mystic.


62 posted on 07/08/2025 12:04:43 PM PDT by EVO X ( )
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To: whitney69

Warnings went out. Imminent flooding warnings even. Nature decided in the wee hours of the morning to drop a deluge. Not the first time this has happened and won’t be the last. I’ve lived in Texas long enough to know unless you move people out of flood plains that some are going to die no matter what. Sad, but true.


63 posted on 07/08/2025 12:07:51 PM PDT by ChuckHam
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To: eastexsteve

“I doubt all 100+ deaths were all staying at camp Mystic.”

I doubt all six camps were founded by newcomers.


64 posted on 07/08/2025 12:09:15 PM PDT by TexasGator (.i.. logo About Issues Projects Products Connect Subscribe Invest June 19, 2025 | Insight '1-1111 -)
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To: whitney69

Cranial - rectal syndrome

An advanced form of cognitive dissonance where a person’s
head is actually so far up their own ass that it reemerges from
their own mouth thus creating a black hole of ignorance and
hypocrisy devoid of reason or logic.


65 posted on 07/08/2025 12:27:39 PM PDT by deport
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To: MayflowerMadam

Maybe building and zoning codes will have to be revisited.

************

How high do you think they will have to build the new structers?

As high as the nearest peak
As high as the nearest peak
100 ft taller than the last
flood plus a 20% safety rule.


66 posted on 07/08/2025 12:40:56 PM PDT by deport
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To: TexasGator
I doubt all six camps were founded by newcomers.

I doubt all the original founders are even still alive. That whole area has been inundated with people moving in from out of state for decades. I barely recognize the area from even 20 years ago. I still have friends living in the area. Kerrville used to be just a spot in the road that didn't even have a Walmart. Lots and lots of newcomers now.

67 posted on 07/08/2025 12:55:19 PM PDT by eastexsteve
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To: packagingguy

No, they have moved to the trendy new cell phone text message alerts. Nevermind that not everyone sleeps with a phone, has cell in those valleys, has a phone that hasn’t gone dead, isn’t 8 years old with no phone, you are 80 and leave your phone in the kitchen to charge at night, or that a Weather Service rain alert is not the same as a confirmed Flash Flood warning from river gauges.

They sent you a text you know!


68 posted on 07/08/2025 12:57:44 PM PDT by DesertRhino (2016 Star Wars, 2020 The Empire Strikes Back, 2025... RETURN OF THE JEDI….There’s really not much to)
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To: bigbob

Sirens are obsolete and cellular coverage is unreliable.

No, sirens are not obsolete. And they are the premier system in heavily populated areas, like where the camps were.
NOAA radios give you weather and generic warnings about heavy rain, in certain areas, etc.

But they are not to the accuracy level of River gauges and are not tied to those. Gauges slaved to sirens downriver would have saved most of the lives lost.
A flash flood is basically like someone coming to kill you from 10 miles away, in a golf cart. If you are notified when they start rolling, you have a very good chance of getting to safety.


69 posted on 07/08/2025 1:01:31 PM PDT by DesertRhino (2016 Star Wars, 2020 The Empire Strikes Back, 2025... RETURN OF THE JEDI….There’s really not much to)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

The real scandal is why building permits were issued for years in a flood prone area.


70 posted on 07/08/2025 1:10:12 PM PDT by Chauncey Gardiner (Vivamus stultus ignarus mori )
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

Cell phone warnings while people are sleeping are not that helpful and everyone doesn’t have a cell phone. The sirens are the best although they can’t give warnings for lost dogs, children, etc.


71 posted on 07/08/2025 1:19:02 PM PDT by RetiredTexasVet (Trump has arrived and it is awesome to have a real President.)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

This is a local cost. Sirens or horns aren’t hard to put in place. Make sure low laying places know to stay alert for flash flood conditions.


72 posted on 07/08/2025 1:19:18 PM PDT by ConservativeMind (Trump: Befuddling Democrats, Republicans, and the Media for the benefit of the US and all mankind.)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege
What kind of a warning system were they asking for along the entire Guadalupe river and any guarantee people would pay attention to it, let alone hear it at that time of the morning?

Some times shit happens and there's not a damn thing anyone can do about it.

With every natural disaster, somebody has to be at blame.........

73 posted on 07/08/2025 1:38:35 PM PDT by Hot Tabasco
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To: deport

I don’t know myself. But I did work in the Planning and Zoning Department for about 10 years. Every location is unique, so the professional Urban Planners in each area need to do the math.


74 posted on 07/08/2025 1:44:41 PM PDT by MayflowerMadam (It's hard not to celebrate the fall of bad people. - Bongino)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege
Kerr County asked Texas to help pay for a flood warning system for 8 years. Can it happen now?

That is as stupid as advocating gun control.   You get a warning to go to high ground, in a place that does not have cell phones, or cell coverage, but is in the dead of night when nobody is awake to hear it and there is no high ground because it is in flat Texas.

Hurricane and tornado warning happen, yet hundreds die anyway.

75 posted on 07/08/2025 2:35:57 PM PDT by higgmeister (In the Shadow of The Big Chicken! )
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To: eastexsteve

“I doubt all the original founders are even still alive. “

Probably not, but Dick Eastland was director and owner for 50 years till he lost his life in the flood.


76 posted on 07/08/2025 2:36:28 PM PDT by TexasGator (.i.. logo About Issues Projects Products Connect Subscribe Invest June 19, 2025 | Insight '1-1111 -)
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To: MayflowerMadam

Thanks. I know it is an unknown but
one never knows what nature can bring.
This seems to be way out of the normal.
Have a good’un.


77 posted on 07/08/2025 3:14:51 PM PDT by deport
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To: higgmeister

We cannot control the weather (fires, earthquakes, etc…) but we can control infrastructure and preparation for “what if” scenarios. There’s a reason why an earthquake in Japan kills less people than a 3rd world country without building codes hit by one of the same magnitude.


78 posted on 07/08/2025 4:24:00 PM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
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To: Pilsner; packagingguy

3. What do you do when you hear a tornado siren? You grab a beer and watch for it on the front porch.

3.5 What are you supposed to do when you hear a tornado siren? Go hide in the bathroom or closet... Not sure how much that would help against flash flooding...


79 posted on 07/08/2025 6:19:33 PM PDT by Svartalfiar (-)
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To: Svartalfiar

Sirens can also mean other danger…they were put in our city during the Cold War in case we were getting nuked. You could shelter under your school desk.

They also have them in places like Lahina, Hawaii in case of wildfires…


80 posted on 07/08/2025 7:17:10 PM PDT by packagingguy
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