Kerr County’s efforts to strengthen its flood warning capabilities were hindered in recent years by a series of denied funding requests, leaving the area without key alert systems at the time of the deadly July 4 flash flood.
Records indicate that local officials encountered significant challenges in securing federal and state support for upgrades, despite acknowledging the region’s vulnerability to sudden and severe weather events.
County officials first applied for federal disaster relief funds in 2017 but were denied by the Texas Division of Emergency Management, the state agency tasked with allocating the funds. After Hurricane Harvey struck, additional federal funds became available, and the county reapplied for funding with the governor’s encouragement. The county’s application was again denied in 2018.
“We never were successful in getting that funding, or putting the matching funding with it to do anything,” former Kerr County Commissioner Tom Moser, who retired in 2021, said in a phone interview, per Off the Kuff.
Some county commissioners had expressed reluctance to accept FEMA funding, partly because it came from the Obama administration, and discussed opting out if awarded the grants. Others were reluctant to install sirens, with one commissioner complaining in a 2017 meeting that “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.”
Some officials considered maintaining existing limited detection systems instead of pursuing comprehensive upgrades. However, others voiced concern that the existing systems may not be sufficient.
“My gut feeling on this and it’s kind of an odd way to say this but I think we have a duty to look at what we have… We are very flood prone, we know that,” Kerr County Commissioner Jonathan Letz said during deliberations in 2016.
A 2016 engineering study had recommended immediate action. Local officials never secured the estimated $1 million needed to implement a comprehensive warning system, according to reports.
By 2018, Kerr County had developed a plan to install outdoor flood warning sirens but deferred the project. At the time of the fatal flood, the area lacked both flood detection systems and outdoor sirens, which are standard in flood-prone regions.
In May of this year, county officials discussed plans for a $75,000 software-based early warning detection system, but the system had not been implemented.
“Had we had sirens along this area, all up and down … it’s possible that would have saved some of these lives,” Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said in an interview with Fox News on Monday.
Patrick said that the state will assist with obtaining sirens for the county in the Guadalupe River Basin area. “There should have been sirens here,” Patrick said. “If the city can’t afford it, then the state will step up.”