A decade of missed opportunities: Texas couldn't find $1M for flood
warning system near camps
[July 10, 2025]
By RYAN J. FOLEY, CHRISTOPHER L. KELLER, SEAN MURPHY, and
JIM MUSTIAN
KERRVILLE, Texas (AP) — Over the last decade, an array of Texas state
and local agencies missed opportunities to fund a flood warning system
intended to avert a disaster like the one that killed dozens of young
campers and scores of others in Kerr County on the Fourth of July.
The agencies repeatedly failed to secure roughly $1 million for a
project to better protect the county’s 50,000 residents and thousands of
youth campers and tourists who spend time along the Guadalupe River in
an area known as “flash-flood alley.” The plan, which would have
installed flood monitoring equipment near Camp Mystic, cost about as
much as the county spends on courthouse security every two years, or
1.5% of its annual budget.
Meanwhile, other communities had moved ahead with sirens and warning
systems of their own. In nearby Comfort, a long, flat-three minute
warning sound signifying flood danger helped evacuate the town of 2,000
people as practiced.
Previous floods provided warnings
A deadly 2015 Memorial Day flood in Kerr County rekindled debate over
whether to install a flood monitoring system and sirens to alert the
public to evacuate when the river rose to dangerous levels. Some
officials, cognizant of a 1987 flood that killed eight people on a
church camp bus, thought it was finally time.
But the idea soon ran into opposition. Some residents and elected
officials opposed the installation of sirens, citing the cost and noise
that they feared would result from repeated alarms.
County commissioners sought compromise. They moved forward with a plan
for a warning system without sirens, which would improve flood
monitoring with a series of sensors but leave it up to local authorities
to alert the public. They didn't want to pay for it on their own but
found little help elsewhere.
The county’s largest city, Kerrville, declined to participate in a joint
grant application that would have required a $50,000 contribution. The
state’s emergency management agency twice passed over the county’s
request for hazard mitigation funding, citing a deficiency in the
application and then backing communities ravaged by Hurricane Harvey in
2017.
The state's flood infrastructure fund later offered an interest-free
loan for the project — but that plan was seen as too stingy and turned
down by the agency in charge of managing the watershed.
A failure to act
Without the flood monitoring system, the county was left vulnerable when
rains pounded the area in the early morning hours of July 4 and the
river rapidly rose.
“There wasn't enough fight in them, and there needs to be more fight
this time,” said Nicole Wilson, a San Antonio mother who pulled her
daughters out of an area camp ahead of the flooding and who launched an
online petition calling on Kerr County to install the sirens. “Whether
it's a combination of city, state and federal funding, there simply
can't be the answer of ‘no’ this time.”
Local authorities and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott have urged the public not
to point fingers after the flooding, which killed at least 120 people
and left scores more reported missing.
“I would be willing to talk about it but not yet. It's just too raw
right now,” said Glenn Andrew, a former Kerrville city council member
who voted in 2017 to pull the city out of the grant proposal for the
project. “My preference is to look forward to the future.”
A spokesperson for Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said Wednesday that
lawmakers, who begin a special session later this month, would approve
funding to cover such projects in the future.
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People come to pick up items as the others clean up the site after
the flood at Camp Mystic in Hunt, Texas on Wednesday, July 9, 2025.
(AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
“The state will provide emergency warning sirens where needed,”
Patrick spokesperson Steven Aranyi wrote in an email.
But some anger is starting to boil over. Raymond Howard, a city
council member in Ingram, Texas, in Kerr County, said Wednesday it’s
“unfathomable” that county officials never took action despite
repeatedly talking about it.
“That’s just mind-boggling,” he said. “It’s unfathomable that they
never worked on it. If it comes down to funding, they’re constantly
raising taxes on us for other stuff. This is more important. This is
lives. This is families. This is heartbreaking.”
Howard, who lives in a home along the Guadalupe River, said any
action now would come too late for those who have died.
Another chance ended in diverted funds
Kerr County requested a flood warning system grant in 2016 through
the Texas Division of Emergency Management’s hazard mitigation
program, which is supported by Federal Emergency Management Agency
funding to help communities reduce their risk.
But that application was rejected because it did not meet federal
specifications, including one that required the county have a
current hazard mitigation plan on file, Texas emergency management
spokesperson Wes Rapaport said.
The county hired a consultant and an engineering firm to help
prepare another application for the project for the next funding
cycle in 2017. The system outlined in the county’s preliminary plan
would provide “mass notifications to citizens about high water
levels and flooding conditions throughout Kerr County.”
At targeted low water crossings within Kerr County, sensors
connected to monitoring stations would transmit a signal that would
notify local officials and emergency management agencies of the
rising water levels. Officials envisioned using that information to
alert the public and call their contacts at youth camps and RV parks
during emergencies.
But after Hurricane Harvey caused record flooding in Houston and
other areas of Texas in August 2017, “funding was distributed to
counties that fell under the disaster declaration, which Kerr County
was not included on,” Rapaport said.
The City of Kerrville's council voted 4-0 to decline to participate
in the grant proposal, balking at its planned $50,000 contribution,
minutes show.
Texas voters created a new funding source for such projects in 2019,
backing a constitutional amendment to create a state flood
infrastructure fund with an initial $800 million investment.
The Upper Guadalupe River Authority, which manages the watershed in
Kerr County, revived the project last year with a $1 million initial
request for funding. The Texas Water Development Board, which
oversees the fund, offered a $50,000 grant and a $950,000
interest-free loan for the rest of the project.
The river authority declined to pursue the funding, saying the terms
were not favorable.
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Foley reported from Iowa City, Iowa; Keller from Albuquerque, New
Mexico; and Mustian from Miami. Associated Press reporter Claudia
Lauer contributed to this report from Philadelphia.
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