One Year After Kerr County Flood, Texas’ Warning System Is Still Half-Built

New sirens are going up, but residents call them a band-aid, dozens of communities still can’t afford the systems they need, and federal mitigation funding is being cut

TEXAS — Saturday, July 4th marks one year since floodwaters killed more than 100 people in Kerr County. Now, families are watching a bare minimum of new sirens go up along the Guadalupe River and asking the same question they asked last July: if disaster comes, will anyone be warned in time?

At a recent community meeting on the still-developing new warning system, one resident called the rollout “a band-aid that the politicians want to be able to say that yes, we have put sirens to save the people.” Another asked who is actually in charge of the big picture. The answer: the local river authority and the county. 

“A year out, the people of Kerr County are still being asked to piece together their own survival,” said Sabotaging Our Safety Advisory Council member Rafael Lemaitre. “Texas put up some sirens—a step in the right direction, but for survivors in Kerr County and beyond it is not nearly enough to prevent another tragedy. The Trump administration and Governor Abbott must support investments in recovery and mitigation before the next disaster hits.”  

Senate Bill 3 set aside $50 million for sirens, and eight are now up in Kerr County. But only 30 of the state’s 254 counties are even eligible. A CBS News Texas I-Team investigation found more than 2,000 sirens statewide, nearly half in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, with no statewide standard and no central database. Whether a Texan gets warned can come down to their zip code.

Before the flood last year, Kerr County applied for roughly $1 million to build a warning system. The state offered $50,000, about 5%, and said the county could borrow the rest and repay it over thirty years. But local officials declined due to the overwhelming cost. Kerr was not alone. At least 90 Texas communities turned down state flood money because the grants covered so little