"A decade of missed opportunities: Texas couldn’t find $1M for flood warning system near camp

 Friends:

In a decade defined by indecision, deflection, and short-sightedness, Texas failed to invest just $1 million in a flood warning system—an amount that could have saved so many lives on the Fourth of July, including many children. Despite repeated warnings, a history of deadly floods, and multiple opportunities to act, local and state leaders chose excuses over solutions. As this piece outlines, the cost of prevention was minimal; the cost of inaction is immeasurable.

While the flood itself was a natural disaster, the scale of its devastation was in great part an artifact of avoidable human failure—a tragic absence of will, leadership, and care.

Now that a special session of the legislature begins on July 21—where lawmakers will reconvene in Austin for 30 days to address, among other priorities, flood infrastructure and disaster preparedness—there can be no more delays, no more finger-pointing, and no more excuses. The time for bold, decisive action is now—because lives should never be an afterthought, and families and communities deserve lasting protection, not preventable tragedy.

—Angela Valenzuela

A decade of missed opportunities: Texas couldn’t find $1M for flood warning system near camps


The Associated Press
Thu, July 10, 2025 at 5:58 AM CDT

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.


Officials are seen in the Guadalupe River as they assist in recovery efforts after a flash flood 

swept through the area Sunday, July 6, 2025, in Hunt, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
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.




HUNT, TEXAS - JULY 6: Search and rescue workers dig through debris looking for 

any survivors or remains of people swept up in the flash flooding on July 6, 2025 in 

Hunt, Texas. Heavy rainfall caused flooding along the Guadalupe River in central 

Texas with multiple fatalities reported. (Photo by Jim Vondruska/Getty Images)

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.

“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.

Officials comb through the banks of the Guadalupe River after a flash flood swept through

the area Saturday, July 5, 2025, in Hunt, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

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.