The floods have been at the top of the minds of Kerr County residents after the mortal floods of the last week, but an analysis carried out by ABC News and ABC television stations of public meetings records shows that this is not the first time that the need for measures related to floods has occurred among local officials.
Already in 2016, Kerr County Commissioners talked about the importance of an improved flood warning system and financing opportunities to implement said system. These conversations addressed both the risk of floods in the Guadalupe basin and the insufficiency of the existing warning infrastructure.
“We are very prone to floods, we know that,” said Kerr County Commissioner Jonathan Letz, at a commission meeting, according to the minutes. “Probably the enclosure 4 has [the] The greatest risk of the public. “
In April of this year, the Authority of the Alto Guadalupe River, a government agency described in line as to work “to protect the health of the Guadalupe River basin in Kerr County by administering water quality and the amount of water”, was in discussions on a project of the flood warning system.
During a meeting on April 17, the Board of Directors of the Authority voted unanimously to select a company known as Kisters “as the company to develop a flood warning system in Kerr County.” The minutes of the meeting show that the company was scheduled to receive a contract worth up to almost $ 73,000 as part of the proposed system, whose status is not currently clear.
The Superior Guadalupe River authority and Kisters could not be contacted immediately to comment.
This was not the first proposed project to address flood concerns in the Guadalupe basin.
The teams work to eliminate the debris of the Cade Loop bridge along the Guadalupe River on July 5, 2025 in Ingram, Texas.
RODOLFO GONZÁLEZ/AP
Almost a decade in early August 2016, Kerr County, the city of Kerville and the authority of the Alto Guadalupe River, took out a Request for qualifications For engineering services to evaluate the monitoring and warning status of floods in the Guadalupe basin.
In a preliminary study report of September 2016, an engineering firm said that Kerr County in Texas has a “greater risk of sudden floods than most of the US regions.” The County and Ugra spent $ 50,000 on the study.
“Heavy rains can quickly cause fast movement water with great destructive potential,” said the firm, pointing out a 2015 flood in a nearby county where the river rose 20 feet in less than an hour. According to local reports, thirteen deaths, including two children, resulted from flooding in the area.
“In the light of significant and fatal flood events in 2015, [the Texas Water Development Board] He is giving a high priority to improve communities’ skills to warn citizens and respond to flood emergencies in a timely and effective way, “the company recommended.
The study declared that the “parties” that include the county, the authority of the Alto Guadalupe River and the city of Kerville “mutually recognize the potential risk for the security and property of its components presented by the sudden floods in Kerr, Texas County.”
“[An] The effective flood warning system would potentially allow owners to cancel the properties where the risk of flooding is imminent, “the report said.
The evaluation recommended adding high water detection systems in flood -prone areas, visual meters in dozens of low water crosses and an information center to disseminate the data collected to local officials and communicate warnings of flooding to the public. The project was expected to cost around $ 976,000.
According to the study, a Committee of Local Emergency Management Coordinators, State Transport Officials and the engineer of the existing detection and warning system concluded that the system in its place, which included monitoring of the water level in 20 floods prone to flooding, “is outdated and is not reliable.”
But According to the minutes From a meeting of the commission of January 2017, Commissioner Thomas Moser suggested that the county could “forget the entire project” if the local partners do not sign.
According to reports, Judge Tom Pollard replied: “Just dead in the water.”
