Why Kerr County lost bid for flood warning funds
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Kerr County did not receive a grant for a new flood warning system because it wasn't a top priority amid high demand for funding, per documents Axios obtained through an open records request.
The big picture: The Texas Hill Country has a long, documented history of deadly flooding. But Kerr County had not updated its system in the decades before the July Fourth flooding that killed that killed at least 108 people in the county.
- The event is now considered the 10th deadliest flash flood in U.S. history, per Yale Climate Connections.
The latest: Kerrville Mayor Joe Herring told Texas lawmakers last month he wants a flood warning system installed by next summer.
- Improving those systems is on the agenda of the special legislative session, which remains largely on hold with House Democrats out of the state to stall a Republican redistricting effort.
Zoom in: In 2018, county officials sought a nearly $1 million flood warning system that would identify when conditions were dangerous at 10 low-water crossings.
- The system would detect high water and transmit a signal to a radio tower. Local agencies could then develop a website with "up-to-the-minute information," according to the application materials.
- Bexar County has a similar system in place.
The project would have cost just over $925,000, per the grant application. The county sought more than $694,000 in federal funding and would have put up more than $231,000.
How it works: Kerr County applied for funding for the project under the Hurricane Harvey Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, administered by the Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM).
- TDEM received 565 applications asking for a total $4.5 billion, per a March 2020 letter from the division informing the county it did not receive the grant.
- The state had about $1 billion in funding to distribute.
Plus: Kerr County was not a "declared county" under the presidential disaster declaration for Hurricane Harvey, meaning it wasn't given top priority, per the documents Axios obtained.
Flashback: In 1988, one year after deadly flooding, the Upper Guadalupe River Authority raised taxes by nearly 50% to fund an early warning system that later needed upgrades, the Houston Chronicle reported.
- The 2018 grant cycle was not local authorities' only attempt to fund an updated system.
- The river authority also applied for funding for such a system in 2024, general manager Tara Bushnoe told Texas lawmakers last month. But the authority chose not to move forward because of low matching funds, the Texas Tribune reported.
The bottom line: "The destruction and loss of life in the past floods of the Guadalupe River are well known to the people who live or vacation in Kerr County and particularly the UGRA (The Upper Guadalupe River Authority)," a 1988 summary of flood impacts reads.
- "More can be done in Kerr County to provide early warning," officials wrote in 1988 and referenced again in 2018.