A Decade of Delay: Kerr County and Texas’ Flood-Warning Failures

Opinion · From the Publisher
By Marvin Willis, Publisher, Hill Country Visitor Magazine

A Coast Guard aircrew flies above Kerrville on July 10, 2025, during the flood response. Photo: Petty Officer 3rd Class Carmen Caver / U.S. Coast Guard, via DVIDS. Public domain. View original photograph.

Kerr County lost 119 people in the July 4, 2025 flood. Behind that number are children, parents, neighbors and visitors whose families will carry the loss for the rest of their lives. They deserve a full accounting of the decisions made before the river rose. ^[1]

For years, local officials discussed improving flood warnings along the Guadalupe River. Funding applications, budget decisions and state programs came and went. When the disaster arrived, the proposed modern warning system still had not been built. ^[2]

In my view, the record supports a conclusion that reaches beyond one office or one rejected grant: Kerr County’s local institutions failed to finish a necessary safety project, and the State of Texas failed to make its assistance effective enough to get that project across the finish line.

A known danger, an unfinished project

By 2016, county officials were discussing the need for better monitoring and alerts. They knew neighboring counties had more advanced systems. They also knew cell service near the Guadalupe’s headwaters was unreliable. Kerr County already used CodeRED, and the National Weather Service issued warnings during the 2025 event. The missing investment was a stronger local system with additional ways to reach people when phone alerts were inadequate. ^[3]^[4] The distinction matters: the Associated Press reported that officials dropped sirens from an earlier proposal and instead pursued sensors and monitoring, leaving public notification to local authorities. The unfunded proposals were not all identical siren projects. ^[2]

The financing history shows failures on both sides. According to Associated Press reporting, an early request through the Texas Division of Emergency Management failed because the county did not meet federal requirements, including having a current hazard mitigation plan. A later attempt lost out when funding went to communities affected by Hurricane Harvey. Kerrville’s City Council also voted 4–0 to withdraw from a proposal requiring a $50,000 city contribution. ^[2]

Local leaders had responsibilities beyond submitting applications. Keeping eligibility documents current, committing local money and pursuing alternatives were part of making the project happen. State leaders, meanwhile, should explain how a known flood danger remained unresolved through successive funding cycles.

The choices behind the budgets

Other spending decisions deserve scrutiny. Kerr County received approximately $10.2 million through the American Rescue Plan Act. The Texas Tribune reported that it allocated $7 million to a public safety radio system and additional money to personnel and other projects, while leaving flood-warning improvements unfunded. Radios serve an important public purpose. Residents still deserve an explanation of why the warning project remained outside those priorities. ^[3]

The Upper Guadalupe River Authority’s finances raise another question. The Texas Sunset Advisory Commission documented about $3.4 million in reserves at the end of fiscal 2021, accumulated for a water-supply project that proved unviable. In August 2022, UGRA approved lowering its tax rate and spending down reserves through expanded programs. The existence of those funds warrants a public explanation of why flood-warning upgrades did not become a funded priority. ^[5]

Then came the 2024 offer: a $50,000 state grant and a $950,000 interest-free loan toward a $1 million warning project. UGRA declined to pursue it. That decision deserves examination, including the authority’s assessment of repayment costs and its failure to secure another workable path before the flood. ^[6]

Texas must answer for its side of that offer, too. Its outright grant covered just 5 percent of the project. Reporting by ProPublica and The Texas Tribune found that at least 90 local governments had declined state flood grants and loans over five years, often because grants covered too little of the cost. That pattern raises serious questions about whether the program’s terms matched the practical needs of communities it was intended to protect. The water board defended its approach as an effort to fund as many projects as possible statewide. ^[6]

UGRA declined the package. Graphic: Hill Country Visitor Magazine; source: Associated Press.

State funding and unfinished legislation

Texas had invested in flood preparedness elsewhere. Its 2015 allocation of $6.8 million supported monitoring, forecasting and local projects. In 2016, state grants included $265,150 for Bandera’s early-warning project and $500,000 for Hays County. Bandera’s river authority documents a completed Medina River monitoring and flood-mapping project in May 2019. These were separate awards to specific recipients; they did not establish that Kerr County received money and diverted it. ^[7]^[8]

The Legislature also left a broader warning-and-communications proposal unfinished before the disaster. House Bill 13 passed the House in April 2025 but remained in the Senate Finance Committee. It addressed emergency coordination and alert systems. Its proposed September effective date fell after the flood, so its failure cannot fairly be presented as proof that passing it would have prevented the July deaths. It does add to the record of preparedness measures left incomplete. ^[4]^[9]

Progress after the tragedy

After the tragedy, Texas approved $50 million for flood sirens, gauges and related equipment across 30 disaster-declared counties. By May 15, 2026, the first six new sirens in western Kerr County had been installed and tested, according to a Texas Senate announcement. Those improvements deserve support. They also make the years of delay harder to accept. ^[10]^[11]

There has been further progress since then. In a July 16, 2026 announcement, Sen. Paul Bettencourt reported that the new sirens sounded during renewed flooding in Kerr County. That is a meaningful step forward. It does not settle the questions about the decisions that preceded July 2025. ^[12]

Accountability must continue

No one can establish exactly which lives an earlier system would have saved. The purpose of preparedness is to give people more opportunities to survive when conditions turn dangerous. A river community should have multiple warning methods, dependable communications, clear evacuation instructions and trained people authorized to act.

Accountability now requires public records that connect each decision to a date, an agency and a result. Residents deserve the grant applications and rejection letters, the votes and budgets, the contracts and payments, and a clear statement of which warning equipment is operating. They also deserve tested activation procedures, assigned responsibility for maintenance and regular public updates.

The families who lost someone deserve more than explanations that end with another agency’s name. Kerr County and Texas had years to work together on this danger. Their obligation now is to explain the delay honestly and make warning preparedness a continuing responsibility, funded and practiced long before the next flood.

Sources

This opinion article draws on the public records and reporting linked above.

The appearance of U.S. Department of War (DoW) visual information does not imply or constitute DoW endorsement.

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