After lethal floods killed greater than 100 folks in Texas’ Hill Nation final July, officers vowed main adjustments in hopes of stopping the failures that contributed to the excessive demise toll. They promised higher flood warning techniques, tighter security guidelines for youngsters’s camps and enhancements to the state’s water infrastructure.
That work was removed from executed when a brand new spherical of storms started pummeling the state this week, triggering catastrophic flash floods in a number of the identical areas devastated in 2025. At the very least two folks died. Lots of wanted rescue.
However residents in some hard-hit areas mentioned a yr of preparation did make a distinction. Newly put in flood sirens sounded within the darkness, warning folks to get out. Telephones buzzed with alerts that weren’t despatched out in final yr’s catastrophe.
Nonetheless, tales of individuals shocked to seek out their properties inundated by rising rivers illustrate the challenges of attempting to bolster early warning techniques in an unlimited, rural space often called Flash Flood Alley.
During the last decade, quite a lot of Texas state and native companies missed alternatives to implement flood warning techniques alongside the Guadalupe River, the AP reported after final summer season’s floods killed 136 folks, together with 28 at a sleepaway camp for ladies.
That modified after the tragedy as lawmakers and others scrutinized a scarcity of preparedness by authorities companies and riverside camps.
Not like final summer season, when native officers in Kerr County mentioned that they had been reluctant to “cry wolf” and order evacuations and didn’t ship out wi-fi alerts to warn of flash floods, Kerr County issued 4 alerts and town of Kerrville issued one early on Thursday as the chance for flooding turned obvious, in line with an Related Press evaluate of obtainable knowledge.
They warned residents alongside Quinlan Creek to evacuate to larger floor, and of “extraordinarily harmful” flash flooding. These alerts got here alongside flood watches, warnings and emergencies despatched to broadcast retailers, climate radios and cellphones by the Nationwide Climate Service. Individuals who signed up for the CodeRED notification emergency system in Kerr County additionally obtained textual content message warnings.
“Final yr, we acquired no alarms. We had no concept what was occurring,” mentioned Suzanne Sutphin Gschwind, of Kerrville.
“This yr, very totally different,” she mentioned, with a number of texts and calls coming in from native authorities, a climate channel and her doorbell digital camera. One evening the warnings arrived “about each two hours.”
“I feel we’d all prefer to err on the facet of an excessive amount of,” she mentioned.
Between the early morning hours of Tuesday and about 9 a.m. Thursday, the Nationwide Climate Service despatched 38 alerts to folks in sure southwest Texas communities, together with 14 twister warnings and 24 warnings that flooding was occurring or imminent and could possibly be “life threatening.”
These Climate Service notifications, although, typically don’t comprise the extremely localized info put in alerts typically despatched by municipal and county emergency companies — and folks in some locations might not have gotten any of these native alerts, which may be extra decisive for folks contemplating whether or not to hunt excessive floor.
An Related Press evaluate of wi-fi emergency alert knowledge didn’t discover any listed as despatched by companies in Uvalde County, which was hit onerous by flooding, although companies in that county might need used different means to alert the general public.
Jaclyn Gonzales was woke up at 2 a.m. Wednesday by a buddy who referred to as to warn {that a} twister is perhaps headed towards her Uvalde-area dwelling. When she jumped off the bed, the ground was moist.
“It was the shock of the water to my toes that made me actually get up,” she mentioned.
Kat Sprawls solely realized floodwaters have been nearing her Batesville dwelling when a buddy referred to as her at 3:30 a.m. Friday. It took 5 – 6 calls earlier than she awoke, as a result of she had her telephone on do-not-disturb mode.
“There isn’t any warning system in any respect. It is similar to the flood in Kerrville final yr — we had no warnings,” Sprawls mentioned. “Over half of Batesville is beneath water now.”
Zavala County Sheriff’s Division secretary Jessica Belmarez mentioned the division is updating its Fb web page with evacuation info and that legislation enforcement officers have been going door-to-door in affected areas, together with Batesville.
Newly put in sirens in Ingram and in Kerr and Kendall counties have been used this week to warn residents, mentioned state Sen. Paul Bettencourt, who authored laws in 2025 to assist fund the sirens. Twenty-eight extra counties are additionally eligible for flood warning funding. Most are within the strategy of placing collectively implementation plans for evaluate by the Texas Water Growth Board.
“Between the outside sirens, and the cellphone alerts, the response was very optimistic in getting folks out of the best way and to larger floor,” Bettencourt mentioned. “It’s an infinite enchancment over a yr in the past.”
Three of six new sirens put in in Kerr County have been used to warn folks to hunt excessive floor, mentioned Tara Bushnoe, supervisor of the Higher Guadalupe River Authority. The opposite three have been in areas with solely minor flooding, Bushnoe mentioned.
The small city of Consolation had one warning siren for years. The volunteer fireplace division just lately put in two extra.
“Some folks simply don’t need to go away — that’s our drawback right here,” mentioned Danny Morales, the assistant fireplace chief. “However we did set them off twice, most likely an hour from one to a different, simply because we had folks simply lingering, and never wanting to maneuver.”
Ian Cunningham based River Sentry after the 2025 floods, constructing flood siren towers for privately owned websites like RV parks, camps and lodges. The sirens are triggered by rising water ranges.
To date, the corporate has put in 104 sirens alongside the Guadalupe River, Cunningham mentioned, together with a number of close to the location of an RV park the place greater than three dozen folks died in 2025.
“We put in them about three months in the past and didn’t anticipate them for use so quickly,” Cunningham mentioned.
Hononu, which has developed water-level sensor know-how and a real-time knowledge community, obtained a state contract that may make it simpler for companies to buy its flood warning know-how.
Watch Obligation, a fire-tracking app utilized by tens of millions, expanded earlier this yr to assist monitor floods.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott mentioned the teachings of 2025 led to a greater emergency response this time.
“Everyone in Texas has been way more ready to take care of what has occurred this yr,” Abbott mentioned throughout a information convention in Uvalde. “Lives have been saved.”
___ Related Press reporters Jamie Stengle in Dallas, Claudia Lauer in Philadelphia and Jesse Bedayn in Uvalde, Texas, contributed to this report.
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