More than two dozen Texas counties are in the process of mapping out where outdoor warning signs would be most effective during flash floods. The work is the result of the deadly 2025 Hill Country floods.
More than two dozen Texas counties are in the process of mapping out where outdoor warning signs would be most effective during flash floods. The work is the result of the deadly “By the time we had gotten the kids ready to get on to the roof, because we knew we had to get to the roof, and opened the back door, the water flooded in,” said Kerr County resident, Corey Jones.
Jones and her family live in the Bumble Bee Hills subdivision between Hunt and Ingram in Kerr County. During last year’s flood Jones and her family had to climb on to the roof of their home to escape the rising water.
“We took well over four feet of water in here,” said Spencer Offenbacker. “Water came in from the river and from what’s called Bumble Bee creek on the backside. ” Jones said the family didn’t receive weather alerts on their phones until after the water rushed in to their home.
“I had been looking through my weather app and there was like 4 weather statements and by the time I got to the fourth one, that was the one that said in all caps, ‘seek higher ground,’” said Jones. “I think it would make me move faster, absolutely, it would have been nice to have a little bit more of a heads up,” said Jones.
Experiences like Jones and Offenbacker’s are why lawmakers passed Senate Bill 3 during a special session of the legislature in 2025. The new law makes $50 million available for counties to install outdoor flood warning sirens.
“Whenever you lose over a hundred citizens, you can either ignore the problem or recognize the obvious and let’s fix the problem,” said State Sen. Paul Bettencourt/ Dist. 7. Bettencourt authored SB 3 and believes sirens will help overcome alert fatigue and fill-in the gaps in areas of the state where cell and internet service is spotty.
In short, Bettencourt said people are apt to react a lot faster to the sound of a siren than an alert on their phone.
“The reality is that you don’t have to have them evacuate the county, you just have to get them up the hill and out of harm’s way,” said Bettencourt. The 30 counties eligible for these funds include those that were part of Governor Greg Abbott’s disaster declaration in July 2025. The Texas Water Development Board is tasked with implementing SB 3. Counties are eligible to receive up $1 million to install outdoor sirens.
Additional funding is available based on approved plans and need. To qualify for the $1 million, counties have until Dec. 31 to submit final plans as to where sirens will be installed and what type of sirens will be used. Counties then have until Aug. 1, 2027 to submit final invoices for work.
“I think we have identified possibly 12 potential locations in Real County,” said county judge Bella Rubio. “There’s just a lot of parameters that once the locations are solidified, then phase two will be, okay, what’s it going to take to get them operable? ”Interim Uvalde County judge Jerry Bates said he is also looking at 12 locations for siren installation. Bates and Rubio drove KPRC 2 through “hotspots” in their counties where they are considering installing sirens.
Many of the areas include those with youth camps, vacation lodges, campgrounds and subdivisions near rivers, creeks and tributaries. Rubio added many of the areas have experienced flooding at some point.
“Some people don’t take the warning that when the manager goes down to tell them, ‘hey, you need to get packed up and get ready to get out of here,’” said Bates. Rubio said her concern is on-going maintenance of sirens and the accompanying equipment. She said her county likely can’t afford the annual expense.
Bettencourt addressed that concern by saying the legislature will consider alternative funding for counties, but until all the systems are in place they won’t be able to estimate annual costs. The Upper Guadalupe River Authority already moved ahead with installing six sirens in Kerr County, which experienced the greatest loss of life during the 2025 flood, including the deaths at Camp Mystic.
Officials with the UGRA said sirens were installed to support youth camps along the north and south forks of the Guadalupe River in the western part of the county. UGRA officials said more sirens will also be installed in other areas of the county prone to flash floods. This works is also reversal from a decision by Kerr County officials in 2017 not to install sirens.
KPRC 2 reported minutes from commissioner’s court meetings showed cost and pushback from the public as the reasons not to install sirens. Officials in the neighboring Kendall County town of Comfort refurbished their flood siren prior to the 2025 flood. The siren was activated during the floods and county officials believe it helped save lives. Award winning investigative journalist who joined KPRC 2 in July 2000.
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