{"id":354397,"date":"2026-06-29T14:00:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T14:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/354397\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T14:00:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T14:00:10","slug":"one-year-after-texas-hill-country-floods-ugra-and-kerr-county-roll-out-flood-warning-system-houston-public-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/354397\/","title":{"rendered":"One year after Texas Hill Country floods, UGRA and Kerr County roll out flood warning system \u2013 Houston Public Media"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\"TheThe floodwaters on Friday, July 4, 2025. (Jack Morgan | TPR)<\/p>\n

Sign up for TPR Today<\/a>, Texas Public Radio\u2019s newsletter that brings our top stories to your inbox each morning.<\/p>\n

Nearly a year after Fourth of July flooding in the Hill Country left 139 people dead and one person still missing, residents gathered in Hunt on Thursday for an update on a new flood warning system being developed by the Upper Guadalupe River Authority and Kerr County.<\/p>\n

The system includes sirens, rain gauges and mobile alerts designed to give residents more time to react to rising water.<\/p>\n

\u201cIntense rain in our headwaters is what we\u2019re trying to detect. And so that\u2019s where the rain gauges are going to be concentrated,\u201d said Tara Bushnoe, who manages the Upper Guadalupe River Authority.<\/p>\n

Bushnoe said the goal is to provide earlier and more accurate information about flood threats.<\/p>\n

Residents also raised questions about who will be responsible when the next emergency strikes.<\/p>\n

RELATED: After the Flood podcast<\/a><\/p>\n

After last year\u2019s floods caught local officials off guard, attendees sought clearer answers about who will make critical decisions during future emergencies.<\/p>\n

One resident posed a question that echoed a concern raised throughout the meeting:<\/p>\n

\u201cWho\u2019s in charge of the big picture? If you saw a flow chart, who\u2019s kinda in charge?\u201d<\/p>\n

Bushnoe responded that \u201cright now it\u2019s UGRA and Kerr County.\u201d<\/p>\n

County officials declined to speak with the media, but residents attending the meeting expressed a range of views about the project.<\/p>\n

Joanne Williams said she was encouraged by both the technology and the outreach effort.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s fantastic that they\u2019re doing this kind of community outreach,\u201d Williams said.<\/p>\n

Kathleen Cook, who lives about 10 miles west of Hunt, questioned whether the effort goes far enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really think this is just a band-aid that the politicians want to be able to say that yes, we have put sirens to save the people,\u201d Cook said.<\/p>\n

Rebecca Murphy said state leaders ignored earlier warnings about the region\u2019s flood risk.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe state \u2014 they did not fund warning systems; they knew we were at risk after Wimberley. You know, a study was done,\u201d Murphy said.<\/p>\n

At the same time, Murphy said she was encouraged by the warning system now being put in place.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like some efforts are being made to do the right thing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

But she said she wished those efforts had come sooner.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just really sad to close the barn door after all the cattle have escaped,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Officials said additional equipment will be installed in the coming months as they continue refining the warning network.<\/p>\n

Since last year\u2019s floods, state lawmakers have approved funding for flood warning systems<\/a> and other flood mitigation efforts across Texas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The floodwaters on Friday, July 4, 2025. (Jack Morgan | TPR) Sign up for TPR Today, Texas Public…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":354398,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3576,2270,39175,4187,223,1225,27,29,2165,39176,28,12733],"class_list":["post-354397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-flooding","tag-guadalupe-river","tag-july-4-floods","tag-kerr-county","tag-news","tag-public-safety","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-hill-country","tag-texas-hill-country-flooding","tag-texas-news","tag-tpr"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=354397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354397\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/354398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}