{"id":378565,"date":"2026-07-19T10:30:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T10:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/378565\/"},"modified":"2026-07-19T10:30:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T10:30:08","slug":"as-texas-rivers-rise-again-hill-country-lawmaker-says-the-state-needs-to-provide-more-funding-for-flood-sirens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/378565\/","title":{"rendered":"As Texas rivers rise again, Hill Country lawmaker says the state needs to provide more funding for flood sirens"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rivers are rising in the Texas Hill Country<\/a> once again after last week’s heavy rains pummeled the region.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Governor Greg Abbott said flood sirens installed by the state and private businesses worked. While state lawmakers approved $50 million in funding last year for sirens, flood gauges and sensors, Representative Wes Virdell<\/a>\u00a0(R-Brady) told CBS News Texas that it wasn’t enough money.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I think the concern is the amount of money allotted to the sirens<\/a>,” said Virdell. “Just in Kerr County, we were talking to one of the groups that were looking at, ‘How do we get the sirens spread across the county?’ And it was going to be around $40 million to get enough sirens based on the mandates required by the state. The state did not fund anywhere near that amount, so I think there is a challenge on how do we put them in, how do we maintain them, and how do we afford them?”<\/p>\n

Virdell’s district includes much of Central Texas. He said other lawmakers are aware of the need.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“If you think about it, let’s say there are 29 counties that they’re supposed to put them in, and just in Kerr County, they’re estimating a cost of about $40 million, and so there’s really not enough money when you spread it across all those counties,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The next legislative session is set to begin in January.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The new concerns are taking place one year after the deadly and tragic floods in Central Texas claimed the lives of more than 130 people.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With the Guadalupe River behind him on Thursday afternoon, Virdell described the conditions he saw.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“One of the problems we have right now, which is most of our vegetation, got swept away last year, and the water is flowing a lot faster than it did last year,” said Virdell.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“In the more downstream areas like Kerrville, Ingram, and Centerpoint. Those took a heavy, heavy toll there. The water is as high, potentially, or even higher than it was last year.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Governor Greg Abbott warned Friday that while the rain may have ended, the region’s rivers will continue to rise.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Watch Eye On Politics at 7:30 Sunday morning on CBS News Texas on air and streaming<\/p>\n

Follow Jack on X & Instagram: @cbs11jack\u00a0<\/p>\n

In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rivers are rising in the Texas Hill Country once again after last week’s heavy rains pummeled the region.\u00a0…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378566,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3576,100181,392,27,29,293,28,292],"class_list":["post-378565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-flooding","tag-floodwaters","tag-greg-abbott","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-legislature","tag-texas-news","tag-texas-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378565","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=378565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378565\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}