🔥 Fresh News: Amid new Texas regulation, officers concern about flood caution siren ‘confusion’

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MARTINDALE, Texas (KXAN) — At exactly 6 p.m. on a Thursday, the mayor of Martindale stopped what she was once doing and appeared to the sky. A countdown, which had began moments previous, signaled it was once time to start out.

“We’ve were given to be making plans at this time sooner than it occurs once more,” she had advised us weeks sooner than this second. “Because it is going to occur once more.”

Mayor Laura Sanchez Fowler presides over this tiny town of about 1,200 citizens nestled alongside the San Marcos River in Caldwell County, about 45 miles south of Austin. In 2015, dozens of houses had been flooded over Memorial Day weekend after a large hurricane blanketed the world. Across the area, 13 other folks died.

After the hot July 4 floods killed a minimum of 135 other folks, Sanchez Fowler had one idea: “That can have been us.”

Just a couple of toes away a caution siren started to blare — a take a look at appearing the paintings to stop every other tragedy was once already underway.

‘Everything conceivable to offer protection to lives’

Nearly two months after Gov. Greg Abbott signed a brand new regulation requiring outside caution sirens in 30 flood-prone spaces — together with a mandate to “frequently take a look at” them — a KXAN investigation exposed flood-prone Central Texas counties and not using a unmarried one in position. The state does not monitor sirens, so we combed via on-line data and reached out to just about two dozen Texas counties.

The end result: 10 counties these days don’t have any sirens. Most are positioned in spaces the Federal Emergency Management Agency considers to be a somewhat reasonable to top menace of flooding.

Under Senate Bill 3, handiest the counties Abbott incorporated in his July crisis declaration are eligible for grants to pay for sirens. Burnet and Travis counties, which these days do not need sirens and qualify for state help beneath the brand new regulation, are actually having a look to put in them.

“In mild of the passage of SB3, we can be making plans and assessing spaces that may be maximum really helpful for the set up of those methods,” stated Burnet County Emergency Management Coordinator Derek Marchio.

The Texas Water Development Board will determine “menace spaces” inside crisis house counties that will have to upload caution sirens, Travis County spokesperson Hector Nieto stated, including, after that, his county will “resolve the following steps to conform to SB3.”

The new state grant cash will make certain flood-prone spaces, like Kerr County, are “going to have the caution methods they want” by means of subsequent summer season, Abbott stated at a September invoice signing rite with the households of Camp Mystic sufferers.

“If an match like this does happen once more,” Abbott added, “the ones caution methods will pass off in some way that may do the whole thing conceivable to offer protection to lives.”

Across Central Texas, we discovered 5 counties with out caution sirens that weren’t a part of the governor’s crisis declaration: Bastrop, Colorado, Fayette, Gonzales and Lee. Those counties don’t seem to be eligible for state budget beneath the brand new regulation. Gonzales is regarded as a somewhat top menace for flooding, consistent with FEMA.

KXAN reached out to the counties about why they do not have caution sirens and can replace this tale once we obtain a reaction.

In Bell County, there are caution sirens in Killeen, Temple, Belton and Holland. Despite the county being at a “somewhat reasonable” menace for flooding, consistent with FEMA, it isn’t eligible for SB 3 digital marketing to put in further sirens.

“That can be a query for our state legislators,” stated Bell County Judge David Blackburn in an e-mail. “But, I feel, partly, as a result of Bell County was once now not one of the most counties indexed within the Governor’s crisis declarations related to the flood occasions … and the Legislature looked to be fascinated by offering digital marketing centered to precise counties.”

‘She would not be coming house’

Among the grief-stricken households status at the back of the governor as he made SB 3 regulation in early September had been Callie and Michael McCown of Austin. In their first interview, they advised KXAN their eight-year-old daughter, Linnie, by no means must have died all the way through the catastrophic flooding. It was once her first time away at summer season camp.

“She even stated, ‘I do know I’m going to be homesick, however everybody will deal with me,'” Callie recalled. “And she did not come house.”

Linnie attended Camp Mystic, an all-girls’ Christian camp in Kerr County. It is positioned alongside the Guadalupe River — described by means of native officers as “essentially the most unhealthy river valley within the United States” — in a space known as “Flash Flood Alley.” There aren’t any caution sirens there, which officers have said can have made a distinction.

“Yes, sir, senator, there is no query that that can have stored lives,” the president of the Upper Guadalupe River Authority, William Rector, advised lawmakers all the way through a listening to held in Kerrville in July.

In 2017, the UGRA had warned about the opportunity of “monstrous and devastating flash floods.”

Wearing crimson “Heaven’s 27” buttons and colourful bracelets representing the names of the women who had been killed, Callie described how Linnie liked to bounce and carry out gymnastics. She was once the center kid of 2 boys.

“She was once the glue of our circle of relatives. I considered her as my best possible pal,” Callie stated. “She was once the kid in class that everybody described as at all times together with others. She by no means sought after someone to be ignored. She had a contagious snigger, was once so foolish and humorous, and simply so candy.”

“She was once my angel,” Michael added.

In August, Kerr County commissioners tasked a workforce with growing a management to enforce an automatic county-wide flood caution device that can give “good enough caution of an approaching, lifestyles threatening flood in enough time for other folks in peril to succeed in protection.”

By the top of the 12 months, the workforce goals to have a management in position for its design, scaling and trying out, former Kerr County Commissioner Tom Moser stated all the way through a September replace. The staff will assist get ready grant programs and requests for proposals, he added. According to their timeline, contractors might be decided on sooner than March of subsequent 12 months with trying out beginning by means of June.

KXAN reached out to Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly together with the 5 county commissioners to invite for extra information about new sirens. We additionally emailed the county’s spokeswoman thrice, texted and left a voicemail. We didn’t pay attention again.

Linnie’s oldsters stated sirens “completely” can have made a distinction in sounding the alarm for Camp Mystic to evacuate.

‘I’ll take duty’

The loud wailing, emanating from a towering siren subsequent to Martindale’s water tower, might be heard for miles.

The Oct. 2 take a look at was once the primary in years.

For Mayor Sanchez Fowler, who was once elected two months sooner than the floods, solving her town’s two damaged and long-ignored sirens turned into a concern after July 4.

They had been as soon as once more operational inside two weeks, she stated. Under the brand new regulation, state grant cash may assist pay for long run additions.

The two sirens had been at first put in in 2018 at a price of not up to $20,000, she stated. At some level, they stopped operating. Today, Police Chief Tommy Ward is liable for urgent a chain of buttons on his moveable radio to turn on the alarms within the match of a climate emergency. He admits, for years, the town failed to test to peer if the sirens even labored.

“From whilst you had been appointed in 2021 till now in 2025, how come you did not forestall to invite, ‘Why don’t seem to be those sirens operating?'” requested KXAN investigative reporter Matt Grant.

“You know, that is on me. I’ll take that. I simply assumed that they had been operating by means of the county and that the county maintained them,” Ward stated. “I’ll take duty for that.”

The tower has at all times been radio-activated however “in some way, through the years, the radio simply turned into inoperative,” Ward stated.

After the flooding in Kerrville, the town bought a brand new radio.

Steps clear of one siren, beneath a transparent blue sky dotted with clouds, the San Marcos River lightly and gently flowed. Standing subsequent to the water, Ward is aware of it might upward push “at any second.” That’s why the town is now dedicated to creating a metamorphosis.

This siren take a look at will proceed per month.

“We’re now not going to take any further possibilities,” Ward stated.

A layered digital tools

State Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, driven for river sirens days after the fatal floods. At the time, he advised KXAN that cellular indicators don’t seem to be sufficient. Holding up his mobile phone, he complained it’s “too overloaded” with a wide variety of indicators that most of the people simply track out.

“You need to take a look at to get as many possibilities to get the general public’s consideration that bother is at the method,” he advised KXAN on July 7.

The basic grievance round caution sirens facilities on the truth that they are able to be dear, require regimen upkeep and are handiest intended to be heard outdoor.

“I do suppose they’ve their position, however a large number of occasions in case you’re indoors, particularly 4 o’clock within the morning when it’s pouring down rain, the possibility goes to be that you just’re now not going to listen to the ones sirens,” Rep. Wes Virdell, R-Brady, whose district comprises Kerr County, advised KXAN in July.

Virdell, who sat at the House Select Committee on Disaster Preparedness and Flooding, cautioned that govt “now and again has the issue of overreacting to a state of affairs” and stated the “actual query” is “when’s the proper time to ship indicators out and are we sending too many indicators out at this time?”

Ultimately, he voted in prefer of SB 3.

In Martindale, mins after the take a look at ended, the mayor and police leader won stories that the sirens were not heard indoors, a minimum of in some instances.

They additionally said every other grievance: sirens may also be complicated.

In addition to generating a caution sign for floods, the Martindale sirens additionally sound the alarm for tornadoes. Both indicators had been examined back-to-back. The problem for this neighborhood, and others, is ensuring other folks know what the other threat alarm tones imply — and the best way to react.

“We don’t need any person working out in the event that they pay attention a twister caution,” Ward stated.

City leaders say the sirens will probably be used along different extra fashionable strategies — like cellular textual content indicators despatched to someone positioned within the house.

“We want to train everybody about what the ones sirens in truth imply,” stated Dr. Keri Stephens, who teaches crisis and disaster conversation on the University of Texas at Austin. “I’d say the largest problem with them is that if other folks do not know what that sound seems like than they are able to be puzzled.”

As for a way citizens can inform the adaptation between a siren signaling them to refuge in position and one that is caution them to evacuate, she stated, “I’m now not conscious about any method to do this at this time.”

Stephens was once lately awarded a federal grant to check why some camps and different places did evacuate all the way through the floods and whether or not caution sirens can have performed a task. Still, she stated whilst sirens are efficient, they’re just one a part of a “layered” resolution that are supposed to additionally come with cellular indicators and public training.

Just digital marketing sirens is “in no way” sufficient, she stated.

In July, KXAN reported how every other town, San Marcos, touted its 14 caution sirens as a “important software” for emergency preparedness. Yet, over the weekend, the town’s sirens didn’t turn on all the way through a climate match that incorporated a twister caution, the town stated, blaming a “server malfunction.”

“We know the way vital it’s for our neighborhood to really feel assured that those methods will paintings all the way through emergencies, and we’re treating this with the urgency it merits,” the town wrote in a social media publish.

The sirens additionally did not sound in May. San Marcos officers stated they had been briefly grew to become off because of popular confusion that they signaled a twister reasonably than a flood.

At the time, the town stated it was once “operating to reinforce public training round what the sirens imply in numerous emergency situations” so citizens “know the way to reply” after they pay attention them pass off. The objective, officers stated, is to “care for believe within the device as a competent software for public protection.” 

For counties that do not need sirens, like Kerr, digital marketing is steadily cited as an element.

That excuse, a minimum of for greater than two dozen counties, is not an possibility anymore, stated Matthew Childress.

His 18-year-old daughter, Chloe, died all the way through the flooding at Camp Mystic, the place she was once a counselor.

“It’s yet another layer of coverage,” he stated in regards to the new siren regulation. “One extra layer … to let other people have the option to evacuate.”

The McCowns stated additionally they consider sirens — together with a slate of latest camp protection reforms signed into regulation — will save lives. This month, a brand new Texas House and Senate joint committee was once shaped to analyze “contributing elements” that ended in 27 other folks death at Camp Mystic. The committee will take a look at movements taken at different formative years summer season camps, read about details and cases surrounding the floods and search for tactics to “support the state’s preparedness and reaction to flooding and different herbal screw ups.”

“The tragedy at Camp Mystic and the flooding screw ups this summer season have left a devastating have an effect on on Texas households, communities, and our complete state,” stated Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock. “As Texans paintings to rebuild and get better, it’s the accountability of the legislature to grasp what went fallacious and make sure our state is healthier ready for long run emergencies.”

Recently, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick stated he was once “stunned” over Camp Mystic’s determination to partly reopen subsequent summer season “with such a lot of questions unanswered about what took place” on July 4. In a letter to lawmakers, Camp Mystic stated it helps efforts to make camps and communities alongside the Guadalupe River more secure and invited committee participants to excursion the valuables so as “to be informed precisely what took place.”

The McCowns, in the meantime, are satisfied Linnie’s dying may “100%” were avoided. Now, they hope her reminiscence will probably be a caution that may assist save others.

“I do not like that my daughter needed to die for this to happen,” Callie stated of the brand new legislative adjustments. “I are not looking for another father or mother to must endure the best way that we’ve got suffered — and can endure for the remainder of our lives.”

Digital Data Reporter Christopher Adams, Graphic Artist Wendy Gonzalez, Director of Investigations & Innovation Josh Hinkle, Photojournalist Tim Holcomb, Investigative Photojournalist Chris Nelson, Digital Special Projects Developer Robert Sims and Digital Director Kate Winkle contributed to this file.

📅 Published on 2025-10-28 12:00:00

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