"They didn't want to pay for it": Texas flood-hit county opted not to install siren warning system

A siren system, similar to the one used during tornadoes, could have been in operation in Kerr County, Texas, which was devastated by flooding from the Guadalupe River and surrounding streams early Friday morning. But despite the area's frequent flash floods, nothing was done, and conventional alerts—mostly via cell phone text messages—failed to prevent a massive death toll, the worst river flooding tragedy in decades in the U.S.

As of Sunday night, early Monday morning in Spain, the death toll reached 81 in that county and other surrounding counties. But dozens were still missing, and as the hours passed, the hope of finding them alive grew dimmer. At least 28 of the deceased were children. Most were girls who attended Camp Mystic, a Christian summer camp on the banks of the Guadalupe River, where nearly 750 children gather each week during the summer months. Ten girls from that camp remain missing, along with one of their counselors.

Alongside the frantic search for survivors, questions are growing about why the warning systems didn't work better, something that could have prevented many deaths. One question is why the siren warning system didn't exist, which could have had a positive impact given the conditions in which the natural disaster occurred. The Guadalupe River burst its banks violently and in the early hours of the morning, when most people were asleep. The river's rise was historic: it went from a level 2 meters above normal to almost nine meters above normal in just three hours.

The National Weather Service (NWS) issued flood warnings beginning Thursday afternoon, predicting heavy rains. Then, as the situation worsened from midnight Thursday into Friday, it sent out flash flood alerts. And shortly after 4:00 a.m., it issued an urgent alert for the possibility of catastrophic damage and a severe threat to human life. Many residents were unaware . Some have told the local press that they didn't receive any alerts on their phones. Others, that they were caught sleeping and didn't hear them. Still others, who did see them, paid little attention, because flooding is common in this region.

"One problem with that is that for most people in that area, a flash flood means something else, not what happened," Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, argued at a press conference. "There's a possibility of a flash flood, but a wall of water almost 30 feet high wasn't expected," he said.

"What you need is an external system, like a tornado warning that tells people they need to get out immediately," Christopher Flowers, a neighbor who woke up when he started hearing sparks in his home near the Guadalupe River as water entered the electrical systems, told the AP. He and his family were saved by climbing onto the roof, but he believes more people could have done the same with sirens. And it may have been a reality that never materialized. Kerr County authorities proposed installing a siren system in 2017. The reason was a tragedy caused by another flood, which occurred two years earlier in a nearby county.

Rob Kelly, the Kerr County judge and its highest authority, said it wasn't done because it was too expensive. The county has a budget of about $67 million a year, and they couldn't get a grant that would have provided $1 million to pay for part of the project. "The taxpayers didn't want to pay for it," Kelly told The New York Times. A county commissioner at the time voted against spending $50,000 on the engineering study to analyze the project . "That's all a little extravagant for Kerr County, with sirens and all that," he told local press at the time.

But the absence of sirens doesn't end the scrutiny of the authorities' actions. For example, questions are being raised about why the evacuation of camps along the Guadalupe River, such as Mystic Camp, wasn't ordered. Kerrville Town Manager Dalton Rice avoided explaining what type of alerts the town issued or why the camp wasn't evacuated. He simply stated that there will be a "full review" of what happened and that "unfortunately, the rain fell at the most inopportune time and in the most inopportune areas."

There are also concerns about the NWS's warning system, a federal agency that provides information to local authorities. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, under Donald Trump, asserted that the NSW uses an "outdated system" and defended the current White House's claim that it is working to improve its technology.

But at the same time, these are the types of services being cut, both at the federal level and at the state level in Texas. Trump himself was asked about this this Sunday as he returned to Washington aboard Air Force One. He argued that the cuts had nothing to do with what happened. "The system came from Biden, it's not our system," he said, referring to his predecessor, Joe Biden, although he quickly avoided blaming the previous administration. "But I wouldn't blame Biden either. It's a once-in-a-hundred-years catastrophe, it's horrible for everyone," said the president, who announced he would visit the affected area in Texas this Friday.