Kerr County moving forward with multi-phase flood warning system

Kerr County officials agreed to move forward with a multi-phase flood warning system designed to provide life-saving alerts to residents in flood-prone areas of the Hill Country.  The Kerr County Commissioners’ Court unanimously approved the motion for Kerr County, the Upper Guadalupe River Authority (UGRA), the City of Kerrville and the City of Ingram to present a plan for the system within a month.

Commissioners also discussed draining Ingram Lake and resuming recreational activities along the Guadalupe River following the July 4 floods.

Tom Moser, a former Kerr County Commissioner and a project manager for NASA, outlined a plan for the proposed flood warning systems, describing it as an engineering project.

Moser said the first phase establishes and maintains a system with fully automated capability that provides adequate warning of an impending, life-threatening flood in “sufficient” time for people who could be affected.

The second phase gathers “lessons learned” from catastrophic floods in the past.  The system’s requirements would include predictions based on the National Weather Service, rainfall data, as well as water flow levels and velocities.

The third phase is the construction of the system, which could take more than a year to build, according to Moser.  It involves creating requests for proposals (RFPs) and contracts to establish a system module that could identify a flood through predictions and project the warning to the public.

The fourth phase includes daily testing, emergency management personnel and continued maintenance.

Areas prone to flooding could receive barriers or sirens as part of the system.  Kerr County, Ingram, Kerrville and the GRA will be responsible for different tasks, including flood prediction and projection.  Moser says the entire flood warning systems could cost approximately $5 million.