HOUSTON – State Senator Paul Bettencourt (R) Dist. 7 is working on a bill for the upcoming special session of the Texas legislature. The bill would provide funding to install warning sirens in more flood prone areas of the state.
“What we’re going to try to do is combine old technology with new tech,” said Bettencourt.
Citing federal studies, Bettencourt worries alerts on cell phones can be ignored. A study of the effectiveness of the 2023 Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) national test alert showed, 17.5 percent of adults opted out of one or more WEA alerts.
“An opt-out rate of 17.5 percent should be considered high enough to warrant attention to the concerns or alert fatigue,” read the study by the Homeland Security Operational Analysis Center.
Plus, many camp goers are not allowed to bring cell phones to ensure an electronic-free experience.
“I think sirens are good old tech, because everybody understands when you hear sirens, you got trouble coming,” said Bettencourt. “You could deploy these towers in the camps and that way if people hear the siren, they take action.”
Whether sirens would have mitigated the staggering loss life during the flooding in Kerr County is not clear. Flood waters rose quickly in the dark, pre-dawn hours. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration gauge in Hunt showed the river level rising from 9-feet to more than 37-feet between 2:50am and 5:10am. NOAA reports 22-feet is considered a major flood at that spot along the Guadalupe river.
Still, many neighboring counties have warning sirens installed.
2 Investigates reported Kerr County tired to upgrade it’s flood warning system as far back as 2016, but never secured the funding. However, retired Precinct 2 Commissioner, Tom Moser told KPRC 2 sirens were not part of the proposed system.
Moser said when a proposed plan was presented to community leaders in 2016 many expressed concern about sirens.
“They were worried about false alarms, so we pursued funding without the siren option,” said Moser.
Lawmakers failed to pass a bill last session that would have created a new state agency to oversee improving first responder communications and emergency alert systems.
House Bill 13 was filed in response to the 2024 wildfires in the Texas Panhandle and would have created the Texas Interoperability Council, which would have also overseen grants to local governments to improve communication between different first responder agencies and emergency alert systems.
The bill passed the House but was never given a hearing in the Senate. The upcoming special session starts on July 21st.
