The Kendall County Commissioners Court voted this week to accept a $1 million grant from the Texas Water Development Board for flood warning systems. In September, the Texas Legislature approved more than $50 million in funding for flood warning systems and flood mitigation projects for counties affected by floods in July — including Kerr, Bexar, Kendall, Comal, Travis and Williamson counties.
Kerr County officials this week also voted to accept a $1 million grant and transfer their funds to a local river management agency, which will manage the installation process.
The flooding along the Guadalupe River killed 119 people in Kerr County. Nine of those bodies were recovered along the Guadalupe River in Kendall County .
Kendall County Judge Shane Stolarczyk said in July that no Kendall County residents died in the Guadalupe River flood, and that the "primary loss was to property."
Comfort, a community on the border of Kendall and Kerr counties, suffered the brunt of the property damage in Kendall County , officials said.
"A group of county employees has already met once, and is planning on meeting later this month to discuss the areas within the county that would warrant a siren and/or flood detection equipment, as well as to review the companies that could possibly provide this type of equipment to the county," Kendall County grant coordinator and former county commissioner Christina Peese said during the commissioners court's meeting this week.
Peese said that while it has yet to be determined if the warning sirens upstream in Kerr County would be synched to sirens in Kendall County , there has been talk of all "surrounding counties to go with the same company" to better integrate emergency response between the counties.
In and around the Hill Country, the Guadalupe River flows down from Kendall County through Comal and Guadalupe counties.
"We were given assurances that (Kerr County) believes no matter what the product they choose, it should be able to interface," Stolarczyck said."It's important to get that upstream information to us to have the best response."
Kerr County officials signed off on an agreement to transfer their $1 million in state funding to the Upper Guadalupe River Authority to be used in creating a flood warning system along the river. The agreement says county officials plan on asking the state for more money, saying the $1 million is "insufficient to install all desired flood warning systems."
The Upper Guadalupe River Authority, commonly known as UGRA, is the agency that manages the stretch of the Guadalupe River that runs through Kerr County.
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