Hill Country Flooding Has Fayette Co. Reexamining Its Own Disaster Plans

Emergency management leaders across the Country are paying close attention to the flood response in the Texas Hill Country following the devastating July 4 floods.

Fayette County Emergency Management Coordinator Angela Hahn is no different. She told the Record this week that she’s reviewing local disaster plans in light of the Hill Country floods.

“Whenever you have a disaster like this, people think that somebody has to be to blame,” Hahn said. “That’s just human nature. But the truth of the matter is you cannot predict what a storm is going to do when it sits on top of a region like it has been in the Hill Country.”

But there are some things people can do to prepare. At the top of her list, Hahn said she’s encouraging everyone to sign up for emergency alerts at warncentraltexas.org. It’s the official emergency alert system for this area of Texas. The system sends out emergency alerts to your cell phone.

“But we have to be careful about how we use it,” Hahn said. “We don’t want to put out a lot of messages.”

Hahn said people get “alert fatigue.” Accordingly, Hahn said Fayette County only issues alerts when there is serious risk to life or property. Even then, Hahn said, the County can target those alerts to cell phones in at-risk areas. For example, Hahn said, if there is flooding in the northern part of the County, alerts would go out to the people there and not to folks in, say, Schulenburg.

“We also need to have serious conversations about how to shelter and evacuate people,” Hahn said.

Fayette County does not have an official evacuation shelter. Local churches have opened their facilities to disaster victims in the past, most notably during the Hurricane Harvey flood in 2017.

“The schools are willing to help, but if a disaster hits in the middle of a school year, that’s not a solution,” she said.

Hahn said she’s been having conversations with County Judge Dan Mueller and other leaders about a possible shelter.

Furthermore, Hahn said she’s interested in speaking with local religious leaders about playing a role in disaster response.

“People listen to their pastors,” she said.

Hahn said she believes local pastors could mobilize volunteers from their congregations to assist in disaster recovery. In addition, Hahn said she thinks local churches could play a huge role in managing and distributing resources and donations following a flood or some other disaster.

“Washington County did this 20-plus years ago,” she said. “The Ministerial Alliance became the donation management arm of the City of Brenham and the county.”

Hahn encouraged families to create their own emergency plan.

“Where is your medication, pets, important papers in a bag you can grab and go?” she said. “Do you have a place to meet? A code word? All of that stuff gets people prepared for a disaster.”

She said residents might want to consider purchasing a battery-power NOAA weather radio. These radios receive automated weather broadcasts from the National Weather Service 24 hours a day. Some radio models include AM and FM options so that you can use it to listen to regular radio stations as well. But in an emergency, or when times when the power goes out, they can be tuned to an NOAA station for important information about the weather. Certain models can even be operated with a hand-crank, so that batteries are not required.

Many folks in the Hill Country have long-wanted a system of sirens to warn residents about flash flooding. It looks like the State may provide funding for such a system in the aftermath of the July 4 floods. This week Lt. Governor Dan Patrick appointed State Senator Lois Kolkhorst to a special Senate Select Committee on Disaster Preparedness and Flooding in an upcoming Special Session of the Texas Legislature.

Kolkhorst, who represents Fayette County, put out a statement Tuesday saying that the committee will examine a number of items related to disaster preparedness with Flood Warning Systems at the top of the list.

In a press conference with President Trump last week in Kerrville, Gov. Greg Abbott said the legislators will not only tackle issues related to flooding along the Guadalupe River in the Hill Country but all river basins in Texas. A few years ago a group of La Grange-area residents petitioned the La Grange City Council to repair or replace the non-functioning tornado siren on the Hilltop water tower. That effort never went anywhere, partly due to expense. Automated warning systems cost $75,000 a piece at minimum, Hahn said. But she said the upcoming Special Session could result in new grant funding opportunities related to disaster prevention.

“I expect there to be some grant funding coming down for warning sirens,” Hahn said. “I can see that happening since that has been such a big part of the discussion.”

But promises from State leaders don’t always pan out.

Hahn recalled the regionwide traffic jams related to the Hurricane Rita evacuation in 2005. As millions of people evacuated the Houston area ahead of the storm, the cloverleaf intersection on US 290 in Brenham became a major chokepoint for traffic. In the aftermath, State leaders correctly identified that intersection as a serious hazard to evacuation efforts.

“One of the after-action plans was to do something with that cloverleaf,” Hahn said. “But here it is 20 years later, and they haven’t done anything with it yet.”