Warning signals rejected before youth camps swept away
Kerr County officers considered supplementing a word-of-mouth system with sirens and river gauges, along with other modern communications tools. In the end, little was done.
Jesus Jiménez, Margarita Birnbaum, Danny Hakim and Mike Baker
Eight years ago, in the aftermath of yet another river flood in the Texas Hill Country, officials in Kerr County debated whether more needed to be done to build a warning system along the banks of the Guadalupe River.
A series of summer camps along the river were often packed with children. For years, local officials kept them safe with a word-of-mouth system: when floodwaters started raging, upriver camp leaders warned those downriver of the water surge coming their way.
