Travis County still working on plans to install flood warning sirens

TRAVIS COUNTY, Texas - As many Texans brace for flash flooding threats this week, the Travis County Commissioners are still working on plans to install flood warning sirens.

That comes after deadly flooding hit the Sandy Creek neighborhood in July last year.

Deadly Texas flooding

What they're saying:

The county and survivors can’t seem to get on the same page with what flood mitigation technology to use moving forward.  

"It was an absolutely beautiful place. And in a matter of hours, everything we owned was wiped off the planet," said Brandy Gerstner, Sandy Creek resident.

Sandy Creek resident Brandy Gerstner will never forget the day that changed her life forever. 

The devastating July 2025 floods killed more than 100 people in the Hill Country, including more than a dozen in the Austin-area.

"We lost three homes, five cars, our bees, our business, our livestock. We lost everything and we just kind of got left with this flat piece of earth," said Gerstner.

What is Senate Bill 3?

The backstory:

Travis County provided an update on Senate Bill 3 on Tuesday. 

The bill passed in response to the flooding is aimed at improving Texas’ preparedness for future flood events. The bill requires the county to install, maintain, and operate an outdoor warning system.

"I would remind the court that this is something that Travis County has not done in the past. We have not had a county-wide flood monitoring and alert system in place," said Chuck Brotherton with Travis County Emergency Services.

The county says it hired a contractor to help with the project plan that’s due to the Texas Water Development Board by the end of the year.

The county is also working on a pilot project to understand the technology for flood monitoring and flood alerting required under Senate Bill 3.

"Ultimately, what we would like to do is have a robust stream gage network that we can remotely monitor, connected to sirens that both go off automatically in times of emergency floods but also that we can remotely monitor and remotely activate," said Brotherton.

Dig deeper:

The county is contracting with "OminiWarn" to implement a 3-site pilot system in Sandy Creek, Maha Creek, and Onion Creek. 

OmniWarn warning systems were installed in Kerr County ahead of this summer.

Texas flood survivors have concerns with ‘OminiWarn’

The other side:

Some flood survivors aren’t happy with the notification system the county is eyeing.

"What's happening with the siren that the county is choosing to put in is that they're looking to put in one tower miles from our house. Sandy Creek, in the entirety of the community, is a very spread-out community. There is no way in the middle of a flood that you're going to hear that siren," said Gerstner.

Members of the "Sandy Creek Alliance," which formed in response to the flooding, voiced concerns Tuesday. 

Many survivors worry that the sirens the county is looking at won’t be loud enough to wake residents in an emergency.

"A stream gage measures the water where the gage sits, not where people live, and a community as spread out as Sandy Creek, that distance matters. I’m more than 2,000 feet from the projected site, I will never hear that siren," said Sandy Creek resident, Auburn Gallagher.

What's next:

The residents point to River Sentry flood warning technology, but the county says the siren system needs to communicate with stream gage. 

The electronics of the alerting siren need to be up out of the flood plain and the river sentry doesn't meet either of those things, making it not compliant with Senate Bill 3 guidelines.

The county has not selected its final system yet.