{"id":134146,"date":"2025-08-10T10:49:15","date_gmt":"2025-08-10T10:49:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/134146\/"},"modified":"2025-08-10T10:49:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-10T10:49:15","slug":"san-antonio-has-a-new-plan-to-manage-flash-flooding-for-the-region","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/134146\/","title":{"rendered":"San Antonio has a new plan to manage flash flooding for the region"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the weeks after a heavy June 12 rain<\/a> swept multiple cars off the road in San Antonio leaving 13 people dead, local officials say an investigation<\/a> has uncovered some relatively low cost safety measures that could be implemented quickly to prevent such tragedies in the future.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Bexar County Commissioners approved roughly $10 million<\/a> to fix and improve rain gauges at low-water crossings, update flood projections and install gates that officials can proactively close when water is expected to rise above the roadway.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The enhancements are expected to be completed in about a year, with an ultimate goal of automating the gates to respond on their own in times of heavy rainfall.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Such swift action comes as Bexar County leaders have been closely watching the fallout from Kerrville\u2019s flooding, during which top elected leaders and law enforcement officers were criticized for being asleep or out of town<\/a> as more than 130 people were killed by catastrophic rainfall.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe review has been quite brutal,\u201d Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai said of the Texas Legislature\u2019s investigation<\/a> into the events in Kerrville.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has reminded me what my primary job as county judge is, and that\u2019s to protect this county,\u201d he continued. \u201cI better damn well make sure that if there\u2019s any weather events or catastrophic events \u2026 I better be up and at them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bexar County is already in a wildly different position from Kerr County due to a series of dams put in place decades ago that operate autonomously and slow raging water.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There are 28 of them within the county and 14 elsewhere downstream \u2014 but not one on Beitel Creek, where most of the casualties occurred on June 12.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Bystanders look at debris on Vicar Drive in the wake of severe flooding at Beitel Creek on June 12, 2025. Credit: Blaine Young for the San Antonio Report<\/p>\n

While dams are an expensive, long-term solution, Steve Metzler, director of water resources at the San Antonio River Authority, said that other water management agencies across the country have had some success using gauges and gates to more quickly address loss of life issues in dramatic flood situations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHarris County Flood Control District in Houston had a similar setup to what we have now, where we focus on rain gauges, and they switched to a stream gauge system to speed up response time,\u201d said Metzler, whose agency will oversee the project in Bexar County. \u201cThat is what we\u2019re looking to switch to, so there is a precedent for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

San Antonio River Authority is also planning to meet with the Colorado River Authority, which has similar technology in use.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s Commissioners Court meeting included a lengthy discussion of whether money should be used on other approaches, such as creating an Amber Alert-type warning for drivers near flood situations \u2014 or a more wholesale shift of county resources to account for flood infrastructure needs.<\/p>\n

Some critics even argued that plans to raise the county\u2019s venue tax to help pay for a new NBA arena<\/a> should be sidelined until leaders address the pressing flood control needs in one of the most flood-prone regions of the country<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But the plan for gauges and gates was approved unanimously, and County Manager David Smith vowed to find money in this year\u2019s budget \u2014 even if it means doubling the county\u2019s contribution to make up for the City of San Antonio\u2019s anticipated portion of the bill.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want [San Antonio River Authority General Manager Derek Boese] to walk out of this meeting and get to work,\u201d Smith said. \u201cSo you\u2019re going to have your money one way or another.\u201d<\/p>\n

A regional approach\u00a0<\/p>\n

Boese, who previously managed hurricane defense efforts in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, actually has much bigger plans for San Antonio\u2019s watershed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWater does not care about political boundaries,\u201d he said in a recent interview with the Report. \u201cThat\u2019s why [water management strategy is] built on the watershed basis.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"The San Antonio River Authority is the administrator of Texas\u2019 Region 12 flood management group, which has received little funding from the state in recent years. Credit: Courtesy \/ San Antonio Regional Flood Planning Group<\/p>\n

Though state officials have largely agreed with that sentiment, funding projects that way is more complicated.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Boese chairs a regional flood planning group<\/a> that includes parts of Bandera, Wilson, Karnes and Goliad counties, set up after Hurricane Harvey by the Texas Water Development Board, which made the San Antonio River Authority its administrator.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe state has provided funding essentially for data collection and some basic analysis up to this point,\u201d Boese said of the regional flood groups.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But these recent tragedies will soon test whether lawmakers are willing to put real money behind the solutions they\u2019ve come up with.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The San Antonio River Authority has identified 95 gauge locations needed in the region\u2019s southern basin \u2014 outside of Bexar County \u2014 totaling about $33 million<\/a>. Additionally, Boese said, there are four northern counties with streams feeding into Bexar County, but that aren\u2019t included in San Antonio\u2019s Region 12.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Flood warning systems and disaster preparedness are on lawmakers\u2019 agenda for a the special<\/a> legislative session, and Boese said his agency has asked the legislature to cover that remaining portion of the work.<\/p>\n

But the Texas Water Development Board hasn\u2019t deemed many of this region\u2019s projects a high priority in recent years, Boese said, in part because \u201cwe are far ahead of virtually everybody else in the state in terms of having data, having analysis, and knowing what flood plains are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of the roughly $670 million distributed through its Flood Infrastructure Fund<\/a>, just two Region 12 projects were selected: $5.4 million drainage improvements in Bandera County and a $600,000 flood protection study in Karnes County.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re in ongoing discussions with the Water Development Board about how we can improve our chances, and why we didn\u2019t see any funding [in the last round],\u201d Boese said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the weeks after a heavy June 12 rain swept multiple cars off the road in San Antonio…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":134147,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5133],"tags":[5229,36849,14953,81090,81091,8774,81092,40043,81093,37453,7202,81094,7203,81095,358,7453,3187,7815,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,20705],"class_list":{"0":"post-134146","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-beitel-creek","10":"tag-bexar-county-commissioners-court","11":"tag-bexar-county-judge-peter-sakai","12":"tag-derek-boese","13":"tag-flash-flooding","14":"tag-flood-gates","15":"tag-hurricane-harvey","16":"tag-hurricane-katrina","17":"tag-kerrville-flooding","18":"tag-san-antonio","19":"tag-san-antonio-river-authority","20":"tag-sanantonio","21":"tag-steve-metzler","22":"tag-texas","23":"tag-top-story","24":"tag-tx","25":"tag-typedaily","26":"tag-united-states","27":"tag-united-states-of-america","28":"tag-unitedstates","29":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","30":"tag-us","31":"tag-usa","32":"tag-wc-750-1000"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115004084378861131","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}