The Guadalupe River in Kerrville, Texas, as it flooded on July 4.Credit…Carter Johnston for The New York Times
“Officials refused to answer questions about what is going on?”
My good friend was a Private Detective who went with me to Rocky Point so we could see how dangerous it was. It was way more dangerous – than we imagined! He did not want to to go down in the cove and sit on the rock Christine sat on – with her back to the sea! I had questions, because they said my niece, Drew Betnon, was right by her mother’s side. Why didn’t Christine have real concdern for the safety of her child – was a huge question – that has come back to haunt me! It haunts Texas, the Nation, the World. Why are the owners of Mystic Camp allowing children near the water the knew was
DANGEROUS?
After we looked at court records. my friend said this;
“There’s so much going on and I can not spend the time. I’m going to teach you the rudiments of being a detective. The first rule is…..When in doubt, follow the money trail!”
Let us apply that lesson to why the WARNINGS were silenced. Did you ever see the movie.. Jaws? Would you camp there if your phone sounded a warning? Would you drop your child off – if you knew there was – some danger?
John Presco
Failed plans for warning system
Local officials have long acknowledged the risk of deadly flooding in Kerr County. At a 2016 meeting, County Commissioner Tom Moser declared that Kerr was “probably the highest risk area in the state for flooding,” and described the county’s early warning system as “pretty antiquated” and “marginal at the best.”
Moser, who retired from the commission in 2021, told CNN that his efforts to improve the local system hit wall after wall over the years. After massive flooding elsewhere in the Hill Country region in 2015, Moser said he studied how nearby Comal County had installed sirens, adopted plans for shutting off low-water crossings and made other flood preparations.
He suggested that Kerr County follow suit. But some locals questioned where the funding would come from, while others worried about noise: “Some people didn’t like the concept of sirens going off and disturbing everybody,” Moser said.
One of his fellow commissioners, H. A. “Buster” Baldwin, voiced those concerns at a 2016 meeting.
“The thought of our beautiful Kerr County having these damn sirens going off in the middle of night, I’m going to have to start drinking again to put up with y’all,” said Baldwin, who died in 2022, according to a transcript of the meeting.
In 2017, officials with the county and the Upper Guadalupe River Authority, which manages the river, applied for $980,000 in Federal Emergency Management Agency funds to build a flood warning system but were denied, meeting minutes and public records show.
Without state or federal funding, Moser said, a flood warning system “just didn’t get to the top of the list” of funding priorities for the county itself – even though commissioners had considered “all the number of people that have died in flash floods in the past.”
Again in 2021, meeting minutes show how county commissioners discussed possibly allocating funds for a flood warning system that specifically included sirens. An engineer said a county commissioner had “identified” $50,000 for the system. But the plans went nowhere.
More recently, local officials considered applying for money for the system from Texas’ Flood Infrastructure Fund, but declined to submit an application because the grant would have only covered about five percent of the cost of installation, according to documents from the river authority.
Just this year, officials were moving forward with a more limited goal: The river authority posted a request for bids on a project to develop a data resource “to improve flood warning to the public” in the county, according to an archived webpage from February.
In April, the river agency passed a resolution to select a firm for the project, and an official said at a meeting the following month that “consolidating rainfall, stream flow and other flood-related [data] would enhance delivery of flood warnings for the public,” according to an article in the Kerrville Daily Times.
Moser said he thought that if the county had implemented an early warning system, it could have saved lives.
“You know, cell phones are good, okay? Text messages are good. But at the same time, there are places in the Hill Country you can’t get a good signal,” he said.
In the nearby town of Comfort, Texas, further downstream on the Guadalupe River, two sirens were helpful in alerting residents to evacuate, Brian Boyter, a volunteer firefighter in the town, told CNN.
First responders on Monday in Comfort were still finding bodies that had washed down the river from Kerr County, but Boyter said that he wasn’t aware of any flooding deaths in Comfort. The two areas have significant differences in topography and flood timing that made the flooding in Kerr County much more deadly, but Boyter attributed his town’s success in part to the warning sirens.
The Upper Guadalupe River Authority does have five gauges on the river in Kerr County, and one on a tributary, Johnson Creek, according to its website. Those gauges show the river level rose as much as 30 feet within a few hours early Friday morning.
Officials Feared Flood Risk to Youth Camps but Rejected Warning System
Kerr County had discussed buying such things as water gauges and sirens after previous flood disasters. But as with many rural Texas counties, cost was an issue.
Search-and-rescue efforts after catastrophic flooding on the Guadalupe River in Kerrville, Texas.Credit…Jordan Vonderhaar for The New York Times
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By Jesus JiménezMargarita BirnbaumDanny Hakim and Mike Baker
Jesus Jiménez and Margarita Birnbaum reported from Kerrville, Texas, Danny Hakim from New York and Mike Baker from Seattle.
- July 6, 2025
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.
But was that enough? Officials considered supplementing the system with sirens and river gauges, along with other modern communications tools. “We can do all the water-level monitoring we want, but if we don’t get that information to the public in a timely way, then this whole thing is not worth it,” said Tom Moser, a Kerr County commissioner at the time.
In the end, little was done. When catastrophic floodwaters surged through Kerr County last week, there were no sirens or early flooding monitors. Instead, there were text alerts that came late for some residents and were dismissed or unseen by others.
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The rural county of a little over 50,000 people, in a part of Texas known as Flash Flood Alley, contemplated installing a flood warning system in 2017, but it was rejected as too expensive. The county, which has an annual budget of around $67 million, lost out on a bid at the time to secure a $1 million grant to fund the project, county commission meeting minutes show.
As recently as a May budget meeting, county commissioners were discussing a flood warning system being developed by a regional agency as something that they might be able to make use of.
But in a recent interview, Rob Kelly, the Kerr County judge and its most senior elected official, said that local residents had been resistant to new spending. “Taxpayers won’t pay for it,” he said, adding that he didn’t know if people might reconsider now.
The idea of a flood warning system was broached in 2015, in the aftermath of a deadly flood in Wimberley, Texas, about 75 miles to the east of Kerrville, the Kerr County seat.
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The Guadalupe River Basin is one of the most dangerous regions in the United States when it comes to flash floods. Ordinary floods from heavy rainstorms occur regularly, inundating streets and threatening structures as floodwaters gradually rise. The region is also prone to flash floods, which can occur with little to no notice.
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People living near the Guadalupe in Kerr County may have little time to seek higher ground, especially when flash floods come through late at night when people are asleep. In 1987, a rapidly rising Guadalupe River swept away a school bus carrying teens from a church camp, killing 10 of them.
Avantika Gori, a Rice University professor who is leading a federally funded project to improve flood resilience in rural Texas counties, said that flood warning systems are often simple networks of rain gauges or stream gauges that are triggered when rain or floodwaters exceed a certain level.
The gauges can then be used to warn those at risk of flooding, whether by text message, which may not be effective in areas with spotty cellphone service; notifications broadcast on TV and radio; or sometimes through a series of sirens.
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More complex systems use forecasts from the National Weather Service to predict rainfall and model what areas might be subject to flooding, Professor Gori said.
After the 2015 floods, an improved monitoring system was installed in the Wimberley area, and cell towers are now used to send out notices to all cellphones in the area.
Mr. Moser, the former commissioner, visited Wimberley after its new system was in place, and then led efforts to have a flood warning system in Kerr County. His proposal would have included additional water detection systems and a system to alert the public, but the project never got off the ground, largely because of budget concerns.
“It sort of evaporated,” Mr. Moser said. “It just didn’t happen.”
One commissioner at the time, H.A. “Buster” Baldwin, voted against a $50,000 engineering study, according to a news account at the time, saying, “I think this whole thing is a little extravagant for Kerr County, with sirens and such.”
Mr. Moser said it was hard to tell if a flood warning system would have prevented further tragedy in Kerr County during the July 4 flood, given the extraordinary circumstance of the flooding, which came suddenly after an intense period of rain. But he said he believed that such a system could have had some benefit.
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“I think it could have helped a lot of people,” Mr. Moser said.
The death toll from the flooding, now at 80, includes at least 28 children, with several girls and a counselor from one of the camps along the river still unaccounted for.
According to a transcript from a Kerr County Commissioners’ Court meeting in 2017, officials discussed how even with additional water level sensors along the Guadalupe River, the county would still need a way to alert residents if water levels were rising dangerously fast.
Sirens, which are used across Texas to alert residents about tornadoes, were considered by county officials as a way to alert people who live along the river about any flooding.
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“With all the hills and all, cell coverage is not that great in some areas in Hill Country,” Mr. Moser said, adding that a series of sirens might have provided people in vulnerable areas sufficient time to flee.
Mr. Moser retired as a commissioner of Kerr County in 2021. But he said this week’s flooding there should be taken as a warning.
“I think there’s going to be a lot of places in the United States that will look at this event that happened in Kerr County and determine what could be done,” Mr. Moser said. “I think things should come out of this. It should be a lesson learned.”
Current city officials on Sunday did not discuss the earlier deliberations over warning systems. Dalton Rice, the Kerrville city manager, sidestepped a question about the effectiveness of local emergency notifications, telling reporters at a news conference that it was “not the time to speculate.”
“There’s going to be a full review of this, so we can make sure that we focus on future preparedness,” he said.
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Professor Gori said that the decision not to install warning systems in the past has for many Texas counties come down to cost.
“If the county had a flood warning system in place, they would have fared much better in terms of preparedness, but most rural counties in Texas simply do not have the funds to implement flood warning systems themselves,” she said in an email.
Some simpler systems, however, like those using stream or rain gauges, may still not have allowed enough time for evacuations, given how fast the water rose in Kerr County, she added.
It is hardly unique in facing challenges.
“Rural counties are extremely data-scarce, which means we are essentially blind when it comes to identifying areas that are prone to flooding,” Ms. Gori said.
Texas has a growing backlog of flood management projects, totaling some $54 billion across the state. The state flood plan of the Texas Water Development Board called on lawmakers to dedicate additional funding to invest in potentially lifesaving infrastructure.
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But lawmakers have so far allocated only a fraction of the money needed for flood projects through the state’s Flood Infrastructure Fund, about $669 million so far, even as state lawmakers this year approved $51 billion in property tax cuts.
Kerr County, in its earlier discussions about a warning system, had explored along with other members of the Upper Guadalupe River Authority the possibility of applying for financial support through the infrastructure fund. But the authority dropped the idea after learning that the fund would provide only about 5 percent of the money needed for the project.
During last week’s flooding, despite the text notifications that warned of rapidly rising waters, some residents were unsure how seriously to take the flood warnings because they are not unusual in that part of the state.
Sujey Martin, a resident of Kerrville for the past 15 years, said she was awakened by an emergency alert on her phone at about 2 a.m. on Friday. She said she had glanced at it and went back to sleep.
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“It’s never this bad, so I didn’t think much of it,” she said.
It wasn’t until about 5 a.m. that she became alarmed, when she realized that her power was out, and she started reading on Facebook about flooding and evacuations, some of them just a few streets over from her. “It was raining really hard,” she recalled.
Louis Kocurek, 65, who lives in Center Point, about 10 miles southeast of Kerrville, said that he had never received an official government text alert about the flooding. He had signed up for a private emergency alert service known as CodeRED, but by the time that alert came in, his power had gone out. At that time, he said, he had known about the situation for at least three hours, warned by his son-in-law at about 6:30 a.m.
He had checked on the water level of the creek near his home and decided to stay put — even though the water in the creek rose 15 feet in 15 minutes at one point. His house sits at a higher elevation than the homes of some neighbors, and there were 11 people hunkering down at his house.
Mr. Kocurek said the CodeRED alert came in at 10:07 a.m. “At that point, you know, the roads were closed, no way to get out.” His house, ultimately, was not flooded.
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Linda Clanton, a retired schoolteacher who lives on the outskirts of Kerrville, said she did not know how bad the flooding had become until her sister called and woke her up with the news at 8:30 a.m. on Friday. The next day, she was among several people taking in the widespread destruction and piles of debris caused by the floodwaters at Louise Hays Park, along the Guadalupe River on the west side of town.
She said she couldn’t be sure that even sirens would have been useful in warning people about the fast-moving water.
“We are all spread out in these hills and the trees,” she said. “If we had a siren here in town, nobody but town people would hear it,” she added. “You’d have to have sirens all over the place, and that’s a lot of money and a lot of things to go wrong.”
And the danger was not over yet.
Around 3 p.m. on Sunday, another emergency alert went out to people along the Guadalupe River, including the hundreds conducting searches, warning of “high confidence of river flooding.” Move to higher ground, the alert urged.
Memorial Service
Impact Christian Fellowship
2031 Goat Creek Rd.
Kerrville, TX 78028
Saturday, April 23, 2022
1:00 PM
Map & Directions Send Flowers
Buster Baldwin
of Kerrville, TX
May 11, 1948 – March 21, 2022
- Obituary
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Herbert Allen Baldwin, known far and wide as ”Buster” Baldwin, died in the early morning of March 21, 2022. Buster entered heaven while being comforted by family members at a care facility in Kerrville, TX. Buster was 73 years old.
Buster was a fourth generation Kerr County native, born in Fredericksburg, TX on May 11, 1948. He was the youngest of four children born to Fannie Mae and Cecil Baldwin. Buster grew up attending Hunt and Kerrville schools.
Buster met his wife Debbie in 1972, the two eloping later the same year on December 3rd. They had two children together, Bonnie Jo and Jesse Clayton. Buster and Debbie would have celebrated 50 years of marriage this December.
Buster was a titan of a public servant. He began his service as a member of Hunt school board in 1982, and in 1984 he served as district office director for U.S. Congressman Tom Loeffler; he was first elected to the commissioners court from Precinct 4 in 1987 and served until 1991, when he was appointed district office director for Texas state representative Harvey Hilderbran, a post he held until 1996.
From 1997-2016, Buster represented Precinct 1 on the Kerr County commissioners court, and over the course of his exemplary 24-year tenure, he played a leading role in the renovation of the courthouse annex and the creation of new district courtrooms, as well as in the renovation of Turtle Creek School, improvements to the Hill Country Youth Event Center, and the passage of a bond to renovate the county jail.
Buster was known as a man who did not mince words – he spoke plainly and directly about what he believed. He was passionate about providing for the needs of Kerr County and felt honored to serve his community for such a large part of his life. He was described by his colleagues as fair and diligent in his public work.
Buster had a tremendous sense of humor and loved to share a hearty laugh. He was quick and clever. Buster was a lover of life, and fun to be around. He was a master storyteller, and he could hold the attention of a room with incredible ease. Buster was so well known in his community, his children often laughed about how it was difficult to go out in public with him because he had to stop and greet so many people. Buster made people feel known and valued: a rare and special gift.
Buster was dedicated to his faith in Jesus and sought to honor God with his life. In 2021, his family gathered together to celebrate Buster’s 40 years of sobriety. His children and grandchildren could not be more proud of this tremendous accomplishment.
Buster was passionate about music, and played his washtub bass with several musical groups. He had a great appreciation for the simple things in life – he was never too busy to stop and smell the mountain laurel, pick up a cone of homemade vanilla, or sit on the back porch, coffee in hand, for a long visit with a friend. Buster loved traditions, especially at Christmas, when he led his family around the neighborhood to spread some cheer on Christmas Eve. He had many canine companions over the years, and it was rare that he was without one by his side. Buster loved supporting his children and grandchildren in their many sporting events – he was a proud Dad and Papa.
Buster is survived by a loving family; his wife Debbie; his daughter Bonnie and her husband Troy Robertson; his son Jesse Baldwin and wife Marissa; his brother Victor Baldwin and wife Jennie; many nieces, nephews, and cousins; nine grandchildren, Taylor, Emily and husband Peter McDonald, Bailey Jo, Joshua, Titus, Abby, and Libby Robertson, and Hudson and Judah Baldwin.
He is preceded in death by his mother Fannie Mae Baldwin and father Cecil Baldwin; his sister Vivian; and his brother Carlton. His mother-in-law, Betty Joe Sibson, passed away March 31, 2022.
Buster’s family is devastated at the loss of their great leader; but they rest easy knowing that Buster is in heaven, in the presence of Jesus, ready to someday welcome those he loves with a bear hug and a cup of coffee.
The family wishes to extend our deepest gratitude to all those who cared for Buster throughout his illness. To Dr. Klaus Schroeder and staff, Dr. Linette Melcher, and Dr. James Young as well as all those at New Haven, director Andrea Honeycutt and the entire staff, we are so grateful for the excellent care you gave Buster. Most of all, thank you to Peterson Hospice. There simply are no words for how much we appreciate your strength and guidance during a most difficult time.
A celebration of life will be held at Impact Christian Fellowship on April 23, 2022 at 1:00 p.m.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to one of these organizations Buster cared deeply about: Arms of Hope, Impact Christian Fellowship, Tivy High School Athletic Booster Club or Hill Country Cowboy Camp Meeting.
Rosamond Press 
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