Kendall County leaders can explain exactly what they were doing ahead of the flood to keep people safe. Warning sirens were just a part of it.
KENDALL COUNTY, Texas — Sitting just east of Kerr County in Central Texas, Kendall County was also hit by devastating flooding the morning of July Fourth.
The wall of water that ripped through Hunt, Texas, at 5 a.m. also went through Comfort in Kendall County just before 11 a.m. The section of the Guadalupe River in Comfort rose from 3 feet to 34 feet in just two hours.
In the aftermath, nine people where found dead. Currently, the county believes none of those people were Kendall County residents.
On Wednesday, Kendall County leaders explained the multiple levels of preparedness and warning systems that helped them get residents to safety.
At first, it might seem like the difference-maker in Kendall County were the warning sirens located in Comfort.
Kendall County Judge Shane Stolarczyk, who was elected in 2023, told KENS 5 emergency management was a top priority for the Commissioners Court. Since that time, the county built two sirens in Comfort to warn citizens about incoming rushing water.
The sirens were engineered to go off automatically if triggered by sensors in the river, but they can also be manually activated by the Comfort Volunteer Fire Department.
“Obviously there is a history of flooding along the Guadalupe and Comfort has flooded in the past. This was requested by citizens over the years and when our court took office we made it a priority,” Stolarczyk said.
The system costs $70,000 and Stolarczyk said a large portion of that was actually raised by the local VFD.
Emergency Management Coordinator Brady Constantine said the system absolutely worked on the morning of July Fourth.
“They did their job and they contributed to saving lives,” Constantine said.
‘I had an uneasy feeling’
But there was another major factor that contributed to saving lives in Kendall County that day: The people in charge were ready.
Constantine, the county’s emergency management coordinator, stayed up most of the night before the morning of July Fourth and reviewed weather information from multiple sources.
“This was never anticipated, but I wanted to have a clear picture on how much rain we were getting,” Constantine said. “I had an uneasy feeling.”
The previous day, Constantine thought he was only going to need to make a decision on whether the Independence Day parade would be cancelled.
Instead, torrential rain hit the area and flood warnings started coming in. Constantine and other county leaders activated the county’s Emergency Operations Center at 6:37 a.m. They were already working with the Texas Department of Emergency Management by that time.
By 8 a.m., county leaders started rolling out mandatory evacuations of certain areas.
“We had firemen and deputies that were up and down the streets on their PA’s. Lights and sirens, giving the notifications out loud,” Constantine said.
The first responders were out before the flooding hit the county. County leadership also distributed mass text messages to county residents before the water arrived.
In Comfort, Fire Chief Danny Morales had the fire department ready as a command post. Chief Morales made the decision to activate the sirens.
By the time the Guadalupe River rose to 34 feet in Comfort, Stolarczyk believes that combination of warning systems allowed people living in the county to get to safety.
At the same time, Stolarczyk wants to look at improving their warning systems for the future as their learn from this devastating weather event.
“Ideally, we would like to add more alerts or sirens throughout the county as we re-evaluate this down the road,” he said.