“We had an opportunity to utilize our high-dollar investment in technology, and we failed,” Hays County Judge Ruben Becerra said.
SAN MARCOS, Texas — As severe storms rolled through Central Texas Friday night, a tornado warning was issued near San Marcos, but the city’s outdoor warning sirens stayed silent.
Hays County Judge Ruben Becerra, who also serves as the county’s emergency management director, said the city missed a crucial opportunity to alert residents.
“We had an opportunity to utilize our high-dollar investment in technology, and we failed,” Becerra said.
The outdoor siren system, which should have automatically triggered during the warning, did not activate as expected.
“Unfortunately, we were not ready as we would have liked to have been,” Becerra said. “That happens more often than not, but the city of San Marcos has assured us they are on top of it.”
In a statement, the City of San Marcos said officials believe the issue has since been resolved.
“We believe the system is now working as intended,” the city said. “As a precaution, our Office of Emergency Management monitored the system throughout the weekend and was ready to respond to any additional weather alerts.”
Becerra said city officials discovered that a software update caused the system’s automatic trigger to fail.
“It sounds to me like they had an update that didn’t work out, and their auto-on system was bumped off,” Becerra said. “I guess it was asleep, and no one knew it.”
San Marcos has since upgraded the system to include a manual override, ensuring staff can activate sirens directly if needed.
Resident Shay Pfeiffer, who lives near one of the city’s sirens, said they didn’t hear anything Friday night and that this isn’t the first time.
“The last time we had a tornado come through, they also didn’t go off,” Pfeiffer said. “It was May of 2024, and it ripped off the majority of our roof and broke several windows.”
Pfeiffer said the sirens did sound earlier this year during flooding, but believes a warning Friday would have helped her family better prepare.
“I could have made sure that all the critters were inside,” she said. “We could have moved to a safe area in the house.”
Becerra said he plans to follow up with city leaders to ensure the system is tested before the next round of severe weather.
Both Becerra and city officials are urging residents to sign up for emergency alerts on their phones in case of future system failures.
“It’s important for folks to never turn off weather alerts, especially in the middle of the night,” Becerra said. “Pay attention to your TV channels and the weather alerts.”
City leaders said they are working with system providers to determine exactly what caused Friday night’s malfunction.
Residents can sign up for weather alerts by clicking here.