Kerr County Flood

[rattlerbb01]

LCRA 6522 Fire Comm 3 was very active today with multiple agencies.

Also TDEM comm techs were working on getting LCRA interop channels programmed into the Kerr County radios. Apparently they can talk with KPD and KFD but only have the regional GATRRS interop channels. One of the TDEM guys was saying that the LCRA system worked all through the river bed.

The LCRA system does cover the Guadalupe riverbed in Kerr Co. quite well. There is a tower roughly every 15 miles along it within walking distance the whole way until Sisterdale. The system does not work very well down there through Central and Eastern Kendall Co. though.

 

[natedawg1604]

I've setup 2 Broadcastify Calls Playlists

This one covers Kerr, Kendall, and Comal operations:

South-Central Texas Flood Coverage

Kerr, Kendall, Comal County response operations

www.broadcastify.com

This one covers Burnet and Williamson operations

Central Texas Floods Coverage

Burnet, Williamson County Response

www.broadcastify.com

If there are any talkgroups missing that should be added to either, please let me know.

Does anyone know if these feeds are from actual scanners or RTL SDR programs?

 

[KevinC]

LCRA 6522 Fire Comm 3 was very active today with multiple agencies.

Also TDEM comm techs were working on getting LCRA interop channels programmed into the Kerr County radios. Apparently they can talk with KPD and KFD but only have the regional GATRRS interop channels. One of the TDEM guys was saying that the LCRA system worked all through the river bed.

How many sites does GATRRS have in the immediate area? KerrCo VHF simulcast had 3 (or was it 4? It's been 10 years since I worked on it) and worked pretty darn good.

 

[N5ZKK]

Lindsay,
I am sure that you think that you are doing some kind of public good by re-broadcasting the radio traffic from Kerr and Kerrville but what will happen is this; The Kerr county sheriff will find out, he and the county judge Kelly will talk, and then they will use their un limited funding and authority under this emergency to encrypt every form of public communications. They will close down every public facing bit of information. The public will then be completely in the dark, subjects instead of citizens.
John D. Trolinger, N5ZKK

 

[ecps92]

Lindsay,
I am sure that you think that you are doing some kind of public good by re-broadcasting the radio traffic from Kerr and Kerrville but what will happen is this; The Kerr county sheriff will find out, he and the county judge Kelly will talk, and then they will use their un limited funding and authority under this emergency to encrypt every form of public communications. They will close down every public facing bit of information. The public will then be completely in the dark, subjects instead of citizens.
John D. Trolinger, N5ZKK

The unlimited funding they didn't want to invest in a Warning system ?

 

[Echo4Thirty]

Lindsay,
I am sure that you think that you are doing some kind of public good by re-broadcasting the radio traffic from Kerr and Kerrville but what will happen is this; The Kerr county sheriff will find out, he and the county judge Kelly will talk, and then they will use their un limited funding and authority under this emergency to encrypt every form of public communications. They will close down every public facing bit of information. The public will then be completely in the dark, subjects instead of citizens.
John D. Trolinger, N5ZKK

i can assure you they have been aware of streaming of their radios since before this flood. Time will tell if the popularity of this event will cause them to make changes though.

 

[Echo4Thirty]

The unlimited funding they didn't want to invest in a Warning system ?

Encryption is not nearly as expensive anymore as it used to be. Most radios come with some form of single key ARC or DES from the factory. It will just cost them whatever a tech would charge to load it and configure the fleet.

That said, in an event like this interoperability could be severely limited and I would suspect that if they went ENC, they would just run these types of things on common TGs in the clear anyway.

 

[nd5y]

The unlimited funding they didn't want to invest in a Warning system ?

There are commercial off the shelf warning systems that can monitor water levels in lakes/rivers/creeks and normally dry arroyos and low water crossings. There can be sensors along a watershed. If you get a series of alerts spreading downstream you know there is a flood coming. I don't know if they have anything like that in S TX. Probably not.

 

[RichardKramer]

I doubt if any kind of alert would have helped in this situation. The water rose over half a foot a minute to a height of about 26 feet in 45 minutes. Then you have all that debris moving with the flow. The best advice is if you are in an area prone to any type of flooding; no matter how small, and a flood watch is issued; move to higher ground as soon as possible. It's better to be safe than sorry. If you decide to stay and wait for a warning; get yourself and your loved ones a life jacket and googles to help keep yourself afloat and to protect your eyes. Not that an alert wouldn't help in less serious incidents; but this was an exceptional event.

 

[KG1ADP]

Lindsay,
I am sure that you think that you are doing some kind of public good by re-broadcasting the radio traffic from Kerr and Kerrville but what will happen is this; The Kerr county sheriff will find out, he and the county judge Kelly will talk, and then they will use their un limited funding and authority under this emergency to encrypt every form of public communications. They will close down every public facing bit of information. The public will then be completely in the dark, subjects instead of citizens.
John D. Trolinger, N5ZKK

Kerr County SO is already ENC

 

[RichardKramer]

Yes, I don't know what googles are either;
let's try goggles!

 

[natedawg1604]

Just out of curiosity, are the out of state teams having their radios programmed with the local 7/800 systems when they arrive? And, does the command post program them as new systems while leaving the current programming in-tact?

 

[rattlerbb01]

Just out of curiosity, are the out of state teams having their radios programmed with the local 7/800 systems when they arrive? And, does the command post program them as new systems while leaving the current programming in-tact?

Most SAR ops are on VFIRE and VMED simplex, and IC's in the immediate area are relaying info to dispatch on LCRA and GATRRS talkgroups to coordinate with SO and KPD. I can't say definitively if they are showing up and having someone program radios or loaning any out, but since most PS agencies in the US have the VTAC lineup, I doubt its really necessary. There are also several TDEM and unidentified encrypted GATRRS talkgroups being used for state resources.

 

[garys]

My weather alert radio was going off frequently during the evening of the 3rd with flood warnings for Williamson and Travis Counties. The west side of both got significant flooding, but not as bad as Kerr County.

The last one I received was shortly after 1:00 AM, but that was because at that point I turned the radio off. Since we don't live near a river or in a low lying area, I didn't feel the need to evacuate.

I don't know why people at risk didn't evacuate and I suppose we'll never know.

Warn Central Texas allows people to sign up for emergency alerts,

WarnCentralTexas.org - Free Emergency Alerts for Central Texas

WarnCentralTexas.org is an emergency notification system for residents of central Texas. Disaster or public safety alerts are sent by phone, email, or text.

warncentraltexas.org

I doubt if any kind of alert would have helped in this situation. The water rose over half a foot a minute to a height of about 26 feet in 45 minutes. Then you have all that debris moving with the flow. The best advice is if you are in an area prone to any type of flooding; no matter how small, and a flood watch is issued; move to higher ground as soon as possible. It's better to be safe than sorry. If you decide to stay and wait for a warning; get yourself and your loved ones a life jacket and googles to help keep yourself afloat and to protect your eyes. Not that an alert wouldn't help in less serious incidents; but this was an exceptional event.

 

[theoleman]

I was in Kerr County this past weekend. Thursday night and Friday morning the NWS kept alerting my cell and the cell phones of the six others with me as the weather event evolved. Never did we receive any Kerr County CODE RED alerts referred to in post 10.
No we will never know why there was so many deaths but I attribute that it was complacency of people since it was July 4th weekend. It's usually hot and seldom rains in Texas this time of year. I myself was guilty of complacency since I never looked at the weather forecast until Thursday noon when it started to rain on me traveling through the Concho Valley.
Complacency, no effective warning system in "Flash Flood Alley", forgotten events of the 1987 flood in Kerr County.
May the survivors and the families of those whose life was lost find peace someday.

 

[N5ZKK]

I feel just awful that CODE RED was not used by Kerr County. Only the weather service sent out alerts and they were ignored by most people.

 

[nd5y]

There are commercial off the shelf warning systems that can monitor water levels in lakes/rivers/creeks and normally dry arroyos and low water crossings. There can be sensors along a watershed. If you get a series of alerts spreading downstream you know there is a flood coming. I don't know if they have anything like that in S TX. Probably not.

Texas town right next door to flood-ravaged county added new alert sirens last year — and nobody perished in July 4 storms

A small Texas town that recorded no deaths in last weekend’s flood disaster had recently upgraded its emergency alert system — the kind of setup state, county and federal officials repe…

nypost.com

 

[N5ZKK]

Kerr County residents say emergency alert messages sporadic, inconsistent in wake of floods

Residents say Kerr County’s use of CodeRED alerts was sporadic and inconsistent. Local officials have not answered questions about when and how they utilized the system, which has been in place since 2009.

www.tpr.org

 

[KevinC]

How about we keep this radio related. This isn’t the place to discuss what the county/city could have/should have done.

 

[Ensnared]

They’ve been on Kerr Fire Ops 1-4 so far today and talking on Firecom a lot too, which is normally a paging channel. Kendall has been on Ops 3 and 5 for Comfort and Sisterdale evacs and now a recovery.

I never realized the improvement that have been made at Broadcastify.

This is likely unrelated, but yesterday, I mentioned the limited capability of folks monitoring radio traffic on the Kerr County S.O. Facebook page. I asked how residents would be able to understand what is happening in town.

However, yesterday, I noticed a green-colored talk group 46301 on GATRRS. LCRA P25 showed Kerr S.O. as "Te." What a coincidence.

The only reason I can see why Kerrville PD would need encryption might be related to the residents of Kerrville State Hospital. There are chronic mental cases that will never see the light of day. KSH is one of the forensic psychiatric hospitals in Texas. HIPPA laws might be involved, I don't really know the rationale for encrypting a small town like Kerrville.

Let's remember to keep affected people in our prayers.