A year after catastrophic flooding in the Texas Hill Country prompted lawmakers to overhaul the state's flood preparedness laws, Texans are once again watching rivers rise.
This week's widespread flooding has become one of the first major tests of legislation passed during last summer's special sessions, when Gov. Greg Abbott and lawmakers promised changes that would better prepare communities before the next disaster struck.
The flooding that swept through the Hill Country last July killed more than 130 people and prompted lawmakers to approve new safety requirements for youth camps, fund flood warning sirens, expand weather monitoring infrastructure and invest hundreds of millions of dollars in flood mitigation and disaster preparedness.
On Wednesday, Abbott told the press that Texas was "better prepared than we have ever been to deal with weather events in general, but rainfall events and flooding events in particular."
Abbott also said flood warning sirens installed around campgrounds along the Guadalupe River are now operational, one of the key changes lawmakers approved following last summer's disaster.
State Sen. Paul Bettencourt wrote on social media Thursday that flood warning sirens were used in Kerr County this morning due to heavy rainfall, which he says "gave those that heard them and others downstream notice to get to higher ground immediately."
Still, the lawmakers behind many of those reforms say the work is far from finished.
State Sen. Charles Perry, a Lubbock Republican who authored several of the Legislature's flood-related measures, said some of the quickest changes came through new safety requirements for youth camps. The laws require overnight camps to have state-approved emergency plans and move campers to higher ground when flood warnings are issued.
Perry said he believes those changes have already had an impact.
"One of the parents actually texted me and said the kids are safer today because of that bill," Perry said.
But Perry said many of the state's largest flood initiatives were never expected to produce immediate results.
Following Hurricane Harvey in 2017, lawmakers approved a statewide flood planning process organized by watersheds instead of county lines. Since then, Perry estimates the state has invested roughly $2 billion in regional flood planning and mitigation projects, many of which are still underway.
"It takes a long time to do massive watershed planning," Perry said.
He also pointed to expanded weather monitoring efforts approved last year, including hundreds of new Mesonet weather stations designed to improve forecasting. Additional radar systems are still being installed across the state.
"It's all coming together," Perry said. "It's just been a year."
As communities once again deal with dangerous flooding, Perry said the state's flood response should be viewed as a long-term effort built over multiple legislative sessions. While many of the largest infrastructure projects are still years from completion, he believes the investments already in place — from stronger camp evacuation requirements to expanded weather monitoring — are beginning to improve how Texas prepares for severe flooding.
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