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(birds chirping)

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[Kathleen Jackson] Texas
is in perpetual drought,

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punctuated by times of flood.

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(water rushing)

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So, it's so important
that throughout our state

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we have early warning systems

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so that families and
communities know what's coming

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and they can prepare.

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[David Mauk] We actually
are in Flash Flood Alley.

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And before Hurricane Harvey,

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the record was the 1978 flood,
here in Bandera County,

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where we had unconfirmed
reports of 50 inches of rain

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in the western end of the county.

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I was told that this river here,

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which is basically a stream,

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had the flow of the
Mississippi during that flood.

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Traditionally, first
responders had to go out

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and position themselves at
some of the low water crossings

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to see the water levels

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so they can understand when it was time

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to shut down that low water crossing.

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Now, with the predictive
model of this project,

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they'll have a better understanding.

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"Hey, when this hits a certain level,

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that already needs to be shut down."

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We saw a need for a flood
early warning system

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so we can get people and
property out of harm's way

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before the floodwaters come.

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When we saw that problem,
we went to the USGS,

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and they brought us a solution.

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[The] Water Development Board gave us the

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funding to get it done.

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[Kathleen Jackson] In
Bandera, they're using

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real-time streamflow gages

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in conjunction with
flood inundation mapping

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to give emergency management

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the type of information they need

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to help the public to know

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when flooding is occurring ahead of time

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and be able to get out of harm's way.

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The flood inundation mapping are visual

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so that as you look at them,

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it's easy to see where
the flooding will occur

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during different rainfall events.

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(cars whooshing)

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[William Mitchell] Throughout
history, Uvalde County

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has had some tremendously great floods.

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Any given weekend, during the months,

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summer months from
Memorial Day to Labor Day,

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that period of time,

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our county population truly doubles

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because of the influx of people
that come into the county,

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to the rivers, to enjoy the rivers.

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And we want them to come,

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but we want them to stay safe as well.

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In 2016, Uvalde County made an application

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to the Texas Water Development Board

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for a flood early warning system.

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We got it online in February 2018.

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We have all this technology

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that we're depending upon
to help notify people

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in order to save lives.

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And if we don't have
a good infrastructure,

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if we don't have a good
tower that's dependable,

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that data may not be transmitted properly.

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The site that we're using
right now on Kennedy Mountain,

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number one, it's old.

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Also, there's a tremendous
amount of other agencies,

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other firms, transmitting
right there off that mountain.

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And we needed to rebuild the tower

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because of the aging factor.

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And number two, we thought,

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well, if we're going to do that,

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let's look at a spot that
we can isolate ourselves

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so that our alert system
could be more dependable.

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The Flood Infrastructure Fund

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was a tremendous fit for the tower.

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It just kind of pieced
the whole thing together.

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[Kathleen Jackson] So, a great example of

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using the resources

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of the Texas Water Development Board,

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the Flood Infrastructure Fund,

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to be able to pull together technology

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and the actions of emergency management

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to protect the public.

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[William Mitchell] The reason
we invest in flood mitigation

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is simply to save lives.