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Johnson County advances enhanced flash‑flood warning system using local radar, sensors and targeted alerts
Summary
Emergency management laid out a plan to combine neighborhood‑scale CASA radars, public surveys and pressure‑transducer sensors at low‑water crossings so threshold‑based alerts will notify staff and precinct supervisors to verify flooding and preemptively close roads; hardware is roughly $4,000 per sensor and an initial 10‑unit bundle’s ongoing connectivity is estimated at about $750 annually.
Marshall Moore, Johnson County’s emergency‑management director, presented a multi‑phase plan to improve flash‑flood detection and public notification by combining local radar data, historic incident mapping and field sensors.
Moore explained the county’s partnership with the CASA‑DFW network and the University of Massachusetts Amherst to obtain neighborhood‑scale dual‑polarization radar data that fill gaps left by regional NEXRAD coverage. Using archived radar records and the county’s Facebook postings of flooded roads, staff compiled a map of low‑water crossings and analyzed rainfall case studies to develop threshold values (for 15‑minute and 1‑hour accumulations) that reliably predicted flood events at those crossings.
When a threshold is hit the system will notify the county office; staff will verify conditions (including a field check) and, when appropriate, commissioners, precinct supervisors or dispatch will receive a targeted text or an automated alert to close roads preemptively. Moore described testing with the Casa Alerts app and noted FEMA authorization to send county‑level cell‑phone emergency alerts to the public was recently finalized for the county’s office.
Moore proposed adding water‑pressure transducers at priority low‑water crossings. He described a transducer installation that clamps to a signpost with conduit into the streambed, solar‑charged battery power and a cellular transmitter. He estimated hardware at just under $4,000 per sensor and said an initial deployment of roughly 10 sensors across precincts could be managed so that the precincts fund one‑time hardware while the emergency‑management office budgets ongoing maintenance and connectivity (Moore estimated about $750 annually for a 10‑unit package, inclusive of data plans). The county would leverage road‑and‑bridge crews for installation to reduce contractor costs.
Commissioners asked about shaded locations, battery and solar requirements, public facing maps and funding sources; Moore suggested phased procurement, precinct cost participation for hardware and county budgeting for operation. He noted Texas Tech and other state funds have been focused elsewhere (Hill Country) but said the county will pursue available grants while moving forward with a county‑scale, expandable system that can provide earlier warnings and reduce risk to both citizens and county employees.
The court directed staff to work with purchasing and precincts on vendor evaluation and potential pilot locations; Moore said he will present procurement details and cost allocations to precincts and purchasing next.
