Following Hill Country flooding, officials say weather radios can be valuable tool in emergencies

KERRVILLE, Texas — Officials say the July 4 Hill Country flooding highlights the need for emergency preparedness, including weather radios for households.

It is still not fully clear what devices or apparatuses were available to victims of the flooding, but officials say tools like weather radios can be critical to delivering vital information for people to act quickly.

NOAA weather radios are devices that are specifically tuned to National Weather Service broadcasts sharing forecasts and warnings.

“One of the most important things about an emergency situation is having multiple ways to receive information,” Harris County Deputy Emergency Management Coordinator Brian Murray told KHOU 11 in an interview.

Murray said weather radios can deliver that valuable information when cell phone reception is poor or internet access on computers or other devices isn’t possible.

“Where this really comes in handy is in situations where you lose power,” Murray said. “After the derecho and after [Hurricane] Beryl last year, we had some areas where the cell phone towers, even though they have backup generators, they don’t last forever necessarily, so the weather radio was still the one thing that was still operating that you could get information through.”

Murray said receiving the information is valuable but a plan to act on it once received is just as important.

“If an alert tells you that you need to seek higher ground, do you have a plan to do that? Where will you go? These are things that are important to think about beforehand.”

More information about weather radios is here.