County hosts flood awareness training

The day before a storm system brought downpours and severe weather watches to Central Texas, Hays County residents had an opportunity to learn about flood safety from the National Weather Service. The county emergency services department and the NWS held a flood awareness training session at the North Hays County Fire Department in Dripping Springs on Tuesday.

“The information was very well received,” said Kharley Smith, head of Hays County Emergency Services.

Paul Yura with the NWS led off the training session with information on different types of storm systems, how to identify them and what their typical effects are, Smith said. He gave general safety tips and pointed attendees toward different means of finding out weather-related information. Justin McInnis, assistant director of Hays County Emergency Services, led the second half of the session, Smith said. He discussed resources and historical weather events specific to Hays County.

“Overall, it was very informative and a training that we will be offering again in other areas of the county,” Smith said.

The Tuesday evening training was timely; on Wednesday, rains moved through the area bringing precipitation totals of between 1 and 2 inches throughout the county, according to the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow (Co-CoRaHS) Network. CoCo-RaHS gauges in San Marcos picked up between 0.6 and 1.1 inches.

With severe weather season upon us, Smith said she wants to remind Hays County residents to stay informed about weather conditions.

“I would definitely want to remind residents to register for emergency alerts at warncentraltexas.org as well as to utilize haysinformed.com for real time emergency messages as well as access to road closures and flood gauge information,” she said.