Austin officials urge residents to 'Turn around, don't drown' as Flood Safety Awareness Week begins

City and county emergency officials in Austin urged residents on Monday to prepare for flood season and follow the life‑saving guidance “Turn around, don’t drown.” The joint press conference opened Flood Safety Awareness Week and emphasized signing up for local alerts and avoiding low‑water crossings.

Jason Runyon, warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service Austin‑San Antonio forecast office, said South Central Texas is “widely recognized as the most flash prone area of The United States” and that the numbers are “sobering.” “Since 1996, there have been 316 flash flood fatalities across South Central Texas,” Runyon said, adding that “33 lives have been lost to flash flooding just in Travis County alone.” He urged residents to keep multiple methods of receiving warnings active and to enable wireless emergency alerts on phones.

Jim Redick, Austin’s director of emergency management, said the city is updating its disaster mitigation plan in line with the Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000 and asked residents to rehearse household response plans for tornadoes, evacuations and flash floods. Eric Carter, chief EMC for Travis County, said signing up for local notification services should be a top priority: “If you do nothing today, by the end of the day, get yourself signed up,” Carter said, referring to the local alert site.

Jorge Morales, director of Watershed Protection (City of Austin), emphasized low‑water crossings as frequent flash‑flood locations, urged residents to report flooding through 311 and warned against placing brush or tree limbs near storm sewers and culverts because of blockage risks. Morales also promoted local outreach and student videos as part of the week’s public education, announcing a community event at Campbell Elementary School.

Officials pointed listeners to several online resources mentioned at the event — atxfloods.com, txfloodsafety.com and warrencentraltexas.org — for road-closure maps, live cameras and alert sign‑ups. The conference closed with a reminder of simple preparedness steps: maintain an emergency kit, include water and medications, keep pet supplies on hand and have a family meeting place.

Officials said the week’s outreach would include a community event and education opportunities; they noted the week was said to run through April 17 and that a separate in‑person event was announced for Saturday, April 18.