One year after devastating floods claimed more than 100 lives along the Guadalupe River, Central Texas found itself facing another nightmare this week.
Once again, rivers spilled over their banks. Homes flooded. Water rescues stretched into the night. Flash flood emergencies were issued across the Hill Country.
But this time, the ending was different.
State officials confirmed two deaths in this year's flooding, a heartbreaking loss, but far fewer than the catastrophic toll from last summer. Experts say that wasn't luck alone. Better preparation, stronger warning systems and a public that remembered what happened in 2025 all played a role.
"It's so fresh in everybody's memory, about the flood and about being so surprised that it got that big," Center Point resident Kay Steadham said. She believes people took emergency alerts much more seriously this time.
A different kind of storm
At first glance, the two floods looked similar. Both dumped historic amounts of rain across Central Texas. Both sent rivers surging. Both triggered widespread rescues.
But meteorologists say they were actually very different storms.
Last year's flood was sudden and violent. A concentrated burst of 7 to 12 inches of rain fell in just a few hours overnight near the headwaters of the Guadalupe River. While many people were asleep, the river at Hunt shot up 29 feet in only three hours, leaving little time to escape.
This week's flooding unfolded over several days instead of several hours.
Heavy rain began farther west in Uvalde County before spreading across the Hill Country. Storms repeatedly moved over the same areas, sending water into several river basins, including the Guadalupe, Nueces and Pedernales rivers.
"The Guadalupe River last year, it all came down at once," said Greg Waller, a hydrologist with the National Weather Service's West Gulf River Forecast Center. "This one almost looks like a football game. There's the first quarter, then there's the second quarter. ... It's spread out."
That slower pace gave emergency managers something they didn't have last year — time.
More warning, more action
Forecasters began warning local officials about the incoming weather days before the worst flooding arrived.
Jason Runyen, warning coordination meteorologist with the National Weather Service office serving the Austin-San Antonio area, said the agency didn't change the way it issues warnings after last year's tragedy.
"From a warning philosophy standpoint, there's been no change in how we warn things," Runyen said.
The difference was that emergency officials had more lead time to prepare, monitor river levels and warn communities downstream.
"Early flood warning doesn't start with the sirens, but starts with the science," said Nick Fang, director of the University of Texas at Arlington's water research center.
Lessons from last year
After the deadly 2025 flood, Texas lawmakers approved several changes aimed at preventing another disaster.
New warning sirens have been installed along parts of the Guadalupe River in Kerr County, and a new river monitoring dashboard gives emergency managers real-time information on rainfall, river levels and streamflow.
Kerrville Mayor Joe Herring said those tools helped officials make critical decisions before floodwaters arrived.
Crews evacuated neighborhoods, shut down bridges and placed barricades before roads became impassable.
"That saved lives yesterday, without a doubt," Herring said.
He added that the biggest difference from last year was simple.
"The difference [from 2025] is we did not have a warning system in place that could tell us the magnitude of the problem heading our way."
Ready to respond
First responders also entered this week's storms better equipped than they were a year ago.
In Center Point, volunteer firefighter Razor Dobbs said his department had new rescue boats, additional vehicles, specialized equipment and trained volunteers ready around the clock.
"We've had it on our radar because the ground's been getting saturated," Dobbs said. "The more the ground gets saturated … it doesn't take as much rain to flood."
When floodwaters rose early Thursday morning, firefighters answered dozens of rescue calls, pulling people from homes, cars, trees, RVs and attics. Volunteers also went door to door warning residents to move to higher ground.
People listened
Experts also believe last year's tragedy changed how Texans reacted when alerts started coming in.
Robert Mace, executive director of the Meadows Center for Water and the Environment at Texas State University, said people understood the danger.
"Everybody's already a bit on edge about these storms and what they can do in terms of devastating property and taking people's lives," he said.
Rachel Hanes with the Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance said flood awareness was noticeably higher this year. She also pointed out that this week's storms did not arrive during a major holiday weekend, meaning there were likely fewer visitors unfamiliar with the area's flood risks.
Historic rainfall, familiar danger
The amount of rain was still extraordinary.
Some gauges in Uvalde, Kerr, Real and Guadalupe counties recorded more than 20 inches of rain since Monday. According to federal scientists, rainfall totals like that have only about a 0.2% chance of happening in any given year.
Climate scientist Daniel Swain said both the 2025 and 2026 floods were rare but shared many of the same ingredients, including unusually moist air and slow-moving thunderstorms.
"It's a familiar flavor, certainly," Swain said. "Just because it happened last year does not decrease the likelihood of it happening this year."
Texas State Climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon said that's the biggest lesson from back-to-back years of devastating flooding.
"The main lesson is this sort of thing can happen again, and we won't know when."
