WilCo launches new tool to help prepare residents for future floods, wildfires

WILLIAMSON COUNTY, Texas - Williamson County Emergency Management just launched a new tool to help prepare for the next natural disaster.

It's called a Remote Automatic Weather Station, but it’s probably better known as a fancy rain gauge.

"We have three of the raws stations collecting data right now," said Candi Semple, a Project Manager with Williamson County Emergency Services.

Although it resembles something that looks like it could’ve landed on the moon, it actually captures data about what touches down right here on Earth.

"It's getting a great test right now, out in the elements, so this weather's been really great for picking up rainfall," said Walter Flocke with Texas A&M Forest Services.

The gauge is one of four in the county. Three are set up on the western side of Williamson County and one is on the east side. It will help experts not just monitor flood risk, but wildfires too.

"We can forecast fire danger," said Flocke. "We can forecast how dry our fuels are getting here on the ground."

It tells emergency services everything from how much rain the area is getting to humidity levels, wind speed, and even how dry the grass is just below it.

"We can really track those trends and be able to see when a fire is going to happen," said Flocke.

It's been up for about a month, but the rain this week is really the first time emergency county officials, like Candi Semple have been able to use it.

"It's actually a great opportunity with these rains right now to see the model and to see it working without it being a catastrophic event," said Semple.

The 2018 floods in Williamson County are what got the ball rolling on this project.

Waters brought serious damage and even rescue missions.

"What it can do is give us a heads up and give us an indication of where we need to start looking, where there could be trouble, and we could start prepositioning resources," said Semple.

It can't prevent another major flood, or even a wildfire like Cedar Park saw last summer, but it might just predict it.

"More data means more refined models which means it's more accurate," said Semple.

Williamson County hopes to add more gauges to its collection in the next year.

It won’t be the same model, but the more data the county can collect, the better it will be at predicting floods or wildfires.