After destructive flash floods swept through central Texas in 2025, local officials came under scrutiny from people nationwide searching for reasons why the disaster killed so many people.
One rumor pointed fingers at officials from the conservative Kerr County, one of the hardest-hit areas along the Guadalupe River, for allegedly rejecting or diverting money sent by former U.S. President Joe Biden meant to update the county's flood warning systems. The allegation spread on Instagram,
"Kerr County was literally given $10 million by the Biden administration to help upgrade their flood warning system, and they said no," an Instagram user claimed in one
But this claim needs context. While the Biden administration did grant Kerr County $10.2 million in 2021, the federal government outlined various purposes for the money, such as pay for essential workers and assistance for businesses affected by the pandemic. The money could be used for natural disaster-related infrastructure, such as updates to flood warning systems, but it did not have to be spent that way. The funds originated from the American Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA, which Congress passed to support local governments impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
"I've been getting death threats, can you imagine? And cursing us for decisions we didn't get a chance to make," one Kerr County commissioner, Rich Paces, said at a July 14, 2025, meeting (see 24:03). "Joe Biden didn't give us $10 million for a flood warning system. Now, that's just false information. We did get 10 million in ARPA funds, OK, and we used it for a radio system to help with emergency response."
While Kerr County residents were split on whether to accept the ARPA money, the county did eventually accept the funds and spent most of it on building a new emergency response radio system for the sheriff's department.
In other words, officials did not spend ARPA dollars on upgrading the county's outdated flood warning system. While current Kerr County commissioners did not immediately respond to an inquiry asking about this, a commissioner from 2021, Harley Belew, said replacing the "antiquated" system "provided better coverage between Kerr County officers and dispatch."
"The new system also enabled Kerr County Deputies to communicate with other state and local law enforcement agencies during emergencies," Belew wrote in an email. "Those radios have been used to full effect during this disaster."
How Kerr County could have spent ARPA funds
The ARPA gave local governments loose guidelines for what to use the funds on. Those guidelines, taken directly from the legislation, can be seen below (emphasis ours):
(Sec. 9901) This section provides funding to states, territories, and tribal governments to mitigate the fiscal effects stemming from the COVID-19 public health emergency.
A state, territory, or tribal government shall use the funds to cover costs incurred by December 31, 2024, to
- respond to the COVID-19 emergency or its negative economic impacts, including assistance to households, small businesses, and nonprofits or aid to impacted industries such as tourism, travel, and hospitality;
- provide premium pay to essential workers or provide grants to employers of essential workers during the COVID-19 emergency;
- provide government services to the extent of the reduction in revenue of such state, territory, or tribal government due to the COVID-19 emergency; or
- make necessary investments in water, sewer, or broadband infrastructure.
The section prohibits (1) the use of funds to reduce or delay the imposition of a tax or tax increase, or (2) deposit of the funds into a pension fund.
Page 59 of this Treasury Department document showed the federal government did, in fact, offer Kerr County $10.2 million in ARPA funds.
Other local governments used ARPA funds for storm-related infrastructure. Corpus Christi, Texas, for example, used $15 million in ARPA money to "rehabilitate and/or replace aging storm water infrastructure" (Page 8).
But Kerr County did not spend any of its ARPA dollars on storm or water-related infrastructure, except for about $116,000 used for an "ice storm closure," according to a Kerr County budget workshop in July 2024. It's unclear how, exactly, those funds were used (see 2:28:34).
Local residents had mixed reaction to ARPA offer
When the Biden administration offered the ARPA money to the county, some people urged officials to reject it entirely. In a survey of 181 residents, about 41% of respondents said they wanted to "send the money back." In a Nov. 22, 2021, meeting, residents cited fears of federal overreach and possible "strings attached" — such as potential vaccine mandates — as reasons to reject the $10.2 million. At least one resident referred to "these people" — presumably the Biden administration — as "communist," as referenced in the above-mentioned Instagram post. (For the record, nothing in ARPA mandates COVID-19 vaccines.)
The county's commissioners eventually voted to accept the funds, despite "heavy pressure, sometimes bordering threatening behavior, from ultra-conservative activists," according to a local newspaper, Kerr County Lead.
Of the $10.2 million, Kerr County spent $7 million on a new first responder emergency radio for the sheriff's department and another $1.1 million on hiring emergency responders. The county also spent funds on a new walkway, other hires and administrative needs like updated software (see a detailed breakdown at 2:27:34).
Why didn't Kerr County use ARPA dollars to upgrade flood alert system?
Multiple reputable news outlets, including NBC News, reported that before 2021, Kerr County officials repeatedly discussed upgrading its flood warning systems and sought funding from the state, only to be rebuffed. One rejected proposal reportedly asked Texas for just under $1 million to update the flood warning system.
According to Kerr County's adopted 2024-25 budget, officials spent $9,500 on its flood warning system from budget year 2020 to 2024 (Page 98).
However, as of this writing, Kerr County has not provided an explanation as to why it did not use ARPA money to fund its much-needed alert system.
The Texas Tribune reported on July 10 that "it's not clear if residents or the commissioners understood at the time they could have applied the [ARPA] funds to a warning system," given that the Kerr County commissioners in charge at the time did not respond to the paper's requests for interviews. The commissioners, except for Belew, also did not immediately respond to Snopes. Belew's aforementioned response did not directly address whether commissioners knew they could use the funds for a warning system, despite being asked.
A Nov. 4, 2021, workshop presentation on ARPA funds by Kerr County's grant administrator at the time, Rosa Lavender, noted the money could be used on "necessary investments to improve access to clean drinking water, stormwater infrastructure, and to expand access to broadband internet" (Slide 9). At least a dozen residents attended the workshop, based on minutes from a commissioner meeting on Nov. 22, 2021. Therefore, at least some residents and officials knew the money could be used on stormwater infrastructure.
To summarize: Kerr County did not reject $10 million from the Biden administration to update its flood warning system, specifically. Rather, the former presidential administration issued the money, pandemic relief funding, to use on various things, including, but not limited to, stormwater infrastructure. So, while the county could have used the federal dollars to upgrade the flood warning system, it spent most of it on an emergency responder radio system for the sheriff's department. It remained unclear as of this writing why Kerr County did not use the funds specifically for its flood warning system.