DALLAS — Last Thursday in Kerrville, Alicia Jeffrey Baker poured out her heart to lawmakers, publicly sharing the grief of the July 4 loss of her parents, Penny and Emlyn Jeffrey, and her 11-year-old daughter Madelyn in the Texas Hill Country floods.

"The river that we loved so much," she said, her voice trembling, "killed them."

For Baker, it wasn't just a tragedy of water rising too fast. For her, it's a story of warnings that never came, and a desperate plea to put warning systems in place to save someone else.

She asked lawmakers in Kerrville to consider installing outdoor sirens that could be activated by river gauges when the Guadalupe, which flows through Hunt, Ingram, Kerrville, and Comfort is approaching dangerous levels.

"If it gets to a certain point, that's when the siren g

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