By Jordan Baze, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension
A timely funding opportunity from the Extension Disaster Education Network (EDEN) helped a Texas A&M program play a vital role in mapping efforts following the 2025 flooding in Kerrville, Texas.
Over the past year and a half, the Community Hazards and Resource Management (CHARM) Planning Team has worked closely with Disaster Assessment and Recovery (DAR) specialists to better understand what tools and resources could strengthen their work in the field and with local communities.
Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service’s DAR unit houses programs such as CHARM that provide education and disaster mitigation resources across the state. The CHARM Planning Team develops hands-on table-top mapping exercises to guide communities through scenarios for future land use, hazard assessments, and local priorities.
In March 2024, DAR Specialist Daniel Hale reached out to the Planning Team’s GIS analysts seeking United States National Grid (USNG) maps for Milam County and surrounding areas. When the team couldn’t locate existing maps, they worked with Hale to identify his specific mapping needs and priorities.
At the time, the team didn’t have dedicated funding to produce maps for Hale’s entire district. DAR provided a small amount to create an initial pilot set, and later that year, Hale and DAR Chief Jeff Fant identified a grant opportunity through EDEN that perfectly aligned with the project. Together, Hale and the Planning Team applied for and received funding to develop USNG maps for all of Texas.
USNG references convey precise location information in a short sequence of characters that is easily relayed in writing or by voice, which makes them preferable for ground operations and local or rural applications. This improves confidence and saves time identifying and coordinating locations with other responding agents in the field.
Midway through the project in July, Hale called to ask if the team had completed the USNG maps for Kerr County. Severe flooding in Kerrville left responders without adequate maps for ongoing ground search and rescue operations.
The CHARM Planning Team’s GIS analysts immediately stepped in. They conducted a quick Quality Assurance and Quality Control (QA/QC) review to ensure the maps were aligned and easy to read for the recovery team. Within 30 minutes of Hale’s call, he had the complete set of Kerr County maps in hand.
According to CHARM GIS Analyst Erika Pham, the team had begun developing printable, deployable USNG maps for Texas counties earlier that spring, thanks to EDEN’s funding. “That early support made all the difference,” she said. “By the time the Kerr County flooding occurred, we had already developed maps for about 75% of Texas. We’re grateful to EDEN for making it possible to provide our DAR specialists with usable, deployment-ready maps before disasters even happen.”
