– As San Antonio continues to clean up from Thursday’s deadly flooding, one local leader is calling for “bold and practical action” to prevent such incidents from happening again.

On Friday, the San Antonio Fire Department said 11 people died as a result of the flooding and that “multiple” people were still missing.

“This is something that has been gut-wrenching, particularly as I’ve literally had to give people notice that their loved ones are no longer with us,” Bexar County Precinct 4 Commissioner Tommy Calvert told KSAT.

SAFD said it was focusing the majority of its search efforts near Perrin-Beitel and Loop 410 on Friday, which is within the area represented by Calvert. He said at one point, the area looked like an “ocean.”

“I’ve never seen anything like that before,” Calvert said.

On Thursday, the commissioner released a statement urging fellow leaders to “act with urgency and common sense to improve the safety of our roads and waterways.”

In the same statement, the commissioner also called for “comprehensive, forward-looking infrastructure improvements across Bexar County.”

KSAT asked Calvert what those “improvements” would look like. He said he’s been discussing that with his constituents.

“If we were going to improve more intersections, would you be for an increase to pay for some of those projects? My most conservative areas say ‘yes,’” Calvert said. ”People really understand the dangers of floods in San Antonio; flash floods happen in the blink of an eye. Almost everybody has seen floodwaters come at them.

“So, it doesn’t necessarily mean we have to have a tax increase, but I can tell you that it certainly means that we need to look at our capital improvement program, particularly after this storm and see how we can help.”

It’s too early to determine the cost of infrastructure projects aimed at flood control. However, Calvert said we need to determine why the flooding was so severe.

“We need to determine in an investigation, was it a combination of things ... that caused some of the waters to move the way they did? Or, perhaps because we had a lot of rain over the last couple of weeks, vegetation overgrew and blocked drainage,” Calvert said. ”There’s a lot to investigate, and we’re still in the early stages as the waters recede."

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