SpecFive, an Austin, Texas-based LLC, has developed an off-the-grid flood tracking system, the Digital Tripwire, to warn first responders and area residents of potential flood threats.
Deadly Texas floods in July 2025 claimed 129 lives, according to CNN. SpecFive wants to prevent this from happening again.
CBS Austin reported on the company's innovation in September. The device is meant to be sold to communities rather than to individuals, and it utilizes radio communication to send signals downstream.
The tech is a floating sensor attached to a solar-powered radio module to be placed upstream on a river's blind spots. When water rises quickly, the sensor tracks it and sends a signal downstream to alarm systems and alert radios in homes, cabins, and campgrounds.
The SpecFive Digital Tripwire does not send signals via cellular data or internet connection, but rather through a long-range radio, LoRa, that functions like a CB radio.
It works off-grid, ensuring that even the worst disaster could not keep vulnerable people from being informed about life-threatening floods.
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"With this setup, the citizens can receive the same warning message that the first responders in the town would get," SpecFive told CBS Austin. "Everyone would have the information almost instantly."
Flood warnings are tracked with radar, rain gauges, and satellite, according to the National Severe Storms Laboratory. Forecasters can monitor these tools to predict flash floods, but reporters often rely on cell towers to get the word out to citizens.
With SpecFive's new technology, people would not have to rely on an internet connection to receive warnings and know when to act, meaning the Digital Tripwire could save lives.
This is increasingly important, as rising global temperatures — made worse by human-caused pollution — are exacerbating the length and severity of extreme weather conditions, like flash floods.
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Just a flashlight 🔦 SpecFive founder and CEO Amir Husain aims to install sensors across Texas. A single sensor and relay unit costs $2,000, and entire stretches of river can be sensorized for $20,000 to $30,000. That is a stark difference from other costly systems that can run up to millions of dollars, providing an easier and cheaper solution for governments to implement.
"For very little money, we can sensorize Texas," Husain told CBS Austin. "We can have these small pieces of computer intelligence sitting out at the edge with this free communication network that wraps Texas in kind of this embrace of digital safety."
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