Texas lawmakers heard nearly three hours of testimony Wednesday from the state’s emergency management chief about a system reliant on local emergency managers who may not have even received warnings in the hours before devastating floods ravaged Central and West Texas earlier this month.
As the recovery efforts continue in Kerr County, legislators sought insight from Nim Kidd, chief of the Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM), and other state agency representatives before considering bills for natural disaster preparedness and victim assistance.
Kidd encouraged lawmakers to consider setting more standards for local emergency coordinators to ensure that risk is effectively communicated to residents before disaster strikes. Kidd also urged the state to improve warning systems, which have come under scrutiny since the floods.
Questions about the response of local officials in Kerr County, where hundreds of people were caught unprepared by the rapidly rising water, hung in the air. Lawmakers will have to wait until next week to ask those questions when the committee heads to Kerrville to hear directly from local officials. Several bills for the special session have already been introduced regarding emergency preparedness and disaster response.
The death toll from the flooding statewide has risen to 137, with two people still missing. One hundred eight deaths occurred along the Guadalupe River in Kerr County.
“We will not armchair quarterback or attempt to assign blame,” said Sen. Charles Perry (R-Lubbock), chairman of a special Senate committee created to respond to the Hill Country disaster.
“The goal is to find effective policy solutions,” he said. “Our ultimate goal is to heal our state’s wounds.”
Special Session Pivots to Flood Response
Gov. Greg Abbott announced the 30-day special session on June 23. The session was to focus on a handful of issues including regulation of THC products. A week later, flash floods hit Central and West Texas over the 4th of July weekend.
The tragedy pushed disaster preparedness and flooding onto the special session agenda. Abbott also added congressional redistricting to the agenda days before lawmakers returned to the statehouse.
The special session began on Monday. The Senate and House Select Committees on Disaster Preparedness and Flooding met jointly for the first time Wednesday. After next week’s hearing in Kerrville, the two committees will convene separately to begin considering specific bills.
Kidd began his testimony with a detailed description of how his agency prepared for the forecasted flooding and how it responded in the early morning hours of July 4. Kidd emphasized that National Weather Services flood warnings before the storm covered a “wide swath” of Texas, requiring his agency to stage resources to numerous counties.
Committee members sought to understand why, as TDEM deployed resources, so many people were caught unprepared for the wall of water coming down the Guadalupe River. Kidd explained that under Texas law, disasters are locally managed and that the state’s role is to support local efforts. The mayor or county judge typically serves as the emergency management director. That individual can appoint an emergency management coordinator. Kidd was careful not to specifically implicate any officials, but spoke of a general problem.
Kidd said that TDEM has the contact information of emergency managers at the city and county level across the state. But he said that doesn’t ensure communication is always smooth.
“That doesn’t mean that we have any way of guaranteeing that the responsible adult and local officials are awake and seeing the same information that our people who are paid to be awake at 2 o’clock in the morning are seeing,” he said.
“There is no system in place to ensure that County Judge X or Mayor Y is getting the same information that we are getting from the National Weather Service,” Kidd said in response to questions from Sen. José Menéndez (D-San Antonio).
“You do see the problem with that?” Menéndez asked.
“I do,” Kidd responded.
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He acknowledged that the warning system needs to be improved.
“Do we need a better system for warning? Yes,” Kidd said. “What does that look like? I don’t know.”
Kidd encouraged the lawmakers to consider setting minimum qualifications for emergency managers at the city and county level. Currently there are no minimum credentials or training requirements for emergency coordinators, he said.
“We’ve got some great local emergency managers out there,” he said. “But there is no baseline standardization for how they got to where they are.”
While Kidd thanked the thousands of people who showed up to help, he said that Texas should improve volunteer management following emergencies. Kidd said that the state should also consider how to handle mass fatality events in areas with limited local capacity. He said that challenges emerged after the floods as dozens of bodies were found and families waited to recover the remains of their loved ones.
“We’re better than that,” he said several times during his testimony.
Committee members also asked questions about the role of FEMA in recovery. FEMA announced on July 6 that federal assistance would be available to Texas following the floods. The agency’s response has since come under scrutiny.
President Trump has floated eliminating FEMA, but more recently the administration has discussed overhauling the agency. Kidd said that he, along with Abbott, has been involved in discussions about changes at FEMA.
Kidd said there have been more disaster declarations in Texas than any other state since FEMA was created in 1979. He explained that because of Texas’ population, the threshold to receive federal aid after a disaster is higher than in other states. Texas must surpass $53.6 million in uninsured, qualifying disaster damages to quality for FEMA assistance.
Rep. Ken King, a Republican representing the Panhandle, asked Kidd if there has been discussion of lowering the threshold for when Texas qualifies for FEMA assistance.
“Just the opposite, the conversation is around increasing that threshold,” Kidd responded.
The committee went on to hear testimony from other agencies including the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Texas Water Development Board, the Upper Guadalupe River Authority and the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority.
At least one member became frustrated with testimony that focused on what went right, instead of ways the state needs to improve.
“This is not a normal hearing. This is not a normal ‘attaboy’ of the agencies and what went right,” said Rep. Ann Johnson (D-Houston). “This is a hearing to try and figure out how 137 people died.”
“Our honest genuine question—that the families across Texas are demanding—is what do we need to do better, or what went wrong?” she said.
The lawmakers have only a few short weeks to pass legislation that answers that question in this special session.
Several bills have already been introduced for the House and Senate committees to consider. Senate Bill 1, authored by Perry, the committee chair, addresses natural disaster preparation and recovery. Sen. Paul Bettencourt, a Republican representing West Harris County, introduced SB2, regarding flood emergency communications and warnings.
Democratic Sen. Sarah Eckhardt (D-Austin) introduced SB25 relating to emergency warning systems operated by municipalities and counties Sen. Judith Zaffirini (D-Laredo) introduced SB35, which relates to flood safety requirements for summer camps located near rivers, creeks and streams.
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Reporter, El Paso, Texas
Martha Pskowski covers climate change and the environment in Texas from her base in El Paso. She was previously an environmental reporter at the El Paso Times. She began her career as a freelance journalist in Mexico, reporting for outlets including The Guardian and Yale E360. Martha has a B.A. in Environmental Studies from Hampshire College and a master’s degree in Journalism and Latin American Studies from New York University. She is a former Fulbright research fellow in Mexico. Martha can be reached on Signal at psskow.33.
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