The first bills related to revamping disaster preparedness in the aftermath of the deadly flooding have been filed.
AUSTIN, Texas — With just a few days to go until the start of a special legislative session at the Texas Capitol in Austin, state lawmakers are beginning to lay out their plans to improve disaster response and preparedness across the state following the Fourth of July weekend floods.
The deadly flooding in the Hill Country and Central Texas has killed 116 people in Kerr County alone and 135 across the state. According to Gov. Greg Abbott, 97 people are still missing as crews continue to work to verify reports and the count of survivors.
The first bills related to revamping disaster preparedness in the aftermath of the flooding have been filed.
“We’ve had more than 100 deaths, and we’re also seeing an increased frequency and severity of extreme weather in the state of Texas, whether it’s a flood or a fire or a hurricane, a tornado,” State Sen. Sarah Eckhardt (D-Austin) said. “Emergency preparation, response and recovery absolutely has to be priority one.”
Eckhardt has filed Senate Bill 25, which would allow people to opt in to receiving emergency alerts from their city or county when applying for or renewing their driver’s license.
The proposed legislation would require the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) to include space on each application for a person to check a box indicating whether they wish to participate in their regional warning systems.
If they opt in, the state will then share that information with local governments, allowing them to add those individuals to their regional warning system.
“It’s a capture point where you can capture someone’s attention, educate them that the warning system exists and what it’s for, and request their sign-up right then. Otherwise, we have to rely on public service announcements locally and that’s a lot harder,” Eckhardt said. “It’s great when you’re, frankly, shooting fish in a barrel. Everybody gets a driver’s license. It’s an opportunity to educate people about what’s available to them in weather warning systems.”
People can opt out with a simple written request, such as a text message.
The legislation was first proposed by a different lawmaker in the 86th legislative session back in 2019. The bill passed both chambers but was vetoed by Gov. Greg Abbott, who stated at the time that it was a local responsibility, not the state’s.
Eckhardt, a former Travis County Judge, said the subscription rate to the regional warning system in Central Texas, Warn Central Texas, is “far too low.”
“We have worked diligently to get as many people signed up for war in central Texas as possible,” Eckhardt said. “Unfortunately, the subscription rate is low, and even FEMA, in a household survey a few years ago, determined that really, only about 30% of individuals sign up for their regional warning systems.”
State Sen. Judith Zaffirini (D-Laredo) has filed Senate Bill 28, which would require cities and counties to post “public health and safety alert,” such as a “weather or emergency alert, warning or watch,” that “impacts or will likely impact” them.
Those alerts would need to include the “area affected by the weather event or emergency,” including “a geographic display of the severity of the threat posed by the weather event or emergency,” a link to a website or message system with current information on the threat, the projected movement of a weather event or emergency and instructions for the protection of human life, including safe zones for evacuation and other resources.
State Rep. Don McLaughlin (R-Uvalde) has filed House Bill 108, which would require the Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM) to develop a guide on preparing for and responding to flood disasters for civic, volunteer and community organizations.
The proposed legislation calls for a comprehensive guide to preparing for and responding to flooding disasters. It would include information like the best practices for community engagement in response to the disaster, recommendations for minimizing casualties through volunteer presence in the disaster area, coordination of and access to assistance resources, long-term recovery and community resilience, communication coordination, training and preparation resources on flooding disaster response and preserving and restoring community cohesion and public life after the disaster.
So far, state lawmakers have already filed about 126 bills ahead of the start of the special session, though most of them have to do with some of the other items Gov. Greg Abbott has included on the special session agenda.
Gov. Greg Abbott traveled to San Angelo in Tom Green County on Thursday to meet with local leaders and first responders and assess the impact of the severe flooding on the community.
One person in Tom Green County, a 62-year-old woman in San Angelo, was killed in the flooding. She was found in her vehicle after previously being reported missing.
Abbott praised the local leaders in the San Angelo area for their response to the flooding, calling it “extraordinary.”
“We’ve not seen a better response in the state of Texas,” the governor said. “We consider it to be a model for the way that communities need to respond to disasters like this.”
Abbott said every county across the state will be evaluated in the upcoming special session.
“We’re going to look for strategies that we can pass laws that will prepare for these types of events better, make response to these types of events better, to make sure that we leave this disaster in a way that puts Texas in a better position going forward than we were before this devastating storm in our state,” Gov. Abbott said.
In addition to local leaders like Tom Green County Judge Lane Carter and San Angelo Mayor Tom Thompson, Abbott was joined by State Rep. Drew Darby (R-San Angelo) and State Sen. Charles Perry (R-Lubbock).
Perry has been a champion for water issues in the legislature for years and will serve as the chair of the Senate Select Committee on Disaster Preparedness and Flooding.
“I have all the confidence in the world that the state is big enough that not one single person will be left behind when it comes to what they need addressed, and we’ll find a way to do it,” Perry said. “We’ve been here before as a state on some level, and we will come out shining as Texas always does.”
This week, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dustin Burrows (R-Lubbock) established House and Senate Select Committees on Disaster Preparedness and Flooding, dedicated to addressing these issues.
The committees will examine flood warning systems and emergency communications, as well as relief funding and overall natural disaster preparation and recovery. The aim is to create an overall plan for the state.
The committee of nine House members will be chaired by State Rep. Ken King (R-Canadian), and includes Rep. Darby as well as State Rep. Wes Virdell (R-Brady), whose district consists of the Kerrville area, and State Rep. Terry Wilson (R-Georgetown).
While state lawmakers cannot roll back the clock and undo the events that led to the deadly flooding, Darby said they can learn from it.
“How can we prevent it?” Darby said. “There are going to be natural disasters to occur in the future, but how do we prevent this loss of life?”
The state lawmakers on the committee will evaluate rules to speed up disaster preparedness and recovery. They will also look to improve early warning systems and preparedness infrastructure, particularly in flood-prone areas of Texas.
Some places in Texas already have early warning systems, while others do not. Gov. Abbott said lawmakers should approach the conversation about early warning systems with that as a key part of the lens through which they view the issue.
“What may be needed in the Guadalupe River area could be completely different than what is needed in Tom Green County, and we need to be working with leaders and members of local communities to learn from them what is going to be best for them,” Abbott said.
For instance, in Hunt, Texas, which was the epicenter of the Guadalupe River flooding and where several summer camps, including Camp Mystic, are located, there is virtually no cell phone availability.
“Cell phone warnings, I think they were triggered, but they largely would have been irrelevant because of the inability for people to communicate,” Abbott said. “We have to work on improving communication levels in all of these different regions. Improving communications will be a part of early warnings that we need to address.”
It is why State Sen. Paul Bettencourt (R-Houston) plans to file a bill in the upcoming special session to revive civil defense sirens for these flash flood-prone areas of Texas.
He told KVUE last week that many people may silence weather alerts on their phones or even not receive them if they’re in remote areas, but outdoor sirens provide warnings that can’t be missed and can save lives.
It is a concern shared by Sen. Eckhardt, who said the legislature needs to “take a good and honest look at our alert system.”
“I believe that it’s possible that we are overutilizing it for alerts that don’t have an immediate impact on the individual who’s receiving the alert,” Eckhardt said. “We have several alerts that are well-intentioned but have a very low probability of having an immediate effect on the individual, whereas weather alerts are geolocated and designed specifically for individuals in harm’s way.”
Local State Sens. Donna Campbell (R-New Braunfels) and Charles Schwertner (R-Georgetown) will be part of the Senate select committee charged with investigating issues such as floodgate warning systems and flood relief funding.
The first hearing for these new committees will take place at the Capitol on July 23. The second hearing will take place the following week in Kerrville on July 31, providing residents in that hard-hit area with an opportunity to have their voices heard.
The legislature’s special session begins on Monday and runs for up to 30 days.