Organizational failures highlighted in hearing over deadly Central Texas flooding: "We're better than that."
On day three of the 2025 special session, Texas lawmakers are addressing issues discovered during the deadly Fourth of July flooding in Central Texas.
Top state officials are testifying that communication needs to improve between the state and local officials, between first responders, and with the large number of volunteers on the ground.
Texas lawmakers address communication failures during July flooding
As the Guadalupe River began rising on the Fourth of July, state officials say the authority to order evacuations lay with city and county leaders.
"When was the order for evacuation ordered?" asked Republican Senator Charles Schwertner.
"I do not believe there was ever one ordered, sir," said Texas Division of Emergency Management Chief Nim Kidd.
"There was never one ordered?" Schwertner replied.
"I'm not aware of one, no," said Kidd.
Kidd testified before a joint committee on disaster preparedness and response at the Texas Capitol on Wednesday about lapses in communication with local officials.
His department, he says, doesn't even have reliable contact information for local emergency managers.
"To this day, I still have forms that get sent to us that have an office number as the Emergency Management contact number," said Kidd. "We still get e-mail addresses that we know are generic e-mail addresses that are not being monitored. You've given us the resources to put people in the field to make sure we're working directly with. We have an employee in Kerr County. We have had for two or three years now. That doesn't mean we have any way of guaranteeing a responsible adult, local officials, and those that are appointed are awake and seeing the same information that our people who are paid to be awake at two in the morning are seeing."
Kidd also drew attention to the absence of any required certification or training for local emergency management coordinators.
"There's no minimum requirements to be an emergency management coordinator. We're better than that," said Kidd.
"Those words are going to ring in my head throughout this. 'We are better than this,'" said Rep. Joe Moody, repeating the phrase.
Community impact and call for accountability
In the hall outside the hearing room, Joe Shopp, whose neighborhood in Sandy Creek sustained damage, said he came hoping to speak with state leaders.
"Greg Abbott said, we're not going to assign blame," said Shopp. "That's what losers do. Right. But JJ, a friend of mine in our community in Sandy Creek who lost his entire family; he watched his wife and his two children drown. He lost his entire business, his livelihood, every vehicle he owns. And he wants to know who's going to be held accountable. It's not the blame game. It's accountability."
Shopp said in his neighborhood, it's volunteers doing all the clean-up.
"Every resource we see in our community is volunteer people that have spent thousands and thousands of their own dollars," said Shopp.
Challenges in volunteer vetting and safety measures
Kidd, meanwhile, said those volunteers have been a challenge to manage.
"It's very difficult to wrangle 27,000 spontaneous volunteers," said Kidd. "The fact of the matter is people come in so quick that we can't control them sometimes, and we don't know who they are."
He asked lawmakers to require volunteers showing up after a disaster to register with authorities.
"I'd like to know if we have registered sex offenders coming to work in shelters," said Kidd. "Do we have anybody with warrants who shouldn't be going through my personal belongings that are scattered all over the place?"
Communication breakdown among first responders
On Wednesday, it was also learned that first responders from different areas weren't able to communicate with each other because their radios weren't compatible. That's been a problem talked about since 9/11.
Also highlighted was the lack of any training or minimum qualification for local officials serving as Emergency Management Coordinators.
All are issues lawmakers seem interested in taking on.
The joint committee will meet again next week in Kerrville to hear from local officials there.
