State officials admitted last week during the first committee hearing on the deadly Hill Country floods that first responders couldn’t communicate with each other, volunteers weren’t vetted, and some emergency management officials were not properly trained to lead a disaster response.
It’s imperative that the Texas Legislature address communication in the 30-day special session that began July 21, Texas Division of Emergency Management Chief Nim Kidd told members of the Select Committee on Disaster Preparedness and Flooding.
Kidd said that while he was in Kerrville on the morning of July 4, he was unable to talk by radio with San Antonio firefighters because their devices didn’t work outside of their home jurisdiction, just an hour away from the disaster.
“They had some really cheap Chinese radios that they were talking to each other on. We’re better than that. We can do better than that,” Kidd said, a phrase he would repeat several times throughout the 11-hour public hearing.
Rep. Armando Martinez, D-Weslaco, suggested using radios with SIM cards that can get roaming coverage.
“I think the private sector partners that we’ve talked to and dealt with over the years are ready to come to the table with technical solutions,” Kidd said. “I believe the larger challenge is the cultural challenge. We have 52 to 54 independently, usually locally owned, radio systems across the state. There’s no state standard for governance on how they operate.
“The Department of Public Safety can talk about it, but I think when you talk to them, you’re going to find there’s no teeth and no funding. There’s no carrot or no stick,” he added. “I’m not suggesting we go build a new system from the ground up. I think there’s plenty of broadband, fiber, technology capability, Starlink, you name it, out there, but we do need an organizational structure to cobble that together and offer grants and support to locals that have built these systems on their own.”
Sometimes local governments don’t relish being told how to operate their systems, especially when the mandate doesn’t come with a check, Kidd explained.
“If I’m building my house and you’re not paying for it, you don’t get to design my house or say what rooms I have,” he said. “That’s what they’ve done with their radio systems. We as a state, I believe, should have conversations deliberately with them and figure out how we can integrate all of them together.”
State officials agreed that mistakes were made and the system in place — through which state resources are only intended to support or augment small, cash-strapped local governments — is flawed.
During the July 23 public hearing, committee members reviewed a timeline of events that led up to the Hill Country disaster that killed at least 137 people, including 27 young girls and counselors at a Christian camp in Kerr County.
“Our select committee will not armchair quarterback or attempt to assign blame,” said committee co-chair Sen. Charles Perry, R-Lubbock. “To do so would undermine the very goal of the committee’s creation. The goal of our committee is to find constructive policy solutions that will prevent future loss of life like what our state has suffered over the past few weeks.”
While perhaps legislators did not assign blame, they did grill Kidd and officials from Texas river authorities about poor coordination and decision-making. The committee will meet with Kerr County officials and residents onsite July 31.
Tara Bushnoe, general manager of the Upper Guadalupe River Authority, took the brunt of the criticism, as lawmakers questioned why the Authority did not accept a zero-interest loan offer from the Texas Water Development Board last year to fund a $1 million early flood warning system. Bushnoe said the match wasn’t enough to move forward with the grant.
The Authority also has declined in recent years to use its more than $3 million reserve account to fund a warning system, opting instead to lower property taxes.
Critics were concerned that disaster response would get pushed aside in the special session, expressing frustration when Gov. Greg Abbott’s 18-item agenda was released, saying it appeared the governor was using the Hill Country tragedy to get legislators to the Capitol so he could force them to carve up their districts based on a directive from President Donald Trump.
The President has asked the Texas Legislature, via the U.S. Department of Justice, to flip five Texas congressional seats red in a mid-decade redistricting effort.
Redistricting, a ban on THC products, and elimination of the STAAR test remain on Abbott’s agenda and are being discussed at the Capitol, but lawmakers appear to agree that addressing disaster response and recovery is a top priority.
The flood committee won’t vote on bills but will compile feedback from the July 23 hearing and the onsite visit in Kerrville, and the House and Senate will have individual hearings on the filed bills to move the legislation through each chamber, Perry said. At least a dozen bills have already been filed that address emergency warning sirens, relief funding and safety measures at youth camps.
The joint House and Senate committee includes two Houston lawmakers: Sen. Paul Bettencourt, a Republican, and Rep. Ann Johnson, a Democrat.
Weather Warnings in Kerr County
Underscoring how the Hill Country floods literally weren’t on the radar until minutes before the region was underwater, the Texas Division of Emergency Management had a team in New Mexico managing wildfires and catastrophic floods about a week prior to the July 4 weekend.
Anticipating potential heavy rainfall, TDEM sent boat squads to Tom Green County in West-Central Texas and Kerr County on July 2.
“People are going to ask, ‘What did you know that nobody else knew?’ We didn’t know anything that nobody else knew,” Kidd said. “What we did know is that we were going into a holiday weekend. We knew that we needed to ensure resources were available from those local governments that we would want to stand up for water teams, for search and rescue teams, and for medical teams if they were needed.
“At that time, when we released our press release on July 2, the National Weather Service’s largest forecast was for San Angelo, and that forecast was likely two to three inches of rain; less likely, four to five inches of rain,” he added.
Nineteen different National Weather Service offices cover Texas, Kidd said. The area of concern that TDEM evaluated ahead of the holiday weekend was 35,000 square miles across the state, the size of Indiana. The forecast for that massive swath of land was “slight risk of flash flooding” for Central and West Texas, according to the National Weather Service.
TDEM placed resources in numerous cities, including New Braunfels, Llano, Brownwood, Kerrville, San Angelo, Cameron, Waco, Alpine, Austin, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio. Helicopters and boat squads covering a 160-mile radius were in place by 1 p.m. Thursday, July 3.
“It was not about the intensity we saw in the forecast because we didn’t see it, just like you didn’t see it, just like no TV meteorologist ever broadcast about it,” Kidd said. “What we saw was a giant swath of Texas — we started calling it a belt on our internal calls — where something may happen over the Fourth of July weekend.”
A flash flood watch (meaning “be aware” that something might happen) was issued for the western Hill Country on the afternoon of July 3. The forecast said that chances of rain would decrease over the weekend, “with drier conditions ahead.” By 7 p.m. Thursday, there were reports of increased showers in the Hill Country.
At 1:06 a.m. July 4, the National Weather Service in San Antonio reported “very heavy rain” in Bandera, Kerr, and Gillespie counties. At that time, the first flash flood warning (more severe than a watch) was issued for 13 counties. At 2:37 a.m., forecasts noted that excessive runoff may result in flooding of low-lying areas, rivers, and creeks.
It wasn’t until 3:08 a.m. that emergency responders were made aware by the National Weather Service of “a very dangerous flash-flood event in South Central Kerr County.”
At 3:19 a.m., the Guadalupe River at Hunt was at 11 feet, expected to crest at 16.6 feet. At 4 a.m., it was at 19.4 feet, expected to crest at 23.8 feet.
“In less than an hour, they changed the forecast like that,” Kidd said. “At 4:23 a.m., [they predicted] five to 10 inches of rain over the next three to six hours. This is a flash flood emergency. At 4:45 a.m., the National Weather Service at Guadalupe at Hunt puts out another message. At 5:56, I personally got the first report of people trapped on roofs.
“We know what happened after that.”
KIdd, who was first appointed to his post by Republican Gov. Rick Perry and re-appointed by Abbott, did not bring up President Donald Trump’s proposals to reduce National Weather Service capabilities and eliminate FEMA.
What Needs to Be Improved
At the height of the flooding event, about 2,700 state employees were “actively engaged,” Kidd said. More than 17,000 volunteers came from across the country. Thirty Texas counties ultimately were named in a governor-issued disaster declaration. More than 6,000 people have already registered for FEMA assistance.
Volunteers are essential in a crisis, but a better policy is needed to manage them, Kidd said.
“A lot of them are just good-hearted Texans bringing their resources and their heavy equipment, working really hard around the clock for no thanks and no pay,” he said. “But there are others that we need to keep an eye on.”
The TDEM chief said he thought it was important to know whether registered sex offenders are working in shelters or someone with active warrants is sorting through personal belongings. There are also volunteer laborers with expertise in carpentry, plumbing, and electrical work who should be assigned tasks that suit their skills.
“I need your help in balancing that out,” he told the committee.
A volunteer reception center should be set up within the first 12 hours of an incident, where people can check in and share what capabilities they have.
“The fact of the matter is, people come in so quickly, we can’t control them sometimes and we don’t know who they are,” Kidd said. “Yet they’re going through all of your personal belongings. They’re in places that nobody else is supervising or watching. I think we should have a deliberate conversation, whether it’s here or at some point in the future, about making volunteers check in at a location for their safety and for our safety and for their coordination and communication.”
During the recent search and rescue efforts, the river had to be evacuated several times because of ongoing flooding, Kidd said. If volunteers had been checked in at a central location, their cell phone numbers would have been in a database for text message communication. When volunteer hours are tracked, that information can be used for in-kind donations and FEMA matching grants, he added.
Legislators briefly addressed scammers who capitalize on tragedies, saying they’ve received reports that some families who lost a child were contacted by predators who said, “We have your daughter and will return her for a fee.”
“I think, working together with our law enforcement partners at the local and state level, we can help identify these predators,” Kidd said. “It’s despicable. It needs to stop. I’ve got a place for them.”
Texas legislators should also look into improving policy around mass fatality management, Kidd said. When funeral homes, medical examiners, and justices of the peace are overwhelmed, an organization like the Texas Mortuary Assistance Team should be brought in, he said.
Officials spoke at length in last week’s hearing about how local authorities are supposed to manage their own crises until they become overwhelmed, a process that could be improved.
“I always say we are responsible, but we are not in charge,” Kidd said. “We help locals plan, train, exercise, respond, recover, and mitigate from all disasters, but it is only when an incident overwhelms or is suspected to overwhelm a local government that we are there to support them.
“When an incident exceeds a local jurisdiction’s capacity and the ability to afford the cost of that disaster, we work with the governor’s office for the disaster declaration and then we do damage assessments,” he added.
Kidd further suggested that emergency management coordinators at the city and county level should be credentialed, with uniform training across the state similar to what is required of EMTs, police officers and firefighters. The only mandate currently in place for emergency management coordinators is a three-hour Texas Division of Emergency Management training course, required only in counties with populations of 500,000 or more.
Mayors and county judges are, by Texas statute, the directors for their jurisdictions, often thrust into these roles without proper training, Kidd explained. A judge or mayor can appoint an emergency management coordinator who serves as an assistant to the director and also has no training requirements.
First responders came to assist from 26 states, and federal standards should be in place so they’re all working off the same playbook, Kidd said. Lawmakers suggested that this could be addressed through legislation, either in the current special session or when the legislature reconvenes in 2027.
“I want to know when they come here that they have the same standard of training at the minimum level that [our responders] do,” Kidd said.
In response to questioning from Senator Bettencourt about numerous agencies operating in silos, Kidd said state law would have to be changed to give Texas more authority to “take over” when a city or county is unable to manage a disaster. The senator has pushed for civil warning sirens but there’s a question of who decides when they’re triggered.
“Do we need a better system for warning? Yes. What does that look like? I don’t know,” Kidd said. “Once we have this amazing system, who should have the authority to implement or activate the system? I still believe that should be local officials. Your next question is, should there be a backup? That answer is yes also.”
Bettencourt said his Senate Bill 2 is an attempt to address some of those issues, particularly communications and the warning system. Other bills include SB 1 on disaster preparation and recovery, filed by Perry, and SB 3 on disaster relief funding for the Hill Country, filed by Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston. Rep. Mitch Little, R-Lewisville, filed House Bill 152, which would require facilities like Camp Mystic, where 27 children and counselors died in the July 4 floods, to have satellite phones and radio communications on site.
Several legislators thanked Kidd for his service and quick response, calling the Texas Division of Emergency Management “the best in the world,” but Houston Democrat Rep. Ann Johnson said she believed the committee was intended to focus on what could be done better — and what laws could be enacted to improve storm prediction, response, and recovery efforts.
“I appreciate the recognition of what was done well, but I think this select committee was formed because 137 people are dead, including a number of 8-year-old little girls at the camp,” she said. “And while I don’t think anybody wants to point fingers, I do think we want the most honest assessment of what went wrong.”
Johnson asked Kidd what assets he needs from the state legislature. He responded that his team needs facilities equipped with briefing rooms and a place for people to sleep, staggered across Texas so they can respond quickly when a disaster occurs. The Texas Division of Emergency Management currently owns two facilities and has two under construction. They also need equipment, fleet, and money, he said, noting that there is no statewide hazard mitigation fund.
Kidd said the state needs to have a sincere focus on corrective action plans and the financial backing to implement them.
“You go find any of your first responders and ask them if they’ve done an [after-action review] and they’re going to say yes,” he said. “You ask them about a corrective action plan, and they go, ‘Yeah, I think we did that.’ You ask them if they’ve implemented it, and most of them are going to give you a shrug. That’s why we keep having these failures of the same thing over and over again.”
So what happens next? Bills will be filed and passed up for votes in the full House and Senate. Lawmakers have only about three weeks remaining in the special session and they still haven’t convened as a whole body for more than just a few minutes.
But if there’s a bipartisan sense of urgency on anything, it’s flooding and disaster response.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2025.
