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It has been 16 months since Hurricane Harvey tore the Texas Coast in August 2017, killing more than 80 people and flattening the entire neighborhood. And when Texas legislators gathered in Austin for a biennial session, the scale of the storm’s destruction was difficult to ignore.
Lawmakers responded by greenlighting longstanding initiatives across the state to assess flood risk and improve preparation for increasingly deadly storms. “If you plan on the front end and prevent more damage on the front end, there’s less on the back end,” said Charles Perry, Republican Sen. from Lubbock, who chairs the committee that oversees environmental issues.
Over the next few years, hundreds of local officials and volunteers canvased the Texas community and mapped vulnerabilities. The results of their work came in 2024 with the release of Texas’ first state flood plan.
Their findings identified nearly $55 billion in the proposed project and outlined 15 key recommendations, including nine proposals on the law. Several people were meant to support rural communities like Kerr County. There, flash floods killed more than 100 people over the weekend of July 4th. There are no three yet.
However, this year lawmakers largely ignored these recommendations.
Instead, the legislative session, which ended June 2, was dominated by a famous fight against school vouchers and the lawmaker’s decision to spend $51 billion to maintain and provide new asset cuts.
It’s only seven years since Hurricane Harvey, lawmakers now prioritize the state’s water and drought crisis over flood needs.
Lawmakers have allocated more than $1.6 billion in new revenue for water infrastructure projects, but only a portion of it is heading for flood mitigation. They also passed a bill in November asking voters to decide whether to approve $1 billion a year over the next 20 years, prioritizing water and wastewater over flood mitigation projects. At that pace, water experts said it could take decades before they can address existing mitigation needs.
Even if they were approved by lawmakers this year, many of the plan recommendations would not have been implemented prior to the July 4 disaster. However, along with interviews with lawmakers and flood experts, Propobrica and Texas Tribune analysis of legislative proposals discovered that Congress has repeatedly failed to enact important measures to help prepare for frequent floods.
Environmental experts and lawmakers say these omissions are often the most violent attacks on rural and economically disadvantaged communities as they lack the tax base to fund large-scale flood prevention projects and cannot afford to produce the data needed to qualify for state and federal grants.
For many years, lawmakers have refused to pass at least three bills creating sirens or alert systems, and tools experts say it is particularly useful in rural communities that lack trustworthy internet and cell services. A 2019 state commissioned report estimated flood prevention needs to be over $30 billion. Since then, lawmakers have allocated just $1.4 billion. And they ignored key recommendations from the state’s 2024 flood plan, which aimed to support rural areas like Kerr County, known as “Flash Waterways” for geography.
Homeland Security Secretary Christie Noem, left, Sen. John Cornyn, is looking at Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signing an emergency declaration at a press conference in Kerrville. Credit: Ronaldo Boraños/Texas Tribune
A spokesman for R-Lubbock for Gov. Greg Abbott and House Speaker Dustin Burrows did not answer questions about why the plan’s recommendations were overlooked, but defended Congressional investment in flood mitigation as important. They noted that millions more have spent other preventive efforts, including building and maintaining flood control dams, local flood projects, and increasing flood plains in Border County. Gov. Dan Patrick did not answer the question.
This week, Congress will convene for a special session Abbott has called to address a variety of priorities, including flood warning systems, natural disaster preparations, and relief funding. Patrick has promised that the state will buy warning sirens for flash flood counties. However, similar efforts have previously been rejected by Congress. Along with Burrows, Patrick announced the establishment of a committee on disaster preparation and flooding, calling it “the beginning of Congress, seeing every aspect of this tragic event.” Burrows said the house is “prepared to strengthen our nation better against future disasters.”
But Rep. Anna Maria Rodriguez Ramos, a Democrat from Richardson near Dallas, said state lawmakers have honed their dire flood prevention needs for decades.
“The manual was there, and we ignored it, and we continued to ignore these recommendations,” said Rodriguez Ramos, who served on the House Natural Resources Committee, which oversees water issues for three sessions. “It’s performance to say we’re trying to do things that we know well that we’re not doing enough.”
One recommendation from the 2024 flood plan would have cost the state nothing to enact. It sought to grant the county the authority to collect drainage fees, including unincorporated areas that could fund local flood projects. A study cited in the state assessment shows that only 150 of the 1,450 Texas cities and counties dedicated to draining drainage charges.
A conservative county of 53,000, Kerr struggles to get help with projects that raise taxes. About a week after the flood, some residents protested when county commissioners discussed property tax hikes to cover the costs of recovery efforts.
The inability to raise such fees is one of the biggest obstacles for local governments seeking to fund flood mitigation projects, said Robert R. Puente, a Democrat and former state committee president, once chaired the state committee, which was responsible for the water issue. Lawmakers’ resistance to such efforts is rooted in fiscal conservatism, said Puente, who currently leads the San Antonio water system.
“It’s mainly because of the philosophy that Austin leaders currently have, and under no circumstances will we raise taxes. In most circumstances, we don’t even control whether local governments raise taxes or introduce fees,” he said.
Another recommendation from the flood plan called for lawmakers to allocate funds to technical assistance programs, helping colonially scarce rural governments better manage flood-prone areas. To do this, local officials must gather accurate mappings that indicate flood risk. If this measure were passed, it is possible that counties like Kerr would have assisted in collecting such data. This is particularly difficult for rural and economically disadvantaged communities to recognize.
A lack of information affects Texas’ ability to fully understand flood risk across the state. For example, the waterboard plan includes approximately 600 infrastructure projects across Texas that need to be completed. However, the report acknowledged that outdated or missing data means that an additional 3,100 ratings would be required to know if additional projects are needed.
In the Guadalupe River region, including Carr County, 65% of the area lacked proper flood mapping. The county seat, Kerrville, was listed in areas identified as having “the greatest flood risk and mitigation needs.” However, out of the 19 floods endemic to cities and counties, only three were included in the state plan’s 600 list. They installed backup generators at key facilities, a shallow point on the street where rainwater can pool to dangerous levels, and included requests to repair low-water intersections.
At least 16 other priorities, including the county’s desire to repair early warning flood systems and potential dam or drainage systems, required a follow-up assessment, according to the state’s plans. County officials have tried to obtain early warning system grants for years, but to no avail.
The tree, uprooted by the flood, lies across the fields of Kar County’s hunting on July 5th. Credit: Brenda Bazan from Texas Tribune
Gonzalez County, a 20,000-person farm-rich area along the Guadalupe River, is one of the rural communities struggling to get funding, said Jimmy Harles, the director of emergency management, who is also the county’s former fire service. The county desperately needs a siren system and additional gauge to measure potentially dangerous flood levels in the river, Harles said, but he said he has no resources, personnel or expertise to apply for the “burdened” state grant process.
“It’s very frustrating to me to know that there’s money there and there’s someone who’s caring for us, but our state agency has become so bureaucratic that it’s not impractical for us,” Harles said. “Our people’s lives are more important than what some bureaucrats want us.”
Jim Blackburn, a Rice University professor specializing in environmental law and flood issues, has focused on post-disaster cleaning for years.
“It’s no secret that Guadalupe tends to emit flash floods. It’s known for decades,” Blackburn said. “The nation has been extremely neglecting to prepare us for the worst storms of the future we see today for climate change. What’s changing is that today’s risks are greater and tomorrow will be even bigger.
Texas Flash Flood Preview of upcoming confusion
At a press conference this month, Abbott said the state commission would investigate “how to deal with this,” but he refused to provide details. When pressed by reporters about where the blame for the lack of preparation falls, Abbott replied that it was a “loser’s choice of words.”
Usmanmahmoud, a policy analyst for Bayou City Waterkeeper, a Houston nonprofit that advocates flood protection measures, said Hill Country shouldn’t be flooded for special sessions to address emergency systems and fundraising needs.
“The worst part is already happening. It’s flooding and the loss of life,” he said. “Now, that’s the reaction to that.”
Misty Harris contributed to his research.
