It's been less than three weeks since Texas' devastating July 4 floods which led to more than 130 deaths. In the aftermath of the disaster, Gov. Greg Abbott said he'd put flood-related items at the top of the Texas Legislature's packed special session agenda.
The Texas House and Senate quickly established special committees to focus on relief efforts and determine what preparations the state must make to be better prepared for future natural disasters.
Now, these panels of state lawmakers are meeting for the first time. Legislators on the Select Committees on Disaster Preparedness and Flooding convened Wednesday to hear testimony from emergency management officials, weather forecasters, the Texas Water Development Board and other experts.
First to testify was Nim Kidd, Chief of the Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM), who spoke and answered questions for nearly three hours. Overall, he had two top recommendations for state lawmakers to address.
"Communications is one of them," said Kidd. "That's messaging from the media, that's messaging to the citizen and that's messaging back and forth with our local first responders that are coming from all over the state."
He added the state has a "long way to go" towards improving communications. Currently, Kidd said, the state lacks consistency — nearly each local government does things their own way.
"We have 52 to 54 independently, usually locally owned, radio systems across the state," said Kidd. "There's no state standard for governance and how they operate."
The second recommendation on Kidd's list: "We've got to do a better job at our warning and notification systems for all hazards, not just floods."
That's one thing state Sen. Paul Bettencourt is working on this special session. The Houston Republican is carrying a bill focused on how to get a statewide flood early warning system in place. He told The Texas Newsroom that he's spoken with Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and believes they're on the same page as Gov. Greg Abbot — especially when it comes to taking the burden off funding such a system off local entities.
"Let's just get money, get a solution, get it to them," Bettencourt said in a Tuesday interview.
Bettencourt, who added he doesn't yet know all the solutions available, said he believes simply adding sirens along the state's rivers won't be enough.
"You got to look at gauges. You have to look at cell communications," Bettencourt said. "If you're down in a river valley, you may not be able to get the alerts."
Bettencourt said one of the special committees' first steps will be to find the best strategies to pursue and determine how to implement them all across the state. He used the Lower Colorado River Authority as an example.
"They've got gauges everywhere," said Bettencourt. "We've got places where the river authorities have done good work. We just need to say 'Okay, this is best practice and replicate them.'"
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