SENATE ROLLS OUT FLOOD RESPONSE LEGISLATION
(AUSTIN) — New emergency plans, detection and warning systems, and training for emergency management are part of a broad based plan considered before a Senate committee on Friday. Since 138 Texans died in the floods that struck the Texas Hill Country on July 4th, lawmakers have been working on ways to ensure that such a tragedy never happens again. This includes hearing more than 26 hours of public testimony at the Capitol and in Kerr Country, gauging where state and local officials did well and where they can do better. The chair of the Senate Select Committee on Disaster Preparedness and Flooding, Lubbock Senator Charles Perry, said that while the legislation is in response to flooding, it will apply broadly across all emergency management scenarios.
The most significant provisions in the bill, said Perry, relate to how youth camps in the flood-prone region must prepare for and respond to warnings and watches. At Camp Mystic, one of many summer camps along the Guadalupe River, twenty-eight people, both campers and counselors, died during the flood. SB 1 would require that all youth camps that are built within the 100-year flood plains enact robust flood emergency plans and ensure that campers and counselors take those plans seriously and practice them. “You must not only have a plan, you must educate your campers on what that plan looks like,” said Perry. “If we find out different, you will lose your license.” It would also require that these camps retrofit existing cabins to provide rooftop access as a last resort for campers who can’t escape flood waters. The bill also mandates evacuation to higher ground any time a flood warning is issued for an area including a youth camp in a flood zone. Perry said that local officials may worry about the disruption of issuing an unnecessary evacuation order, and this bill will remove the possibility of hesitation. Had local officials been more willing to call for an evacuation, said Perry, many lives could’ve been saved. Under the bill, it’s no longer optional. “You’re going to make that call more than you’re going to need it,” said Perry. “I’m not going to apologize for that.”
The bill also includes requirements for training for local emergency managers, a clear line of succession defining who is in charge during an emergency, and the development of a master fatality response plan at the Texas Department of Emergency Management. It also creates a volunteer management system where good Samaritans can be organized, backgrounds can be checked, and manpower can be better allocated.
The committee also approved a bill that would require the installation of alert systems, such as warning sirens, that can warn people in the path of the flood to seek shelter. The July 4th floods struck in the middle of the night while most were fast asleep; an autonomous warning system that responds to sensors, rain gauges, and other indicators could’ve saved lives, said Houston Senator Paul Bettencourt. His bill, SB 2, would require the Texas Water Development Board to determine what areas have the highest risk of dangerous flooding and create minimum standards for warning systems in those regions. Municipal authorities will be responsible for implementing and managing those systems, but they will be funded through a state grant program. Sirens, Perry told members, save lives, but they aren’t the final answer. “Sirens have to be planned strategically and coordinated with other warning systems, or they’re not worth the noise they make,” he said.
A third bill, SB 3 by Houston senator and Finance Committee Chair Joan Huffman, will contain the funding to support these two bills, as well as any relief funds the state will send to the region. With the session stalled due to the lack of a quorum in the House, the eventual fate of these bills is uncertain. Should the session end on August 19th without a resolution in the quorum break, it is highly likely that the Senate will take up these bills again in a second called session.
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