In South Florida where I grew up early summer was the time we checked the supplies in the tall metal cabinet in the garage that we called the “hurricane cabinet.” We had canned food, water, flashlights, batteries, and other supplies that would help keep us comfortable in the event a hurricane impacted our area and knocked out the power for a prolonged period of time.

This kind of preparation is part of the family routine for people who live in coastal areas vulnerable to hurricanes, but what would it be like if the whole state opened up our “hurricane cabinet” and assessed our readiness for summer weather and climate hazards?

The Atlantic Hurricane Season started this week on June 1. Because of the strong El Nino forming in the Pacific Ocean, scientists predict a slightly less active hurricane season than average. But that does not mean we should let our guard down. It only takes one significant landfall to make a hurricane season impactful. According to NOAA:

“The agency is forecasting a total of 8-14 named storms (winds of 39 mph or higher). Of those, 3-6 are forecast to become hurricanes (winds of 74 mph or higher), including 1-3 major hurricanes (category 3, 4 or 5 with winds of 111 mph or higher).

The summer months are prime time for hazards in Texas. Not just hurricanes, but also severe weather, drought, wildfires, floods and extreme heat. The Legislature has resisted calls to steer the state toward a comprehensive resilience plan, instead dealing with natural disasters on a case by case basis. That approach means disasters have a bigger, more costly impact, according to Former Deputy Administrator for Resilience at FEMA, Victoria Salinas, who now serves as the Climate Leader in Residence at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment. Resilience is a posture that successful organizations cultivate. And it’s a capability every organization increasingly needs. As hazards increase in frequency and severity, the gap between organizations that invest in and plan for resilience and those that fail to do so is growing.

“Most organizations have invested heavily in efficiency, but not enough in resilience — the capability that enables people to anticipate disruption, adapt under stress and recover quickly with less loss. The cost of that gap is accelerating. According to NOAA, the U.S. experienced 27 separate billion-dollar disasters in 2024, totaling $182.7 billion in losses. By mid-2025, Climate Central had already documented fourteen additional billion-dollar events exceeding $100 billion. Organizations that prepare their people for volatility don’t just “ride out” disruption — they protect health, maintain continuity and recover faster.”

A Texas example of this model of resilience is the HEB chain of grocery stores, which has developed a reputation for reliability during emergencies. That reputation comes from years of work to learn about disasters and find ways to provide reliable service to customers amid disruptions in supply chains, electrical power, and other challenges. HEB has responded to multiple high-profile disasters in Texas, often going beyond simply making food available to serve the community by providing electricity, water, and air conditioning.

“H-E-B had begun developing a deeper understanding of the role it could play as an emergency responder in 2005, after Hurricane Rita struck southeast Texas, said [former HEB Director of Emergency Preparedness] Noakes, who has been with the company since 1994. “We learned early on after Hurricane Rita that power is very important to keeping H-E-B stores running,” he said. So the company increased its fleet of mobile generators. Flooding taught the company about the importance of having potable water sources—hence the water tankers. Noakes took on his current role as director of emergency preparedness in 2008, watching for hurricanes, tornadoes, flooding, and other potential disasters in Texas. “When you feed half the people in Texas, it’s your responsibility to be open during times of crisis,” Noakes said.”

HEB president Craig Boyan’s philosophy about emergency preparedness reflects the resilience posture Victoria Salinas advocates:

“We are in a year-round state of preparedness for different emergencies,” HEB president Craig Boyan said. It helps that the company has an emergency preparedness department, he noted: if you’re constantly thinking about those things, you’re more likely to be able to address them.”

HEB’s reputation for reliability in a crisis has gained national attention, and more importantly, has driven unquestioned brand loyalty for a large share of Texas residents. That loyalty lasts year-round, long after a community has recovered from a disaster.

This approach need not be limited to the private sector. The science behind the changing risk of impactful weather in Texas is clear. The Texas Legislature has a duty to develop a posture of resilience for the benefit of residents, institutions, and businesses statewide.

It is not just major events like Hurricane Harvey that make an impact. What separates resilient organizations from non-resilient ones is the recognition that developing resilience to smaller, day-to-day stresses are just as important as preparing for major disasters. Extreme heat, drought, water stress, flooding, and wildfires affect day-to-day operations and the cumulative effect has a big impact on organizational success. This difference in approach is the reason behind the growing gap between resilient and non-resilient organizations.

Texas takes pride in its ability to attract investment from global corporations, but continues to lag behind other states in planning for resilience and climate change. That puts residents and Texas-based businesses at a disadvantage. The first thing institutions, companies, and governments can do to begin fostering a posture of resilience is to understand the changing risk landscape. That means learning from reliable sources about how risks are changing, who and what is exposed to those changing risks, how risks compound, and how those exposures influence safety, productivity, and demand.

Time is of the essence. The World Meteorological Association has issued an 80% probability of an El Niño developing this summer. El Niño means more impactful weather in the continental United States, including Texas. The risk of severe and impactful weather has been increasing steadily in the past several decades and scientists project that increase to continue. Extreme heat, a silent phenomenon that remains the most deadly of all the weather and climate hazards, has increased in intensity and frequency with implications for people who live and work outside, those without access to air conditioning, and people who enjoy outdoor recreational activities.

Resilience to weather and climate disasters doesn’t just happen. It requires vision, leadership, attention to detail, and an understanding of the science behind climate change and risk. The longer the state waits to take the lead on resilience, the worse off we will be.

River of Angels honors lives lost in the Texas flash floods

In the months since the tragic floods that struck the Texas Hill Country in July 2025 the Texas Legislature, first through the Select Committee on Disaster Preparedness and Flooding and now the General Investigating Committee for the July 2025 Flooding, has gathered a wealth of information about the events leading to loss of life in the Hill Country last summer.

During the special sessions, the committee interviewed first responders, emergency managers, meteorologists, and flood experts. They grilled Texas Division of Emergency Management Chief Nim Kidd and county judges from counties all over the state. They talked with the Texas Water Development Board and the Upper Guadalupe River Authority about warning systems and funding needs. They held a hearing in Austin where families of the children lost at Camp Mystic had an opportunity to share more about their daughters and how they were coping with unimaginable loss.

Taken together, it has been a statewide reckoning with disaster response, public funding, and the role of public servants and public policy in ensuring Texans are safe doing the things they love.

This week the General Investigating Committee held two days of hearings. On the first day, they heard testimony from lead investigator Casey Garrett, who was tasked with gathering evidence about the events that occurred at Camp Mystic in the early morning hours of July 4. Her testimony provided the most detailed account available to date of what happened and was the result of hundreds of interviews and information gathered from cell phone records, National Weather Service forecasts, Texas Division of Emergency Management records, and other sources.

Garrett began with the first flash flood warning, which was issued at Camp Mystic just after 1:00 AM on July 4, and ended when the water finally receded hours later. In that time, Camp Mystic director Dick Eastland monitored weather conditions, attempted to access upstream flood gauge data, and directed camp staff to move the canoes away from the waterfront. Garrett reported that camp leadership’s awareness of the potential danger of the river began when two counselors from one cabin ran to the office early in the event, asking for help as water began to creep under their door.

What followed was a dramatic and harrowing series of rescue attempts. Dick Eastland, his son Edward Eastland, and camp security guard Glenn Juenke ferried groups of children from camp cabins to a recreation building in personal vehicles. Some campers were directed to walk across a flooded recreation field to safety. One pair of teenage counselors evacuated their cabin by passing girls out of a window, over a flooded creek, to a hillside behind their cabin. Despite these efforts, several cabins of girls could not be rescued, leading to the loss of twenty-five young campers and two counselors. Dick Eastland also died in the flood, swept down river in his vehicle along with several campers.

It became apparent from Garrett’s testimony that the camp did not have a coherent flash flood evacuation plan, which meant that the response came too late and was too inefficient and disorganized to be effective.

Those concerns were confirmed on the second day of the hearing, when committee members interviewed the Eastland family: Edward Eastland and Edward’s wife Mary Liz Eastland, and Edward’s two brothers Richard and Britt Eastland. The committee asked what evacuation plan the camp had on file, what deficiencies existed in that plan, whether the plan was executed effectively, and what camp leadership could have done differently that would have improved the outcome.

Through testimony and committee questions, it became apparent that the written evacuation plan, which directed counselors to keep girls in their cabins and await further instructions from camp leadership, was inadequate. There was no training on evacuation, no designated safe meeting place on high ground, no clear roles assigned to adult staff members who could have helped direct the evacuation.

And although the plan directed counselors to await further instructions, those instructions never came. The four men involved in the evacuation attempt did not reach out to other adults who could have made an announcement over the PA system directing counselors to walk campers to safety when there was still time for an orderly evacuation.

WCK responds to community need after the Kerrville Flood

Despite the overwhelming tragedy, Camp Mystic owners came into the hearing intending to re-open for the 2026 season. In the course of questioning it came to light that the camp’s application with the State Department of Health and Human Services was returned with twenty-two deficiencies identified, including several deficiencies related to severe weather and flash flood planning. The camp also has not officially reported to the state documentation about the twenty-seven deaths that occurred at the facility, as required by law.

Of all the hearings about the July 2025 flood, these were perhaps the most difficult to witness. It is very hard to know how to respond. Anger, sadness, and shock are all appropriate responses to the testimony offered by the lead investigator, the Eastland family, and the families of the victims. As legislators develop policy proposals to prevent another such tragedy, it will need to balance their own deeply human emotional responses with the need to create a coherent and effective policy approach. A successful approach will maximize both safety and practicality, a challenging task, especially when regulating an industry that by definition prizes disconnection from technology and access to nature.

As we all grieve the losses that occurred in the floods—and the peace we once felt in this beautiful part of the state—it is important to remember that two things can be true.

The operators of Camp Mystic are good and loving people who care about their campers. And it also is true that the camp had deeply inadequate plans that failed to keep campers safe in the flash flood.

In the same way, legislators are well-intentioned people who care about the future of the state. And it is also true that they have missed repeated opportunities to acknowledge and prepare for the increasing risk of impactful weather due to climate change.

We can recognize that Camp Mystic’s leadership are fellow human beings who risked their own personal safety in an attempt to avert disaster. And we can feel angry that their complacency in flood evacuation planning led to the unthinkable.

The problem is not one of good intentions. In both emergency planning and policymaking, we recognize that good intentions are not enough.

The role of oversight, of standards like the ones required for a camp to be certified by the American Camp Association or licensed by the Department of State Health Services, is to acknowledge that no single person can hold in their mind all the details needed to ensure safety at a complex facility like a summer camp. Standards for everything from food safety to accessibility to swimming pool pH are based on decades of accumulated knowledge, science, and experience. Floodplain and floodway designations are based on hydrologic science describing the way topography and geology cause runoff to turn into raging rivers in the steep valleys of the Texas Hill Country.

We are in a political moment when some question the value of standards like these, sometimes casting the agencies which oversee these regulations as purveyors of “waste, fraud, and abuse.” The Camp Mystic tragedy is a reminder of our collective responsibility to choose leaders who demonstrate humility, wisdom, and character, and who can be trusted to base decisions and regulations on science and expert recommendations.

President and First Lady Melania Trump and Gov. Greg Abbott meet with state and local leaders after the Kerrville floods

It is now up to the Texas Legislature as our chosen leaders to sit with what they have heard, to learn from expert testimony, and to chart a path forward. With only a month remaining before summer camp season, time is of the essence.

But to put this matter to rest after drafting a new set of summer camp regulations would be a mistake. Texas State Climatologist Dr. John Nielson-Gammon reports that the state is seeing more of the kind of extreme precipitation that led to the July 2025 floods. Longer droughts, hotter wildfires, bigger hail, more intense hurricanes, more extreme heat — these are known risks the state faces as global temperature approaches the safety target of 1.5 C.

How is Texas preparing for those risks?

It is possible to hold someone in high esteem and still hold them to account when they fail to act responsibly.

As of this writing, the Eastland family has announced that they have canceled plans to hold camp at their Cypress Lake campus this summer. We pray that they use this time to reflect, process their grief, and make amends. And that they allow the terrible lessons learned last summer to serve as motivation to develop a state of the science severe weather and flooding plan.

Will the Texas Legislature follow suit?