Invited testimony at last week’s hearing for the joint Committee for Disaster Preparedness and Flooding revealed the importance of a clear, robust, and well-practiced plan when responding to a flooding disaster.
The hearing began with invited testimony from a panel of emergency managers. Panelists described what the role of local emergency management is, who is responsible for developing and maintaining emergency plans, and other issues.
Kerr County has three people in charge of emergency management: the County Judge, who serves as the Director of Emergency Management, the Emergency Management Coordinator, and the Kerr County Sheriff. All three officials testified in addition to two City of Kerrville representatives.
Each panelist testified that emergency management in Kerr County is a shared responsibility among all of these officials. Sheriff Larry Leitha testified that the emergency response community acts as a team, with no single individual responsible for issuing alerts.
It is the norm for the County Judge to serve as the primary Director of Emergency Management. In a small county like Kerr County, that role includes managing the response to many types of emergencies that require coordination beyond first responders. That might include something like a large fire, a flood, a multi-vehicle car accident, a train derailment, or a large-scale act of violence.
In some counties, a Director of Emergency Management may delegate some of those responsibilities to an Emergency Management Coordinator. The EMC can either work independently or as part of a team that responds to emergencies.
Regardless of the configuration, the role of a Director of Emergency Management or an Emergency Management Coordinator is not only to respond to emergencies, but to develop emergency response plans, to foster relationships and agreements with first responders, and to maintain communications with state level emergency management personnel.
It is reasonable to expect that the Director of Emergency Management would be responsible for anticipating a potential weather-related emergency and take appropriate steps to prepare and warn people in harm's way. There are various tools to support emergency managers in this regard, including watches, warnings, and other products from the National Weather Service and informational briefings offered by the Texas Division of Emergency Management.
The committees heard invited testimony from county judges from multiple central Texas counties that were affected by the flooding. One of the most troubling things to emerge from the panel of Kerr County emergency management personnel was the fact that the three Kerr County officials tasked with emergency response were all either out of town or otherwise unavailable early in the morning on July 4 when the flooding began.
County Judge Rob Kelly was out of town, visiting Lake Travis with his family that night. He woke up around 5:00 AM, hours after the flooding began. Kerr County EMC Will Thomas was sick and in bed that night. He had missed work, and two key state emergency management briefings, the day before. Kelly testified that he became aware of the emergency when his wife woke him up after the City of Kerrville EMC called him.
Even more alarming, Kerr County officials did not take steps to warn the public or otherwise prepare for the possibility of flooding ahead of time. Officials testified that they had no idea about the threat of flooding when they went to bed the night before, seemingly missing warnings from the NWS and TDEM that prompted other counties to act.
Rep. Ann Johnson noted that there were reports from Camp Mystic as early as 2:00 AM of campers standing in ankle deep water in their cabins. She had strong words for the emergency management team, asking why no one was aware of the flooding threat ahead of time and why no one was available to give the camp important safety advice once flooding began.
Rep. Ann Johnson questions Kerr County officials:
Sen. Charles Perry asked the panel if they had anticipated the risk of flooding, would there have been time to evacuate people ahead of time. He rightly pointed out that there were people, including children at summer camp, staying in the floodway. Why was there no action plan to protect people in that high-risk situation?
In a colloquy with San Angelo emergency management, Rep. Darby noted that TDEM deployed boat teams in the area on July 3, contradicting the claim that there was no warning for this event. Other counties assessed the risk of a serious event on July 3 and began evacuating people from riverside homes and campsites.
Quoting the San Angelo County Judge, Rep. Darby said “Proactive investment in disaster recovery saves lives and speeds recovery.”
Indeed, that early preparation seems to have been an important part of mounting an effective response to the flood. Kendall County is one county that heeded TDEM’s warnings about potential flooding. County judge Shane Stolarczyk testified that the county regularly updates and practices their Emergency Action Plan
Kendall County Emergency Management Coordinator Brady Constantine spoke with a regional TDEM representative about the threat of flooding early on the morning of July 3. Between that conversation and a statewide call about the potential flooding held by TDEM later that morning, he testified that he had a feeling that they were facing a serious event. In response, county leadership initiated their Emergency Action Plan.
Stolarczyk attributes Kendall County’s orderly response to the emergency to good preparation and regular practice of their emergency activation plan, along with flood mitigation measures like conservation easements in flood prone areas, building codes, and drainage improvements.
Stolarczyk testified, “Proper planning or dumb luck, if your life depended on it, which would you choose?”
Texas has relied on dumb luck when it comes to climate change and its impacts for too long with devastating consequences.