Texas lawmakers ignored recommendations meant to help rural areas prepare for flooding

Texas lawmakers largely ignored recommendations aimed at helping rural areas like Kerr County prepare for flooding was first published by The Texas Tribune a nonprofit nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans and engages with them about citizens agenda politics cabinet and statewide issues This article is co-published with ProPublica a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power Sign up for ProPublica s Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox as soon as they are published Also sign up for The Brief our daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the greater part essential Texas news Sixteen months had passed since Hurricane Harvey tore through the Texas coast in August killing more than people and flattening entire neighborhoods And when Texas lawmakers gathered in Austin for their biennial session the scale of the storm s destruction was hard to ignore Legislators responded by greenlighting a yearslong statewide initiative to evaluate flood risks and improve preparedness for increasingly frequent and deadly storms If we get our planning right on the front end and prevent more damage on the front end then we have less on the back end Charles Perry a Republican senator from Lubbock who chairs a committee overseeing environmental issues announced at the time In the years that followed hundreds of local agents and contributors canvassed communities across Texas mapping out vulnerabilities The product of their work came in with the release of Texas first-ever state flood plan Their findings identified nearly billion in proposed projects and outlined key recommendations including nine suggestions for rule Several were aimed at aiding rural communities like Kerr County where flash flooding over the Fourth of July weekend killed more than people Three are still missing Related Texas flash flood is a preview of chaos to come But this year lawmakers largely ignored those recommendations Instead the legislative session that ended June was dominated by high-profile battles over school vouchers and lawmakers decision to spend billion to maintain and provide new property tax cuts an amount nearly equal to the funding identified by the Texas Water Expansion Board a state agency that has historically overseen water supply and conservation efforts Although it had been only seven years since Hurricane Harvey legislators now prioritized the state s water and drought predicament over flooding necessities Legislators allocated more than billion in new revenue for water infrastructure projects only a few of which would go toward flood mitigation They also passed a bill that will ask voters in November to decide whether to approve billion annually over the next two decades that would prioritize water and wastewater over flood mitigation projects At that pace water experts declared that it could take decades before existing mitigation necessities are addressed even without further floods Even if they had been approved by lawmakers this year multiple of the plan s recommendations would not have been implemented before the July calamity But a ProPublica and Texas Tribune analysis of legislative proposals along with interviews with lawmakers and flood experts discovered that the Legislature has repeatedly failed to enact key measures that would help communities prepare for frequent flooding Such inaction often hits rural and economically disadvantaged communities hardest because they lack the tax base to fund major flood prevention projects and often cannot afford to produce the material they need to qualify for state and federal grants environmental experts and lawmakers disclosed Over the years legislators have declined to pass at least three bills that would create siren or alert systems tools experts say can be especially helpful in rural communities that lack reliable internet and cell system A state-commissioned summary estimated flood prevention requirements at over billion Since then lawmakers have allocated just billion And they ignored the key recommendations from the state s flood plan that are meant to help rural areas like Kerr County which is dubbed Flash Flood Alley due to its geography Spokespeople for Gov Greg Abbott and House Speaker Dustin Burrows R-Lubbock did not answer questions about why the plan s recommendations were overlooked but defended the Legislature s venture in flood mitigation as essential They pointed to millions more spent on other prevention efforts including flood control dam construction and maintenance regional flood projects and increased floodplain disclosures and drainage requirements for confines counties Lt Gov Dan Patrick did not respond to questions This week the Legislature will convene for a special session that Abbott called to address a range of priorities including flood warning systems natural calamity preparation and relief funding Patrick promised that the state would purchase warning sirens for counties in flash flood zones Similar efforts however have previously been rejected by the Legislature Alongside Burrows Patrick also disclosed the formation of committees on tragedy preparedness and flooding and called the move just the beginning of the Legislature looking at every aspect of this tragic event Burrows disclosed the House is ready to better fortify our state against future disasters But Rep Ana-Mar a Rodr guez Ramos a Democrat from Richardson near Dallas announced state lawmakers have brushed off dire flood prevention demands for decades The manual was there and we ignored it and we ve continued to ignore these recommendations noted Rodr guez Ramos who has served on the House Natural Materials Committee overseeing water issues for three sessions It s performative to say we re trying to do something knowing well we re not doing enough One recommendation from the flood plan would have cost the state nothing to enact It called for granting counties the authority to levy drainage fees including in unincorporated areas that could fund local flood projects Only about of Texas cities and counties have dedicated drainage fees according to a review cited in the state assessment Kerr a conservative county of people has struggled to gain backing for projects that would raise taxes About a week after the flooding selected residents protested when county commissioners discussed a property tax increase to help cover the costs of recovery efforts The inability to raise such fees is one of the biggest impediments for local governments seeking to fund flood mitigation projects announced Robert R Puente a Democrat and former state representative who once chaired the state committee responsible for water issues Lawmakers resistance to such efforts is rooted in fiscal conservatism revealed Puente who now heads the San Antonio Water System It s mostly because of a philosophy that the leadership in Austin has right now that under no circumstances are we going to raise taxes and under majority circumstances we re not even going to allow local governments to have control over how they raise taxes or implement fees he mentioned Another one of the flood plan s recommendations called for lawmakers to allocate money for a technical assistance operation to help underresourced and rural governments better manage flood prone areas which requires implementing a slew of standards to ensure safe advance in those hazardous zones Doing this work requires local functionaries to collect accurate mapping that shows the hazard of flooding Passing this measure could have helped counties like Kerr with that kind of evidence collection which the plan recognized is especially challenging for rural and economically disadvantaged communities Insufficient information impacts Texas s ability to fully understand flood risks statewide The water board s plan for example includes roughly infrastructure projects across Texas in need of completion But its statement acknowledged that antiquated or missing records meant another assessments would be required to know whether additional projects are needed In the Guadalupe River region which includes Kerr County of areas lacked adequate flood mapping Kerrville the county seat was listed among the areas identified as having the greatest known flood risks and mitigation requirements Yet of the flood requirements specific to the city and county only three were included in the state plan s list of They included requests to install backup generators in critical facilities and repair low-water crossings which are shallow points in streets where rainwater can pool to dangerous levels At least other priorities including the county s desire for an early warning flood system and promising dam or drainage system repairs required a follow-up evaluation according to the state plan County executives tried to obtain grants for the early warning systems for years to no avail Gonzales County an agriculture-rich area of people along the Guadalupe River is among the rural communities struggling to obtain funding stated crisis management director Jimmy Harless who is also the county s fire marshal The county is in desperate need of a siren system and additional gauges to measure the river s potentially dangerous flood levels Harless noted but doesn t have the guidance personnel or expertise to apply for the burdensome state grant process It is extremely frustrating for me to know that there s money there and there s people that care but our state agency has become so bureaucratic that it s just not feasible for us Harless declared Our folks lives are more major than what particular bureaucrat wants us to do For years Texas leaders have focused more on cleaning up after disasters than on preparing for them declared Jim Blackburn a professor at Rice University specializing in environmental law and flooding issues It s no secret that the Guadalupe is prone to flash flooding That s been known for decades Blackburn reported The state has been very negligent about kind of preparing us for frankly the worst storms of the future that we are seeing nowadays because of setting change and what s changing is that the risks are just greater the present day and will be even greater the day after because our storms are getting worse and worse At a news conference this month Abbott explained state committees would investigate strategies to address this though he declined to offer specifics When pressed by a reporter about where the blame for the lack of preparedness should fall Abbott responded that it was the word choice of losers It shouldn t have taken the Hill Country flooding for a special session addressing urgency systems and funding necessities noted Usman Mahmood a initiative analyst at Bayou City Waterkeeper a Houston nonprofit that advocates for flood protection measures The worst part pretty much already happened which is the flooding and the loss of life he commented Now it s a reaction to that Disclosure Rice University and San Antonio Water System have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune a nonprofit nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members foundations and corporate sponsors Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune s journalism Find a complete list of them here This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https www texastribune org texas-hill-country-flooding-inaction-state-legislature The Texas Tribune is a member-supported nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and guidelines Learn more at texastribune org Read more about Texas Can Texas GOP steal the midterms in advance Yes they can Texas personnel didn t see the flood coming Residents have long warned of risks Why Kristi Noem hates FEMA The post Texas lawmakers ignored recommendations meant to help rural areas prepare for flooding appeared first on Salon com