Flood survivors face long wait to speak at Texas hearing on disaster response in Kerrville

Ashlee Wilson has barely slept since floodwaters from Big Sandy Creek demolished her home and family farm in unincorporated Travis County on July 5.

Nonetheless, the 38-year-old will leave the hotel room she’s sharing with her aunt in TK by 5 a.m. Thursday to drive to Kerrville, where she’s hoping to address lawmakers about what Texas should do to prevent future disasters. Several other Sandy Creek survivors will come with her.

The hearing in Kerrville is the first legislative hearing open to public testimony. But people impacted by the floods may wait for hours to speak, as the schedule shows lawmakers will first hear from 25 invited witnesses including city and county officials, civil engineers and mental health experts.

Last week, a hearing at the state Capitol with testimony from only 16 invited witnesses lasted nearly 12 hours, ending just before 9 p.m.

READ MORE: Kerrville texts reveal tension with county after deadly July 4 floods

“It’s gonna be the longest day ever,” Wilson told the American-Statesman on Wednesday, adding that the schedule seemed intended to “tucker some people out” before they had a chance to speak.

The agenda, obtained by Hearst Newspapers, will include officials from Kerr County, Kerrville, Travis County, Williamson County and San Antonio who responded to floods this summer. The public testimony, which typically comes after invited witnesses at legislative hearings, is limited to three minutes per person, according to the meeting notice, and sign-up for public testimony will open at 8:30 a.m.

Lawmakers are holding the hearings as they consider ways to provide relief to victims and mitigate future disasters during the 30-day special session called by Gov. Greg Abbott.

Wilson went to the Capitol on July 23 for the first Texas House and Senate hearing on the floods, but was informed that the committees would not hear public testimony that day.

RELATED: Poor coordination hampered flood response, Texas official tells lawmakers

“This whole process has been infuriating,” she said. “We're not rich, fancy people out here… we're country folk. And I feel like we just don't matter.”

Other flood survivors will forgo the hearing to stay on track with recovery efforts. Brian Keeper, a 68-year-old from Hunt, said he’s too busy overseeing the demolition of a damaged section of his home to attend.

He also wouldn’t know what to say.

“I feel like I’m in the middle of the storm still, and so it's difficult for me to know what it is that I need,” Keeper told reporters in a virtual press conference on Wednesday.

Hearing from the public

In the aftermath of the floods that killed at least 108 people in Kerr County and at least 28 others in Central Texas, state leaders promised that local residents would be heard in their hometown.

"We're going to have a hearing in this room so that the residents and the people of this area don't have to come to Austin,” Lt. Gov Dan Patrick said at a reporter’s roundtable on July 11 in Kerrville, which was hosted by President Donald Trump. “We're going to come to them. And we'll stay here as long as it takes to hear their stories and their needs and their wants."

Democratic State Rep. Ann Johnson of Houston, who will attend tomorrow’s hearing as a member of the House disaster preparedness & flooding select committee, is hoping that people “most affected by the failures of the system” will have ample time to speak.

“I don't expect this to be a normal hearing in any sense of the word,” she told the Statesman on Wednesday. “And I would hope that there's an avenue for us to give the public testimony in a timely manner.”

State Rep. Gina Hinojosa, D-Austin, criticized the hearing schedule on social media, saying Republicans are allowing one hearing for public testimony on the floods, while allotting many more to a rare, mid-decade push to redraw the state’s congressional maps.

“Texans deserve the same urgency for flood relief as Abbott puts into rigging our congressional maps,” she wrote on X.

The chairs of the Senate and House joint committees, state Sen. Charles Perry of Lubbock and state Rep. Ken King of Canadian, did not respond to Hearst Newspapers’ questions about the schedule.

Witnesses

The first panel of invited witnesses on Thursday includes Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly, Kerrville Mayor Joe Herring, Jr., and City Manager Dalton Rice. Records obtained by the Houston Chronicle show the city’s apparent frustration with the response from Kerr County, and that city officials were unable to reach Kelly until the night of July 4. “The county is reacting poorly to this,” Rice texted Kerrville City Council members that morning.

At the hearing last week in Austin, Nim Kidd, chief of the Texas Division of Emergency Management, told lawmakers that better coordination between state and local emergency managers was needed.

The hearing will also feature testimony from Bill Rector, the longtime president of the Upper Guadalupe River Authority’s Board of Directors, who was appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott. During the July 23 hearing in Austin, lawmakers from both parties grilled the river authority’s general manager about the agency’s decision to lower residents’ property taxes rather than upgrade its flood warning system, citing reporting from the Houston Chronicle. A 2016 engineering study found Kerr County needed around $1 million to modernize the system.

After hearing from officials from Kerr County, lawmakers will call up the judges of Tom Green, Mason, McCulloch, San Saba and Menard Counties, which were also affected by the floods.

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Three leaders from urban areas affected by the July 4 flooding will also testify: Travis County Judge Andy Brown, Williamson County Judge Steven Snell and San Antonio Fire Department Chief Valerie Frausto. At least 10 deaths have been confirmed in Travis County and three in Williamson County. In San Antonio, 13 people died in flash floods in early June.

The two final panels will include meteorologists, flooding experts and leaders of two mental health resource centers. After that, lawmakers will open the floor to the public.

The hearing begins at 9:30 a.m.

Maddie Sloane, the director of nonprofit Texas Appleseed’s Disaster Recovery and Fair Housing Project, is hoping lawmakers focus on flood survivors’ immediate needs.

“We just want to stress the urgency of making sure disaster survivors get what they need to recover,” she said in the Wednesday press conference. “People are still in the middle of a disaster.”