Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) on Thursday introduced legislation seeking to modernize weather radio systems after deadly Texas flashfloods recently raised alarms that emergency communications had failed to prevent the loss of life.
The floods along the Guadalupe River in central Texas occurred over the July 4 holiday weekend, leading to the deaths of over 130 people, the majority of them in Kerr County, where 27 campers and counselors from a local all-girl summer camp lost their lives.
Cruz, along with Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA), introduced the NOAA Weather Radio Modernization Act as concerns grow that the state lacks the necessary communications infrastructure to alert residents to impending danger.
The bill targets radio communications because radio is one of the few reliable options available for widespread use in rural areas during power outages, which can disrupt cell and internet communications, Cruz said.
The legislation would require the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to upgrade the National Weather Radio network, expanding research and alternative options to transmit NOAA Weather Radio signals to radio transmitters that are remote or do not have access to the internet. It would also direct the National Institute of Standards and Technology to develop standards for flash flood emergency alert systems within the 100-year floodplain.
The legislation comes after several Kerr County officials testified during a Texas state hearing on Thursday that they did not receive sufficient warning and emergency alerts about the flash flooding.
William “Dub” Thomas, the Kerr County emergency management director, testified that he briefly woke up about 2 p.m. on July 3. Still, there was no rainfall at the time and no indication of the pending change in the river. He wasn’t alerted to the disaster until he was woken by his wife at 5:30 a.m. July 4 with a call from Kerrville Emergency Management Coordinator Jeremy Hughes.”
Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly, who is the county’s top elected official and presides over emergency management, added that “We received no alerts suggesting an extreme weather event was imminent [referring to July 3].”
“For context, we received hundreds of alerts during the summer. This past July, we had over 80. My first indication that this storm was different came when I woke up to texts and calls from Chief Kidd, Sheriff Leitha and Dalton Rice,” Kelly told lawmakers during the Texas House and Senate Select Committees on Disaster Preparedness and Flooding hearing. “
“We now know that by that time, the flooding had already overtaken Camp Mystic, part of the hills in La Junta and several other upriver camps, something I could never have imagined. This extreme weather event was not forecast by the National Weather Service in a timely manner. Based on the volume and tone of the messages, I recognize that something more serious and potentially tragic was unfolding,” Kelly continued.
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Cruz said during a Senate Commerce Committee nominations hearing following the disaster that “asking ourselves what could have been done differently [is] a question that we need to ask.”
“We know we’re going to have other disasters going forward. There will be more floods. There will be more hurricanes. There will be more tornadoes. But every step we can take to remove someone from the path of that devastation is a step we need to take,” he said. “And so, there are discussions about all sorts of steps we can take, including setting up sirens and warning systems along the Guadalupe River Valley, which I think makes an awful lot of sense, but we ought to be asking what lessons can be learned, and what can be done more effectively to protect human life.”