It's been less than three weeks since Texas' devastating July 4 floods which led to more than 130 deaths. In the aftermath of the disaster, Gov. Greg Abbott said he'd put flood-related items at the top of the Texas Legislature's packed special session agenda.
The Texas House and Senate quickly established special committees to focus on relief efforts and determine what preparations the state must make to be better prepared for future natural disasters.
These panels of state lawmakers met for the first time on Wednesday for a hearing that stretched from the morning well into the evening. Legislators on the Select Committees on Disaster Preparedness and Flooding heard testimony from emergency management officials, weather forecasters, the Texas Water Development Board and other experts.
First to testify in the all-day hearing was Nim Kidd, Chief of the Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM), who spoke and answered questions for nearly three hours. Overall, he had two top recommendations for state lawmakers to address.
"Communications is one of them," said Kidd. "That's messaging from the media, that's messaging to the citizen and that's messaging back and forth with our local first responders that are coming from all over the state."
He added the state has a "long way to go" towards improving communications. Currently, Kidd said, the state lacks consistency — nearly each local government does things their own way.
"We have 52 to 54 independently, usually locally owned, radio systems across the state," said Kidd. "There's no state standard for governance and how they operate."
The second recommendation on Kidd's list: "We've got to do a better job at our warning and notification systems for all hazards, not just floods."
That's one thing state Sen. Paul Bettencourt is working on this special session. The Houston Republican is carrying a bill focused on how to get a statewide flood early warning system in place. He told The Texas Newsroom that he's spoken with Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and believes they're on the same page as Gov. Greg Abbot — especially when it comes to taking the burden off funding such a system off local entities.
"Let's just get money, get a solution, get it to them," Bettencourt said in a Tuesday interview.
Bettencourt, who added he doesn't yet know all the solutions available, said he believes simply adding sirens along the state's rivers won't be enough.
"You got to look at gauges. You have to look at cell communications," Bettencourt said. "If you're down in a river valley, you may not be able to get the alerts."
Bettencourt said one of the special committees' first steps will be to find the best strategies to pursue and determine how to implement them all across the state. He used the Lower Colorado River Authority as an example.
"They've got gauges everywhere," said Bettencourt. "We've got places where the river authorities have done good work. We just need to say 'Okay, this is best practice and replicate them.'"
Another recommendation came from Freeman Martin, Executive Director of the Texas Department of Public Safety. Martin told lawmakers about the difficulties responders faced identifying victims of the July 4th floods.
"If you've got a good sample from the victim and you can get from the mom or the dad a buccal swab, nuclear DNA is great," Freeman said. "But after about two days, what the water does to the human body is not good. The DNA is decomposed."
Freeman told lawmakers about investments the state could make for the future.
"There's a technology out with iris scans," said Freeman. "The iris scans of the eyes is good up to 30 days. It's the same technology you use with a cell phone for your facial recognition."
A representative from Texas Parks and Wildlife called for more staffing, telling the joint panel that having more Texas game wardens would mean they could strategically deploy them across the state when major weather events seemed likely.
These and many more recommendations will be considered by Texas lawmakers over the next few weeks. The state's special legislative session kicked off Monday and can run for as long as 30 days.
The Texas Newsroom is a public radio journalism collaboration that includes NPR, KERA in North Texas, Houston Public Media, KUT in Austin, Texas Public Radio in San Antonio and other stations across the state.