Texas state lawmakers met during a special session on July 23 to address for the first time the deadly floods that hit central Texas earlier this month, killing at least 137 people.
00:00Tell us what is not currently available that needs to be available to save people's lives in the future.
00:05Absolutely. We have to be a part of that discussion.
00:10I don't understand why, you know, we come up here and we pat each other on the back and say, oh, you're doing a good job, but why aren't we addressing these issues? And these are important.
00:20I have a family in particular in Senate District 18 whose child was missing for 10 to 12 days.
00:28And we have recovered her and going through that stage. And so one of the saddest times.
00:36And so we pray for all those families. We're going to continue to pray for them and for them to find peace and to help these areas, these regions of Texas to rebuild.
00:48But again, loss of life is going to, you know, you can never replace that.
00:53So we continue to pray and pray for their comfort and peace.
00:56What went right? What went wrong?
00:59And I think that moreover, and you hear it is, were the warning systems in place?
01:07Were they heated when they were looking at this anomaly of this tropical storm, how it could interact with a low pressure cell?
01:15Well, and the timelines are very important to me.
01:18And so it, you know, I think we're going to have to look at how we coordinate that better and really saying, this is a serious warning, you must get out, seek higher ground.
01:28This hearing isn't about pointing fingers. I think it's more about, you know, what our response is, what we have to do in the future and how to address the issues that have come up and be a little more, a whole lot more proactive instead of reactive, right?
01:42And making sure that we have the right policies in place to make those decisions and determinations and see what, what else we can do to, to further that and further the progress.
01:53This is definitely something that, you know, nobody wanted to happen.
01:57Nobody thought something like this could occur.
02:01And it's, it's our job and our duty to make sure, you know, our response is, it's much better and we're much more prepared.
02:08We want to make it so that no lives are lost and, and damage is mitigated as best as possible.
02:14So that's the purpose of this select committee is to find ways to improve and make that a better situation should this ever happen.
02:21And, and obviously we pray for not only those victims that, uh, you know, went through all this, but, but also that we don't have another scenario like this very soon.
02:29But if, and when we do, we want to be as prepared as possible, help you get to that finish line, because I think that's the goal of everybody.
