The Committee on Homeland Security & Public Safety met on March 4 with TDEM and the Commission on State Emergency Communications to discuss emergency management and communication. The agenda for this meeting can be found here, and the video archive can be found here.
This report is intended to give you an overview and highlight of the discussions on the various topics the committee took up. It is not a verbatim transcript of the hearing but is based upon what was audible or understandable to the observer and the desire to get details out as quickly as possible with few errors or omissions.
Texas Division of Emergency Management
Nim Kidd, Chief
- Charges after Chancellor Shar; 44 recommendations turned into 43 laws and 97% are 100% complete
- Hurricane Harvey was the priority of last session and of the 6,532 public assistance projects, approximately 3,200 have been closed and 2,500 are still open
- Since last session 1,161 districts have had local disaster declarations, 21 have become state disaster declarations, 10 declared federal disasters and received federal funding
- Disaster finance must be a priority
- Local governments, public entities, and certain private nonprofits have to demonstrate $40 million of uninsured loss to qualify for public assistance, threshold based on per capita indicator and census data from 2010
- In the next ten months, uninsured loss threshold changing to $45 million; FEMA is considering changing per capita indicator from $1.55 to $2.30 to keep up with CPI
- Next federal disaster, might have to demonstrate more than $60 million of uninsured loss
- White – Could you explain your division, how you are appointed, and your role?
- Brand new state agency from last session, authorized for 320 FTEs, 280 FTEs filled; using vacancies to provide overhead support to the division
- Appointed by Governor and Board of Regents at A&M; agency provides public assistance and hazard mitigation
- All 254 counties and cities in Texas can qualify as sub applicants to FEMA funding; 3000 applicants are nonprofits, but no private entities are allowed funding
- FEMA has six criteria to qualify for individual and public assistance that are “squishy” or blurred
- Texas needs 800 homes that have major damage or were destroyed without insurance that can be tied to the specific disaster type
- Federal/FEMA does not count insured loss into threshold
- Governor asked for all 254 counties to receive individual assistance, was not denied but assistance is pieced together
- With iSTAT, TDEM tool in partnership with Texas Military Department, individuals can report the damage to their homes for FEMA to analyze for funding
- The deductible for most homeowners’ insurance was not met, so it can count as uninsured loss
- Working to demonstrate threshold to FEMA
- White – Where could individuals find the comprehensive Emergency Management Plan?
- On TDEM’s website; plan is designed for state agencies to support local governments and their emergency plans
- Not all emergency plans are listed on website/public domain for safety and security purposes
- White – We are easily transported back to stone age without power or water; where should we start moving forward?
- Look for concise state definition of what mitigation means; FEMA’s definition of mitigation is “lessening impact of next disaster, only for certain entities and only funding previous emergencies
- State funds have been used, for the first time in at least twenty-five years, for nonstate entities and public mitigation for Harvey damages last session
- Schaefer – What methods have you used to harden infrastructure? Has TDEM given a plan or method to harden facilities?
- Work with A&M system to identify measures and have meetings to educate on hardening, but have no stake to make them harden
- Hazard mitigation plan does not cover private companies, meant for public entities; does not know what would it look like to go to private
- Schaefer – Communication coordination group and interagency coordination lists entities and includes the PUC and anyone under utility code; what was your communications to the utilities system before the storm?
- We have no regulatory authority over those utility commissions, but we talk to their bosses; proof of those calls, emails and communications are public information
- Working on it a week before storm hit and were holding press conferences
- Schaefer – Were the electric and gas companies directly represented in that group?
- Not directly represented, we were speaking with the companies that represent them
- Would love a new operation center
- Schaefer – The people who create the gas and electricity should be at the meeting according to statute; how do we get them in the room when the communications are occurring?
- We trust that the governing organizations are regulating and speaking to their organizations; our structure relies on efficiency and passing down information
- Schaefer – ERCOT, PUC and Vistra were telling different stories regarding outage notification; when did you first hear about outages and when did you tell the public?
- On Saturday there was no scheduled outage from ERCOT
- Schaefer – Of course the outages were not scheduled, but likely to happen; wouldn’t that be beneficial to tell the public? Do you think it is your responsibility to tell the public?
- Would tell the public to conserve
- White – TDEM has no enforcement authority outside of communications with other actors; statute is sufficient and clear, but the reality of operations in an emergency looks different
- Patterson – There are steps ERCOT can take before outages; there was a massive communication flaw in every level of government and entities
- Patterson – Section 418.0425, coordinating TCEQ with waste water utilities providers; do cities/water districts have opportunities to know emergency plans and have access to emergency resources?
- Need to be talking to elected officials, hard to figure out who has authority, we send our people to mayors and judges as emergency response managers
- Research FEMA grant funding and generator requests, but we cannot fund them all
- Those that had generators and fuel sometimes did not have the fuel additive that keeps diesel from freezing
- Goodwin – Risk mitigation plan puts extreme weather low on list of risks, do you foresee this moving up? There is an AMBER alert and national weather alert system, yet no notification of this serious weather event; whose job is that/who could it have been?
- It is our job to ensure state agencies and local governments are prepared for the next disaster
- Goodwin – My local government was not prepared or supported; is it TDEM’s job to keep local emergency preparedness plans up to date?
- All 254 counties are required to have emergency management program
- We all strive to be efficient, which kills preparedness; much like public health authority, authority exists but is not intertwined with local government policy
- Tinderholt – Knew that there could be potential rolling blackouts?
- Yes, rolling brown outs
- Tinderholt – Who is responsible for the lack of communication? Is concerned about hardening key infrastructure
- Communication breakdown is consistently the number one failure in emergency response
- We regulate 16 sectors; majority are private, and I have no regulatory authority
- Every county has emergency notification system, but I have no authority or statutory responsibility to communicate directly with citizens
- Tinderholt – Less about blame, just want to fix it, mitigate it
- Mixed message failure is what causes inaction on citizens part; schools have emergency notification system, utilities company have them, TDEM does not
- Schaefer – Who writes state emergency management plan? Final authority? How often is it reviewed and revised?
- Written by council in our department and I sign final document; reviewed once every five years, which is federal guideline
- I do not think that is often enough, but we have no extra funding; $9.8 million is all we get for statewide disasters
- Schaefer – State emergency management plans: the modifications were made, where did the input come from
- We have not modified the plan based on COVID response because we’re still in the COVID response
- Schaefer – GC 418.173 penalizes for violation of emergency management plan subject to $1000 fine or jail time under 180 days; first listed legal authority is Texas Constitution, but you signed something that allows people to be put in jail only through a council?
- Was added in March to allow for executive orders, should revisit
- White – Do you think you could revisit the coordinating and communication order in the next few weeks? How would your collaboration with local authority work?
- At local level, emergency management plans call on local governments to have similar structure at city/county level
- All disasters are local, those judges have organizational work groups
- Local resources used first, as it is designed in statute, and states step in if more resources are need
- In an isolated incident, state has enough resources; in a statewide event, more difficult for state to respond, not enough resources
- White – Up to chain of command to execute; collaborating and coordinating, what next?
- Support local government by providing information
- Bowers – Shouldn’t there be more to TDEM than encouraging a plan? How often are cities required to update their EMP?
- Once every five years, not asking for regulatory authority
- Morales – Will you get federal funds to give to local governments?
- After every disaster regulation, state is given hazard mitigation funds, 15% of federal share of public and individual assistance taken at 12-month mark; A year from this storm, FEMA will give us a share for new mitigation process
- Nothing directs me to keep a mitigation plan; while it gives us responsibility to harden, there is no money tied to it
- I highly encourage locals to reach out to FEMA, 9 to 1 projects-to-funds ratio
- Morales – Are you asking for additional authority to require mitigation plan?
- Should have a discussion on that; responsibility and effect will need to be very clearly articulated
- Morales – Do the funds given by FEMA correlate directly with reported damage? One of my districts automatically qualified for support, should they also be reporting damage?
- Reporting would not be necessary in already declared county
- For individual and public assistance in the other county, please keep reporting
- Morales – Is there a list of critical infrastructures throughout the state?
- There is no comprehensive list of assets
- The regulatory authorities for the assorted disciplines have those contacts but I do not
- Morales – Who should be in charge of that list?
- Members on and off the council as maintaining list would be constant work
- Morales – We should have recognized and designated critical infrastructures before the storm
- Our relationship is more of a loose coordination rather than demand and control
- White – The funding comes from the federal government but we have the most disasters in the nation, wondering if the state is providing commensurate funds
- Federal funding is passed through to local government to reimburse past disasters
- Schaefer – When looking at classified information, I would be concerned about custody of that critical infrastructure list; do you have security clearance and where do you receive confidential information?
- I have security clearance through the FBI and receive information in my office, no secure line in my office
- Schaefer – Some of cell phone towers and internet went down in the storm; we might need to plan for an event with an even longer outage. Am currently talking to DPS for more primitive communication techniques for when things get really ugly
- TDEM response vehicles have satellite and radio communication
- Schaefer – When the generators run out of fuel, do we need hand radios, solar panels; How do we communicate?
- Have no resources to solve this problem
Commission on State Emergency Communications
Kelli Merriweather, Executive Director
- Primarily granted funds for regional 911 and Poison Control; next Generation 911 system will have answering points transitioned by 2023
- Text to 911 has been implemented, have received over 370,000 text assistance, data expected show tremendous growth for ’20-21
- Poison Control is staffed by health care professionals, particularly important during pandemic to keep patients out of emergency room and hospitals
- Have 25 FTEs in CSEC
- We are responsible for the delivery of 911 call, from citizen to answering point; 911 responses come from local authorities
- The week of the winter storm, call volume increased over 60%; power is our Achilles heel
- Texas has 374 public safety answering points, housed in sheriff and police stations; 102 lost water, 176 lost power, 171 had access generator power, 37 lost generator power
- Poison control volume up 26%, in the week of February 13-20, 500 carbon monoxide calls; 4 known deaths that had a call to poison program
- Large national telephone company lost power in San Angelo, generator failed, effected 20 counties 911 service; worked with TDEM to provide generator within 13 hours
- Tinderholt – Do you mandate generator tests every month in answering point facilities? Is there extended fuel storage for generators? A way to transfer 911 calls to cell phones?
- Varies on location, many have supplemental supplies because of prior emergencies
- If we fund the generators, we require regional coordinators to monitor and do a site visit at least once a year, up to quarterly, and send reports
- We have alternate routing to regular ten-digit telephone number so it can be answered locally, we lose some functionality like location tracking
- Tinderholt – Would you require a monthly monitor on generators and preparedness?
- Will have communication within grantees about contingency
- Used to have satellite phones but those do not work well during hurricanes, open to other options; provide funding to update equipment and require facilities to send after action reports
- Telecommunications are designated as critical infrastructure, but 911 specifically is not listed or supported
- Fire suppression systems sprinklers broke and could ruins telecommunications equipment; need to address our policy on that
- Harless – Our district had a large problem with fire suppression systems during the winter storm as well; should be addressed
- NextGen 911 is cloud based, will have control over core system/centralized access
- White – Funding sources for wireless services?
- 50 cents a line since 1997 for wireless, 1987 for connected lines
- White – Is 50 cents efficient?
- New tech does more and is more expensive; NextGen is based on digital technologies
- Need replacement of digital infrastructure so we can take in data from cell phones like location, health profile, videos and texts, automatically receive crash data
- Tinderholt – My phone asked about health information in setup, that goes to 911?
- It will with NextGen, our current systems cannot acquire that data
- Total budget is $150 million, 95% grants out to regions
- Morales – Who decides what type of generators are bought for facilities?
- Leave that up to local government, we reimburse
- We are incoming call service only; we are not statutorily allowed to make outbound calls or notifications; we cannot send information to the public outside of social media pages
- Morales – You are hub of emergency calls; you should disperse that information to public if it is trending in an emergent trajectory
- We don’t have that real time data; it has to be reported by call centers. We want any information we send to be accurate and timely, which we do not have the resources for
- Morales – Can we help you have real time data, is that a policy we can work on?
- We need additional resources; White to speak with Morales on possibilities
- Morales – We did not receive any emergency alerts, wondering what we can do.
- Not our agency, but we can help track down what agency could be responsible
- Goodwin – Still confused about who sends alerts, when it is a statewide event, each county is sending potentially different information, no one is overseeing those
- Goodwin – There were people who knew about conservation for outages, no warning about the outage itself; who coordinates announcements for these kinds of events?
- Not much coordination
- Goodwin – Need to have better communication when it comes to disasters so families can prepare, especially hurricanes; no power/water for days potentially, blocked roads, food expires