East Texas lawmaker, with governor’s blessing, wants to stop proposed water deal
Dallas businessman Kyle Bass has proposed exporting millions of gallons of water from East Texas to other parts of the state. Full Story
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![House Natural Resources Chairman Cody Harris, R-Palestine, speaks during Texas Water Day at the Texas Capitol on March 3, 2025.]()
Credit: Lorianne Willett/The Texas Tribune -
Hill Country nonprofit pledges $40 million to help rebuild flood victims’ homes
The Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country has a four-pronged recovery plan: rebuilding homes, supporting mental health, economic recovery, and reviving the area’s quality of life. Full Story
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![A fallen roof and debris is seen on the banks of the Guadalupe River after intense flooding Tuesday July 8, 2025 in Ingram, Texas.]()
Credit: Ronaldo Bolaños/The Texas Tribune -
“My daughter was stolen from me": Grieving parents point to Texas camp failures at Capitol hearing
Senate Bill 1, which would require more oversight of emergency plans and evacuation procedures at summer camps, was advanced after the emotional hearing Wednesday. Full Story
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![Cici Williams Steward, mother of Cile Steward, who died in the Camp Mystic flood, gets up after testifying during a panel of Camp Mystic parents testifying before the Senate Select Committee on Disaster Preparedness and Flooding on August 20, 2025. Cile is the only child whose body has still not been recovered.]()
Credit: Bob Daemmrich for The Texas Tribune -
U.S. will build sterile fly factory in Texas to stop screwworm from devastating livestock industry
Mounted patrol officers, known as tick riders, who typically patrol the southern border to protect cattle from fever tick, will also now serve as the first line of defense against screwworm. Full Story
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![Forty to fifty head of cattle down from 5,000 due to restrictions on cattle imports from Mexico at the Vaquero Trading stockyard in Sunland Park, New Mexico on January 8, 2025.]()
Credit: Justin Hamel for The Texas Tribune -
History repeated itself when the Guadalupe River swept away Camp Mystic. Why few lessons were learned after the 1987 flood.
The Fourth of July flood bore a striking similarity to the Hill Country flood that killed 10 summer campers in 1987. In the following years, officials took little action to protect against the next storm. Full Story
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Credit: Desiree Rios for The Texas Tribune -
Texas’ oldest wildlife refuge was set to expand. Then the Trump administration changed course.
Established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Muleshoe National Wildlife Refuge was set to grow up to 700,000 acres to protect wildlife in West Texas and the Panhandle. Full Story
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![Sandhill crane, seen at Muleshoe National Wildlife Refuge.]()
Credit: Wyman Meinzer/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service -
Along Guadalupe River, more than a dozen summer camps have structures in flood zones
Most of the camps were built decades ago, before modern modeling and flood maps. Counties have little power to regulate construction flood plains. Full Story
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![Damage from the flood around a bridge on HWY 39 in Hunt on July 5, 2025.]()
Credit: Brenda Bazán for The Texas Tribune -
Texas Republicans and Democrats, locked in redistricting battle, weaponize flood response
With Democrats’ walkout over redistricting bringing the House to a standstill, both parties are accusing each other of abandoning Central Texas flood victims. Full Story
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![Texas Representatives look towards the voting board as attendance is called in the House Chambers on Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025 in Austin. It was the second day that representatives failed to meet quorum after Texas Democrats left the state in protest of new congressional maps.]()
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After Hill Country floods, families face a difficult question: Rebuild, or let go?
They lost homes and summer cabins to the July 4 flood in Kerr County. Now they are weighing whether it makes sense to rebuild. Full Story
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![A drone view along the Guadalupe River on Tuesday, July 22, 2025, in Hunt.]()
Credit: Eli Hartman for The Texas Tribune -
Texas identifies the 119 people killed in Kerr County floods
Most victims were Texans, but some were visiting from other states like California, Florida and Alabama. The youngest victims were 1 year old; the oldest was 91. Full Story
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![People gather at a memorial for the victims of the Kerr County flood during a vigil on Friday, July 11, 2025, in Kerrville.]()
Credit: Eli Hartman for The Texas Tribune -
Hundreds of old EV batteries have new jobs in Texas: Stabilizing the power grid
After reaching the end of their automotive lives, the batteries are being reused to provide lower-cost grid energy storage. Full Story
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![580 EV battery packs are deployed in B2U’s SEPV Cuyama energy storage project in Santa Barbara County, Calif. The system charges from on-site solar and from the grid.]()
Credit: Courtesy of B2U Storage Solutions -
Texas House committee discusses flood bills despite standstill
Only one Democrat taking part in the quorum break was absent from the panel as the group discussed five bills and the chair vowed their work would go on. Full Story
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![Texas Repersentives gather for a committee hearing regarding flood relief in the Capitol Extension on Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025 in Austin, Texas.]()
Credit: Ronaldo Bolaños/The Texas Tribune -
Kerr County officials failed to follow certain aspects of disaster plan during Texas floods
The five-year-old plan, required by the state, detailed when additional monitoring was to take place and who was responsible for alerting the public to evacuate. Full Story
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![A woman looks at a pile of debris in Hunt on July 8, 2025.]()
Credit: Brenda Bazán for The Texas Tribune -
“Nobody came”: Hill Country flooding survivors recount anguish, neglect during emotional hearing
Residents told state lawmakers about what they’ve lost and the hardships they’re experiencing almost a month after the July 4 disaster devastated the region. Full Story
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![Alicia Jeffrey Baker receives a hug after testifying during a joint committee hearing at Hill Country Youth Event Center on Thursday, July 31, 2025 in Kerrville, Texas. Baker lost her parents Emlyn and Penelope Jeffrey and her daughter Madelyn “Emmy” Jeffrey in the flooding.]()
Credit: Ronaldo Bolaños/The Texas Tribune -
Top two Kerr County emergency officials say they were asleep as July 4 floods struck
Their statements to state legislators marked the first time county officials have spoken publicly about what they were doing the morning of the disaster that killed more than 100 people in the county. Full Story
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![People listen in to a panel of local Kerr County officials testify during a joint committee hearing at the Hill Country Youth Event Center in Kerrville on Thursday, July 31, 2025.]()
Credit: Ronaldo Bolaños/The Texas Tribune -
As the floods hit, Kerrville officials’ messages show lack of information about what was coming
Lawmakers plan to hear testimony Thursday in Kerr County. Questions remain about how state and local entities responded to flood warnings. Full Story
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![A July 5 aerial view of toppled trees near Hunt reveal the scope of the devastating July 4th flood in Kerr Co. Texts and emails show local officials were slow to grasp the severity of the disaster.]()
Credit: Brenda Bazán for The Texas Tribune -
Feds move to eliminate petrochemical watchdog, putting Texans and others at risk
Amid increasingly intense weather, the Chemical Safety Board is the lone independent agency watching over the Gulf Coast’s petrochemical corridor. Full Story
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![Smoke rises from a fire burning at the Intercontinental Terminals Company in Deer Park, east of Houston, on March 18, 2019.]()
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East Texans condemn Dallas millionaire’s plan to pump 16 billion gallons of their groundwater to other parts of the state — every year
Texas law largely allows landowners to do what they want with the groundwater beneath them, potentially protecting the latest plan to ship water out of East Texas. Full Story
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![Kyle Bass speaks during the Reuters Global Investment 2019 Outlook Summit in New York on Nov. 14, 2018.]()
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Texas buys land for new state parks that will be developed using $1 billion voter-approved fund
The fund opens a new era of public land acquisition and park development for Texas, which ranks 35th nationally in state park acreage per capita. Full Story
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![Texas Parks and Wildlife Department biologists and staff use an anode, an electrical rod that temporarily stun fish during electrofishing for netting, during an aquatic sampling search at Yancey Creek in what will become Post Oak Ridge State Park, a newly acquired park near Lampasas, Texas, on Thursday, June 5, 2025. The park’s acquisition marks the first since $1 billion dollars were allocated to buy more land for the state parks system as part of the Centennial Parks Conservation Fund, approved by the state legislature in 2023. Before development can begin, survey teams collect samples and information regarding the environment and wildlife at the newly acquired land.]()
Credit: Eddie Gaspar/The Texas Tribune -
The guerilla campaign to save a Texas prairie from "silent extinction"
Students and naturalists have been sneaking onto private land to extricate threatened native plants: “This is a war between us and the developers, and nobody’s calling uncle.” Full Story
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Credit: Grist/Amelia K. Bates