Today is
Wednesday May 08, 2024
HOUSTON (AP) — Floodwaters in the Houston area and parts of Southeast Texas began to recede on Monday, allowing residents to begin returning to their homes and assess damages after days of heavy rainfall that pummeled the area and led to hundreds of rescues — including people who were stranded on rooftops.
While officials in Harris County, where Houston is located, reported no deaths or major injuries from the flooding, Gov. Greg Abbott said there were at least three deaths in the state. Among those killed was a 4-year-old boy in North Texas who died after riding in a car that was swept away in fast waters.
After days of heavy rainfall in the Houston area and other parts of Southeast Texas, Monday’s weather was dominated by mostly sunny skies and little if any rain.
“We can absolutely see the light at the end of the tunnel, and we’ve made it through the worst of this weather event,” Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, the county’s top elected official, told reporters Monday.
Areas near Lake Livingston, located northeast of Houston, received upwards of 23 inches (58 centimeters) of rain over the past week, National Weather Service meteorologist Jimmy Fowler said. Areas in northeastern Harris County, the nation’s third-largest county, had a range of between 6 inches (15 centimeters) to almost 17 inches (43 centimeters) of rain in that same period.
Hidalgo said 233 people and 186 pets had been rescued in Harris County over the last few days. Active rescues stopped Monday, and officials were transitioning from a response phase into recovery mode and cleanup, she said.
Across Texas, more than 600 people were rescued by local and state authorities, Abbott said. A disaster declaration was issued by Abbott for 91 counties impacted by the severe weather.
“It has been heart wrenching to see our fellow Texans be literally inundated with record water fall,” Abbott said.
While many of the impacted neighborhoods and subdivisions along the San Jacinto River in Harris County were accessible on Monday, others remained cut off by flooded roadways.
“We’re a resilient community. I know we’ll continue to recover from this,” said Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez.
At least five school districts around the Houston area were closed on Monday due to the flooding.
Houston is one of the most flood-prone metro areas in the country. Hurricane Harvey in 2017 dumped historic rainfall that flooded thousands of homes and resulted in more than 60,000 rescues.
Most of the city of Houston was not heavily impacted by last week’s rainfall, except for the neighborhood of Kingwood, where some homes and roads flooded.
Abbott said preliminary reports showed at least 800 structures in the state had been damaged. But he expected that number to increase as officials in many impacted communities had not yet begun to assess the destruction.
Various counties and communities north and east of the Houston area on Monday were also transitioning from rescue to recovery.
“I don’t think this is going to be a short term recovery, that’s for sure. It’s going to be a very long term recovery,” said Polk County Judge Sydney Murphy.
At least 174 water rescues were done in Polk County, where many areas still remained underwater on Monday, Murphy said.
In Walker County, water rescues had stopped, but swift-water rescue teams were checking on residents in about 100 homes who had decided not to evacuate but now couldn’t leave because of high water, said Sherri Pegoda, the county’s deputy emergency management coordinator. The rescue teams were taking food and water to these residents, she said.
“Another week or maybe two before the waters recede enough for them to get out on their own,” Pegoda said.
As he rode a boat through a rural flooded neighborhood in Trinity County on Sunday, Sheriff Woody Wallace said during a Facebook livestream that the residents in his county had “suffered much.”
During the livestream, partially submerged cars and street signs could be seen around Wallace. At one point, a game warden on the boat rescued an armadillo that had been swimming in the flood waters.
“Poor little thing out here about to drown,” Wallace said, adding they would take the armadillo, which he named Sam, to shore.
In Johnson County, south of Fort Worth, a 4-year-old boy died when he was swept away after the vehicle he was riding in became stuck in swift-moving water near the community of Lillian just before 2 a.m. Sunday, an official said. The Tarrant County medical examiner’s office said the cause of death of the child, who would have turned 5 later this month, was drowning.
Abbott said two other deaths tied to the severe weather were a man in Bosque County who was swept away by rushing waters and a Conroe Police Department officer who died after being injured when a tornado struck his home in Trinity County on April 28.
Murphy said she is tired of dealing with historic weather events, but “whatever happens, whatever Mother Nature sends our way, then we will deal with.”
HOUSTON – The Houston Chronicle reports it is an overused and oft-abused phrase that millions of Texans are sick of hearing, but when it comes to Texas transportation, everything is bigger – and growing. Just how much it might grow over the next quarter century is something today’s Texans are about to have a say in. Texas Department of Transportation’s proposed long-range transportation plan, called Connecting Texas 2050 and updated every four years, opens for public comment on May 10 and closes June 9. A public hearing is scheduled for May 28. Texas has more miles of road than any other state – 701,000 miles. That’s 1.5 times the next road-laden state, California. Simply maintaining the 201,000 miles managed by the TxDOT is nearing an annual cost of $2 billion.
Collectively, Texans drive an estimated 540 million miles per day, something TxDOT notes is “enough to circle the earth nearly 100 times every minute.” Now, add more people who want to go to more places and try to plan out 25 years. The numbers get big, very big. As TxDOT works on its long-range plan, taking into account construction, maintenance and development of transportation projects, the total cost estimated from 2025 to 2046 could reach $740 billion. That figure is more than the gross domestic product of Belgium, simply so Texans can drive, fly, bike, walk, float or ride around. To put that some other ways, over the next quarter century, Texas could spend enough on transportation to: Fund the Space Shuttle program three times over. Not the Space Shuttle, but the entire 30-year Space Shuttle program – research, construction, launches, commemorative pins, etc. Then it would still have money left over for three B-2 stealth bomber programs. Buy almost half the state – 14 million people – this model white Toyota Tundra 4X4 crew cab with a 6.5-foot bed. Sail for 23.2 million years aboard the Mariner of the Seas in an ocean view cabin, based on current November prices for a five-day stay from Galveston to the Caribbean. Where, and on what, that money gets spent is likely to be a long-simmering discussion for politicians, planners and advocates, but it will start with a public component this month.
WASHINGTON – The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports that Opal Lee, the 97-year-old “grandmother of Juneteenth,” received the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House on Friday. President Joe Biden named Lee as one of 19 recipients of the award, which is the nation’s highest civilian honor. “These nineteen Americans built teams, coalitions, movements, organizations, and businesses that shaped America for the better,” a White House news release said. “They are the pinnacle of leadership in their fields. They consistently demonstrated over their careers the power of community, hard work, and service.” Lee, who moved to Fort Worth when she was 10, symbolically walked 1,400 miles from Fort Worth to Washington, D.C., in 2016 to raise awareness of the importance of Juneteenth. She attended the signing ceremony at the White House in 2021 when Biden made Juneteenth a federal holiday.
BOSTON (AP) — Hospital operator Steward Health Care filed for bankruptcy protection early Monday morning, but pledged to maintain the eight hospitals it operates in Massachusetts.
In a press release, company officials said Steward took the step as a necessary measure to allow the company to continue to provide needed care to its patients.
“Steward does not expect any interruptions in its day-to-day operations, which will continue in the ordinary course throughout the Chapter 11 process,” the company said in a written statement. “Steward’s hospitals, medical centers and physician’s offices are open and continuing to serve patients and the broader community and our commitment to our employees will not change.”
The Dallas-based company operates more than 30 hospitals nationwide. Steward’s eight hospitals in Massachusetts including St. Elizabeth’s Hospital and Carney Hospital, both in Boston. It filed for protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas.
Steward’s troubles in Massachusetts have drawn the ire of top political figures including U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Edward Markey, who have said the company’s previous private equity owners “sold (Steward) for parts” and “walked away with hundreds of millions of dollars.”
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey said Monday that the state had been preparing for a possible bankruptcy filing and has established a call center for anyone with questions. She said despite the filing, Steward hospitals will remain open and patients should continue to keep their appointments.
Healey was particularly critical of Steward’s management of the hospitals, which she said led to the crisis.
“This situation stems from and is rooted in greed, mismanagement and lack of transparency on the part of Steward leadership in Dallas, Texas,” Healey said at a Monday press conference. “It’s a situation that should never have happened and we’ll be working together to take steps to make sure this never happens again.”
Steward said it is finalizing the terms of “debtor-in-possession financing” from its landlord Medical Properties Trust for initial funding of $75 million and “up to an additional $225 million upon the satisfaction of certain conditions.”
“Steward Health Care has done everything in its power to operate successfully in a highly challenging health care environment. Filing for Chapter 11 restructuring is in the best interests of our patients, physicians, employees, and communities at this time,” Dr. Ralph de la Torre, CEO of Steward said in a press release.
“In the past several months we have secured bridge financing and progressed the sale of our Stewardship Health business in order to help stabilize operations at all of our hospitals. With the delay in closing of the Stewardship Health transaction, Steward was forced to seek alternative methods of bridging its operations,” he added.
He also pointed to what he described as insufficient reimbursement by government payers as a result of decreasing reimbursement rates at a time of skyrocketing costs.
Torre said that by seeking bankruptcy protections, Steward will be better positioned to “responsibly transition ownership of its Massachusetts-based hospitals, keep all of its hospitals open to treat patients, and ensure the continued care and service of our patients and our communities.”
Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell said Monday that the bankruptcy doesn’t allow Steward to “immediately shut its doors and leave town.” She said her office will advocate on behalf of patients and workers throughout the bankruptcy proceedings.
“I also want to make it crystal clear that I take very seriously any effort for this hospital system to make a profit to the detriment of patients, to strip-mine hospitals for their value,” Campbell said.
In March, the company announced it had struck a deal to sell its nationwide physician network to Optum, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group, as it works to stabilize its finances.
The move came as Healey said state monitors were keeping an eye on the health care facilities operated by Steward Health Care in Massachusetts, including hospitals in some of the state’s poorer communities.
Massachusetts Democratic Senate President Karen Spilka, said Monday that her “immediate concern remains the quality and continuity of care for the thousands of patients within the Steward system.”
Democratic House Speaker Ronald Mariano said the House will take up comprehensive legislation next week to address gaps in the state’s regulatory process exploited by Steward.
WASHINGTON (AP) — For two decades, U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar has stood out as a moderate Democrat along the Texas-Mexico border, bucking his party at times over guns and immigration while seldom facing a tough reelection.
But a federal indictment accusing Cuellar of federal conspiracy and bribery charges is putting the Laredo native who was first elected in 2004 in a different spotlight. Cuellar, 68, and his wife, Imelda, 67, were taken into custody Friday in connection with a U.S. Department of Justice probe into the couple’s ties to the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan.
The congressman professed his innocence after the indictment was revealed and vowed to continue his bid for an 11th term in November, saying, “Everything I have done in Congress has been to serve the people of South Texas.”
The Cuellars are accused of accepting nearly $600,000 in bribes from an Azerbaijan-controlled energy company and a bank in Mexico. In exchange, Cuellar allegedly agreed to advance those entities’ interests in the U.S.
The couple surrendered to authorities, made an initial appearance before a federal judge in Houston and were each released on $100,000 bond, the DOJ said.
Cuellar’s family is a political fixture along the border: His brother is the sheriff in Laredo, and his sister, a former municipal judge, is also on the ballot this year, running as a Democratic candidate for state representative.
Several of Cuellar’s allies in the district, which stretches from the Rio Grande to the San Antonio suburbs, expressed surprise over the indictments but said they would still support his reelection. Cuellar’s moderate politics have helped him maintain support in places where Democrats have lost ground, like Starr County, a rural and agricultural part of South Texas.
“It is extremely surprising for me because I’ve known Henry for many, many years,” Starr County Judge Eloy Vera said. “He’s always been a very straight guy, you know, very sincere. I mean, he’s done so much for us in Starr County. I hate to see this going on.”
President Joe Biden won Starr County by a slim, single-digit margin. Two years later, Cuellar won it by 40%.
Sylvia Bruni, chair of nearby Webb County’s Democratic Party, said she would trust the legal system to work fairly and her focus would remain on elections. “We have a campaign to advance, our Democracy at stake,” she said in a statement.
Cuellar released a statement Friday saying he and his wife “are innocent of these allegations.”
“Before I took action, I proactively sought legal advice from the House Ethics Committee, who gave me more than one written opinion, along with an additional opinion from a national law firm,” the statement said.
“Furthermore, we requested a meeting with the Washington D.C. prosecutors to explain the facts and they refused to discuss the case with us or hear our side.”
In addition to bribery and conspiracy, the couple face charges including wire fraud conspiracy, acting as agents of foreign principals and money laundering. If convicted, they could be punished with up to decades in prison and forfeiture of any property linked to proceeds from the alleged scheme.
The payments to the couple initially went through a Texas-based shell company owned by Imelda Cuellar and two of the couple’s children, according to the indictment. That company received payments from the Azerbaijan energy company of $25,000 per month under a “sham contract,” purportedly in exchange for unspecified strategic consulting and advising services.
“In reality, the contract was a sham used to disguise and legitimate the corrupt agreement between Henry Cuellar and the government of Azerbaijan,” the indictment says.
Imelda Cuellar is alleged to have sent a falsified invoice to the energy company’s Washington, D.C., office under the agreement, saying her work was complete.
“In fact, Imelda Cuellar had performed little or no legitimate work under the contract,” the indictment says.
The indictment alleges that an Azerbaijani diplomat referred to Henry Cuellar in text messages as both “el Jefe” and “boss,” and also that a member of Cuellar’s staff sent multiple emails to officials at the State Department pressuring them to renew a U.S. passport for an Azerbaijani diplomat’s daughter.
Cuellar was at one time the co-chair of the Congressional Azerbaijan Caucus.
The FBI searched the congressman’s house in the border city of Laredo in 2022, and Cuellar’s attorney at that time said he was not the target of the investigation.
Cuellar, one of the last anti-abortion Democrats in Congress, narrowly defeated progressive challenger Jessica Cisneros by fewer than 300 votes in a primary race in 2022. Cuellar has been among his party’s loudest critics of Biden, particularly over the administration’s response to a record number of migrant crossings on the border. His moderate politics have aligned him at times with Republicans on issues including abortion and guns.
HOUSTON (AP) — Floodwaters closed some Texas schools on Monday after days of heavy rains pummeled the Houston area and led to hundreds of rescues including people who were stranded on rooftops.
A 5-year-old boy died after riding in a car that was swept away in fast waters, authorities said.
Although forecasters expected storms to begin tapering off in southeastern Texas, high waters continued to close some roads and left residents facing lengthy cleanups in neighborhoods where rising river levels led to weekend evacuation orders.
Houston is one of the most flood-prone metro areas in the country. Hurricane Harvey in 2017 dumped historic rainfall that flooded thousands of homes and resulted in more than 60,000 rescues.
In one soggy area of Houston, school officials in Channelview canceled classes and said a survey of their employees found many of them had experienced circumstances that would prevent them from coming to work.
“These folks have suffered much, people,” Trinity County Sheriff Woody Wallace said Sunday during a Facebook livestream as he rode a boat through a rural flooded neighborhood. Partially submerged cars and street signs peeked above the water around him.
Areas near Lake Livingston, located northeast of Houston, received upwards of 23 inches (58 centimeters) of rain over the past week, National Weather Service meteorologist Jimmy Fowler said.
In Johnson County, south of Fort Worth, a 5-year-old boy died when he was swept away after the vehicle he was riding in became stuck in swift-moving water near the community of Lillian just before 2 a.m. Sunday, an official said.
The child and two adults were trying to reach dry ground when they were swept away. The adults were rescued around 5 a.m. and taken to a hospital, while the child was found dead around 7:20 a.m. in the water, Johnson County Emergency Management Director Jamie Moore wrote in a social media post.
Storms brought 9 inches (23 centimeters) of rain in a span of six to eight hours in some areas from central Texas to the Dallas-Fort Worth area, National Weather Service meteorologist Matt Stalley said.
Since last week, storms have forced numerous high-water rescues in the Houston area, including some from the rooftops of flooded homes.
Greg Moss, 68, stayed put in his recreational vehicle on Sunday after leaving his home in the community of Channelview in eastern Harris County near the San Jacinto River. A day earlier, he had packed up many of his belongings and left before the road to his home flooded.
“I would be stuck for four days,” Moss said. “So now at least I can go get something to eat.”
Moss moved his belongings and vehicle to a neighbor’s home, where he planned to stay until the waters recede. The floodwaters had already gone down by a couple of feet and he wasn’t worried his home would flood because it’s located on higher ground, Moss said Sunday.
CONROE(AP) — A Texas police officer has died of injuries he suffered when a tornado struck his home, according to the Conroe Police Department. The department announced on social media that Lt. James Waller, a 22-year veteran of the Conroe Police Department, died at a hospital where he was taken after the tornado struck his home in Trinity. “After multiple surgeries, physicians determined that his injuries were too great to sustain life,” the post stated. “His family members were able to spend time with him prior to his passing.” The department said Waller and his wife were at home when the tornado struck. His wife was also injured, but survived, according to the police department. The National Weather Service rated the tornado as an EF1 with wind speeds of about 100 mph (161 kph) and said it was on the ground for just more than 0.25 miles (0.40 kilometers) for one to two minutes.
HOUSTON (AP) — High waters flooded neighborhoods around Houston on Saturday following heavy rains that resulted in crews rescuing more than 400 people from homes, rooftops and roads engulfed in murky water. Others prepared to evacuate their properties. A flood watch remained in effect through Sunday afternoon as forecasters predicted additional rainfall Saturday night and the likelihood of major flooding in Harris County, the nation’s third-largest county which includes Houston, and nearby areas. Up to 3 inches (7.6 centimeters) of additional rain was expected, with up to 5 inches (12.7 centimeters) possible in isolated areas. Houston authorities have not reported any deaths or injuries. Judge Lina Hidalgo, Harris County’s top elected official, said Saturday that 178 people and 122 pets had been rescued so far in the county. A wide region has been swamped from Houston to rural East Texas, where game wardens rode airboats through waist-high waters rescuing people and pets who did not evacuate in time. One crew brought a family and three dogs aboard as rising waters surrounded their cars and home.
HOUSTON (AP) — The Houston area was under threat of worsening flood conditions Saturday, a day after heavy storms slammed the region and authorities warned those in low-lying areas to evacuate ahead of an expected “catastrophic” surge of water. A flood watch remained in effect through Sunday afternoon as forecasters predicted additional rainfall Saturday night, bringing another 1 to 3 inches of water to the soaked region and the likelihood of major flooding. Friday’s storms brought hundreds of high-water rescues, including some from the rooftops of flooded homes. Officials begged residents in low-lying areas to evacuate, warning the worst was still to come.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The U.S. Department of Justice has told Iowa’s top officials it plans to sue the state over a new law making it a crime for a person to be in Iowa if they’ve previously been denied admission to the U.S.
The statute interferes with the federal government’s authority to enforce immigration law, according to the DOJ, which already sued Texas to block a similar measure.
The DOJ informed Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds and state Attorney General Brenna Bird that it intends to sue unless the state agrees by May 7 not enforce the law, according to a letter sent Thursday and first reported on by the Des Moines Register.
Bird indicated Friday that the state is unlikely to agree to the federal terms.
“Iowa will not back down and stand by as our state’s safety hangs in the balance,” she said in a statement.
The similar Texas law is on hold due to the Justice Department’s court challenge. Legal experts and some law enforcement officials have said the Iowa law poses the same questions raised in the Texas case because enforcing immigration law has historically fallen to federal authorities.
The Iowa law violates the U.S. Constitution because it “effectively creates a separate state immigration scheme,” the Justice Department said in its letter.
The law, which goes into effect on July 1, would allow criminal charges to be brought against people who have outstanding deportation orders or who previously have been removed from or denied admission to the U.S. Once in custody, migrants could either agree to a judge’s order to leave the U.S. or be prosecuted.
The law has elevated anxiety in Iowa’s immigrant communities, leading to protests in Des Moines and other cities Wednesday.
Republicans across the country have accused President Joe Biden of neglecting his duty to enforce federal immigration law.
“The only reason we had to pass this law is because the Biden Administration refuses to enforce the laws already on the books,” Reynolds said in a statement Friday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas and his wife were indicted on conspiracy and bribery charges and taken into custody Friday in connection with a U.S. Department of Justice probe into the couple’s ties to the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan.
From 2014 to 2021, Cuellar, 68, and his wife accepted nearly $600,000 in bribes from an Azerbaijan-controlled energy company and a bank in Mexico, and in exchange, Cuellar agreed to advance the interests of the country and the bank in the U.S., according to the indictment.
Among other things, Cuellar agreed to influence legislation favorable to Azerbaijan and deliver a pro-Azerbaijan speech on the floor of the U.S. House, the indictment states.
The Department of Justice said the couple surrendered to authorities on Friday and were taken into custody. They made an initial appearance before a federal judge in Houston and were each released on $100,000 bond, the DOJ said.
The longtime congressman released a statement Friday saying he and his wife, Imelda Cuellar, 67, “are innocent of these allegations.”
“Everything I have done in Congress has been to serve the people of South Texas,” Cuellar said. “Before I took action, I proactively sought legal advice from the House Ethics Committee, who gave me more than one written opinion, along with an additional opinion from a national law firm.
“Furthermore, we requested a meeting with the Washington D.C. prosecutors to explain the facts and they refused to discuss the case with us or hear our side.”
Neither Cuellar nor his attorney immediately responded to calls seeking comment on the matter.
In addition to bribery and conspiracy, the couple face charges including wire fraud conspiracy, acting as agents of foreign principals and money laundering. If convicted, they face up to decades in prison and forfeiture of any property linked to proceeds from the alleged scheme.
The payments to the couple initially went through a Texas-based shell company owned by Imelda Cuellar and two of the couple’s children, according to the indictment. That company received payments from the Azerbaijan energy company of $25,000 per month under a “sham contract,” purportedly in exchange for unspecified strategic consulting and advising services.
“In reality, the contract was a sham used to disguise and legitimate the corrupt agreement between Henry Cuellar and the government of Azerbaijan,” the indictment states.
Imelda Cuellar sent a falsified invoice to the Azerbaijan energy company’s Washington, D.C., office under the agreement, stating her work was complete.
“In fact, Imelda Cuellar had performed little or no legitimate work under the contract,” the indictment says.
The indictment also alleges an Azerbaijani diplomat referred to Henry Cuellar in text messages as “el Jefe” or “boss,” and also that a member of Cuellar’s staff sent multiple emails to officials at the Department of State pressuring them to renew a U.S. passport for an Azerbaijani diplomat’s daughter.
Cuellar was at one time the co-chair of the Congressional Azerbaijan Caucus.
The FBI searched the congressman’s house in the border city of Laredo in 2022, and Cuellar’s attorney at that time said Cuellar was not the target of that investigation. That search was part of a broader investigation related to Azerbaijan that saw FBI agents serve a raft of subpoenas and conduct interviews in Washington, D.C., and Texas, a person with direct knowledge of the probe previously told The Associated Press. The person was not authorized to discuss it publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Cuellar, one of the last anti-abortion Democrats in Congress, narrowly defeated progressive challenger Jessica Cisneros by fewer than 300 votes in a primary race in 2022.
LUBBOCK (AP) — A decayed utility pole that broke, causing power wires to fall on dry grass in the Texas Panhandle, sparked the state’s largest wildfire in history, a Texas House committee confirmed Wednesday.
And other poorly maintained power equipment sparked four additional fires across the region earlier this year, the committee said.
The committee also found that a lack of readily available air support, ineffective communication from faulty equipment and coordination among agencies inhibited on-the-ground efforts to contain the Smokehouse Creek fire and others that ravaged the Panhandle earlier this year.
In response, the committee made up of three House members and two landowners recommended the Legislature have more effective monitoring and rule enforcement to check “irresponsible” oil and gas operators and improve accountability with utility providers when it comes to inspecting and replacing power poles.
The 48-page report largely confirmed what was previously established in the days and weeks following the fire. It appeared to rely heavily on testimony from three days of public hearings the committee held in Pampa, a Panhandle town near where the fires raged.
The deadly wildfires disrupted life in the Texas Panhandle after they started in late February.
Two people died and more than 1 million acres burned across several counties — Hutchinson, Hemphill, Roberts, Carson, Gray and Wheeler.
The fires caused extensive damage in its wake. The Panhandle region is largely rural, where cattle are known to outnumber residents. More than 85% of the state’s cattle population is located in the Panhandle.
Many residents lost everything — 138 homes burned, according to the report, and more than 15,000 head of cattle, including pregnant cows, perished.
Hundreds of water wells were also destroyed as the fires raged through the Panhandle. According to the report, this has eliminated sources of water for people and livestock in the region, creating another hurdle to overcome.
Xcel Energy, a Minnesota-based company that has provided electricity in that portion of the state, previously acknowledged its role in the Smokehouse Creek fire.
Following the release of the committee’s report, it said they are taking action to mitigate wildfire risk, including updating systems to be more resilient in extreme weather and adjusting wildfire settings on their equipment.
“We care deeply about the Panhandle communities harmed by wildfires,” the company said. “Our people live and work in these same communities.”
The company said it they look forward to working with the Public Utility Commission, the state legislature, members of the public and other agencies in response to the wildfires.
Osmose Utility Services, a Georgia-based company Xcel has contracted to manage its lines in Texas, did not return messages from the
Tribune. Both companies have been sued in the aftermath of the fire.
Scott McBroom, a Fritch resident, fled his home when the Windy Deuce Fire breached his neighborhood. McBroom and his wife Deana lost everything. It was his childhood home.
McBroom, who learned about the report’s findings through a Texas Tribune reporter, said he was angry to hear it. He said companies should have done more to maintain the power lines and poles.
“It’s just frustrating because through no fault of your own you end up losing everything,” he said. “It does make you angry because they have been neglecting stuff for a while.”
The family, including their dogs, are living with their daughter in Borger while they figure out what’s next.
Efforts to extinguish the fires showed how flawed the state’s response to emergencies is in vulnerable areas of Texas.
Volunteer fire departments were first on the scene, but had poor equipment, including broken radios, due to running on a tight budget.
Wind speeds and a lack of availability caused a delay in air support being used as the fire spread.
The committee also called for more resources to contain wildfires before they grow out of control.
Their suggestions range from Texas obtaining its own firefighting air fleet, additional funding for volunteer fire departments, and upgrading statewide communications systems for better communication across all responding agencies.
Investigators began looking into poorly-maintained power lines as the cause of the fire in the days after it started.
According to the report, wildfires ignited by power lines have been among the most destructive in the region since 2000 — causing more than 1,300 fires and burning more than 1.4 million acres.
The committee was chaired by Rep. Ken King, a Canadian Republican. It also included Republican Reps. Dustin Burrows of Lubbock and Todd Hunter of Corpus Christi, and landowners Jason Abraham and James Henderson as public members of the committee.