Texas Has No Training Standard for Emergency Coordinators
Texas still does not require any formal training for the local officials responsible for planning and leading disaster response. Two bills to establish a training baseline both failed in the final special legislative session of 2025, one year after floods on July 4, 2024 killed more than 130 people.
Under current state law, any mayor or county judge can appoint someone as an emergency management coordinator by signature alone. That person then holds authority over disaster planning and response for their entire community, with no minimum coursework, certification, or field experience required.
“To be an emergency management coordinator in the state of Texas, you need the signature of a mayor or judge. Period. That needs to change.”
Nim Kidd, Chief, Texas Division of Emergency Management, April 2025
Kidd made that statement to a state committee investigating the 2024 disaster. He had raised the same concern eight months earlier, at a July 23, 2024 legislative hearing focused specifically on the floods. Lawmakers heard the warning twice. They did not act.
254 Counties Can Still Hire Untrained Disaster Leaders
Texas has 254 counties, each with at least one emergency management coordinator, plus coordinators in municipalities across the state. Every one of those positions can be filled without any verified training in disaster preparedness, mass casualty response, or emergency communications.
The legislature did take some action after the floods. Lawmakers required flood warning sirens in areas hit by the disaster that also have histories of flooding. Six of the first eight planned sirens in Kerr County, where the vast majority of deaths occurred, are now in place.
Siren installation does not substitute for trained personnel. A siren alerts people to evacuate. A coordinator decides when to issue warnings, how to deploy resources, and how to manage a mass casualty response.
Kidd explicitly told legislators that training requirements, clearer autopsy guidelines during mass casualty events, and a process to vet disaster volunteers were all needed. The siren mandate passed. The training mandate did not.
What You Can Do Now
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Call your Texas state representative and state senator at the Texas Capitol switchboard, (512) 463-4630. Tell them to pass mandatory training requirements for emergency management coordinators before the next regular session ends. Ask specifically what bills they support on this issue.
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Contact the Texas Division of Emergency Management at emergency.texas.gov/contact. Ask what the agency is doing to push for minimum training standards before the next major weather event. Constituent pressure on agencies matters between sessions.
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Email the chairs of the Texas House and Senate committees on Homeland Security. Tell them that two bills failed in 2025 and another flood season is underway. Demand a committee hearing on emergency coordinator training standards this year.
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Check your county’s emergency management coordinator. Find your county’s contact at TexasCounties.net and ask directly what training your coordinator holds. Local pressure can push counties to voluntarily require credentials even without state law.
Sources
Texas Tribune: Texas Lawmakers Haven’t Addressed Emergency Coordinator Training After 2024 Floods Texas Tribune: Kerr County Flood Deaths and the July 4 2024 Guadalupe River Disaster Texas Division of Emergency Management: Agency Overview and Coordinator Program KFF Health News: How Underprepared Local Emergency Managers Create Gaps in Disaster Response
[Quote: “To be an emergency management coordinator in the state of Texas, you need the signature of a mayor or judge. Period.
That needs to change.”, Nim Kidd, Texas Division of Emergency Management Chief, April 2025, Texas Tribune]