Many Texans may have heard the phrase “disaster declaration” yet again last week—but what does that phrase really mean? Winter Storm Uri brought with it disaster declarations at the federal, state, and local levels for Texas, and these types of declarations are explored further below.
Federal Major Disaster Declarations
At the federal level, “[a]ll emergency and major disaster declarations are made solely at the discretion of the President of the United States.” This Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) website also contains the following information: “The Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 5121-5207 (the Stafford Act) §401 states in part that: ‘All requests for a declaration by the President that a major disaster exists shall be made by the Governor of the affected State.’” In addition, the “request must [be] based upon a finding that the situation is beyond the capability of the State and affected local governments or Indian tribal government and that supplemental federal assistance is necessary.” The disaster declaration process is codified at 44 C.F.R. Part §206, Subpart B.
According to FEMA, “The President can declare a major disaster for any natural event” and a “major disaster declaration provides a wide range of federal assistance programs for individuals and public infrastructure, including funds for both emergency and permanent work.” Assistance can take three forms: individual, public, or hazard mitigation. For more details about the process and these types of aid, see: https://www.fema.gov/disasters/how-declared.
Specifically related to Winter Storm Uri, President Biden issued a major disaster declaration for 77 Texas counties on Feb. 20, 2021. Two days later, FEMA approved an additional 31 counties. Information on the covered counties and how to apply for assistance from FEMA are available here.
Texas State Disaster Declarations
The Texas State Law Library has compiled a research guide on “disaster” and “emergency” laws, and the laws identified there are summarized below.
Texas Government Code, Chapter 418, also known as the Texas Disaster Act, sets out the emergency powers of government entities in Texas. Section 418.004(1) defines “disaster” as “the occurrence or imminent threat of widespread or severe damage, injury, or loss of life or property resulting from any natural or man-made cause, including fire, flood, earthquake, wind, storm, wave action, oil spill or other water contamination, volcanic activity, epidemic, air contamination, blight, drought, infestation, explosion, riot, hostile military or paramilitary action, extreme heat, cybersecurity event, other public calamity requiring emergency action, or energy emergency.”
Texas Government Code, Chapter 418, Subchapter B concerns what the Governor of Texas can and cannot do in a disaster. Section 418.014(a) states: “The governor by executive order or proclamation may declare a state of disaster if the governor finds a disaster has occurred or that the occurrence or threat of disaster is imminent.” Once a disaster declaration is issued, it in part “activates the disaster recovery and rehabilitation aspects of the state emergency management plan applicable to the area subject to the declaration” (Texas Government Code section 418.015(a)). The State of Texas Emergency Management Plan consists of many documents, which are available here.
Regarding Winter Storm Uri, Governor Greg Abbott issued a disaster declaration on Feb. 12, 2021, for all 254 Texas counties. In that declaration, he authorized “the use of all available resources of state government and of political subdivisions that are reasonably necessary to cope with this disaster” and suspended certain regulatory statutes. A press release issued later that same day provided additional deployments by the Texas Division of Emergency Management “to support winter weather response operations.”
Texas Local Government Disaster Declarations
Texas Government Code, Section 418.108(a) states “the presiding officer of the governing body of a political subdivision may declare a local state of disaster,” with an exception for airports. Subsection (d) explains that “A declaration of local disaster activates the appropriate recovery and rehabilitation aspects of all applicable local or interjurisdictional emergency management plans and authorizes the furnishing of aid and assistance under the declaration. The appropriate preparedness and response aspects of the plans are activated as provided in the plans and take effect immediately after the local state of disaster is declared.”
Both the City of Houston and Harris County issued disaster declarations last week for Winter Storm Uri. The City of Houston declaration activated its Emergency Management Plan, but details of what that entailed were not readily available at the time of this writing. According to the Houston Chronicle, the Harris County declaration allowed “the county government flexibility to access recovery resources and activates the county’s emergency management plan. The county engineer estimates 55,000 homes in unincorporated Harris County have pipe damage, while the budget office estimated tens of millions of dollars in property damage.”
In sum, disaster declarations are a means to provide relief at a time when it is most needed.
Winter Storm Uri Recovery Resources
The Harris County Robert W. Hainsworth Law Library has compiled recovery resources in the following places:
Winter Storm Uri Recovery Resources (Ex Libris Juris blog post)