Texas Floods: Failure of Leadership

The three top leaders responsible for disaster response in Kerr County were out of town or asleep the early morning of July 4th when 137 people died from flash flooding.  It took 27 days for the public to hear what little they did to warn people in harm's way.  Testimony was given to state officials, not the local governmental bodies to which they failed.

Fortune titled their article: 

Kerr County officials reveal they were asleep, out of town during night of catastrophic flood

Rep. Drew Darby stated:

"We have a lot of folks who have titles, but when the time came to act, they did not do so in a timely fashion." He added that the state pre-positioned assets for potential flooding so the idea that this came out of the blue and was totally unexpected did not wash with him.

Public testimony revealed the risk that people would lose their homes and businesses as they could not afford to rebuild.  The prospect arose of financial vultures, like BlackRock and private equity underwriters (PEU) swooping in and buying distressed properties for development and later flipping.  

The State of Texas has $26 billion in its rainy day fund.  Let's hope they use some of that to help little people recover from an extreme rain event.  However, it would be no surprise if they did otherwise.  The state has known what local officials failed to do that day and there are no signs they plan to hold them accountable.

Politicians Red and Blue love PEU and increasingly, more are one.  So it would be no surprise if the PEU boys win yet again.

Update:  Public testimony revealed Kerr County Commissioners pursuing the maximum property tax increase.  That's reminiscent of the February 2021 Winter Storm.  After having no power for five days in the bitter cold our electrical bills soared with new delivery charges.  

Some flood victims got an apology from elected officials.  That may be little consolation if their property tax bills increase while they are trying to rebuild.  Insurance, even in the best of circumstances, rarely provides the funds to fully replace that which was lost.  Floods are the bleakest in terms of insurance coverage.  

The other PEU connection to this disaster is through insurance company investments.  My wise friend wrote:

Isn't it interesting that Chinese regulators have allowed their insurance companies to purchase gold and the western regulators have allowed the private equity industry to take stakes in insurance companies to park their bad private equity stakes. 

I expect the insurance industry to ask state officials for subsidies for such disastrous events.  Property insurance rates are already ridiculous in Texas.  

Our local government is giving tax breaks to big tech, including energy hogging data centers.  There's a pattern here regarding who gets the subsidies and who is left high and dry after the flood. 

Update 8-4-25:  Seeking Alpha reported:

PE-backed insurers, in particular, have aggressively expanded into higher-yielding private placements.

If they have to sell these products due to increased claims, how might that work out?

Update 8-10-25:  WaPo did a piece on local leadership failures early morning July 4th.