When deadly flooding swept through Kerr County, Texas, in July 2025, Joan Connor and her husband survived by clinging to a pergola in their front yard as they watched their home fill with water from the Guadalupe River. The flood killed at least 119 people in the county, about 100 miles west of Austin. By Christmas that year, the couple had moved back into their refurbished house, furnished with donated items arranged by volunteers.
Almost exactly one year later, Connor and her husband found themselves flooded out again. The 82-year-old and her 99-year-old husband are among dozens of families in Central Texas who rebuilt after the 2025 disaster only to face rising waters once more this July when another intense rainfall struck the region, killing at least one person.
The repeated flooding has intensified a debate about Texas building regulations and land-use policies. An investigation published earlier this year by ProPublica and The Texas Tribune found that Texas ranks behind more than half of other U.S. states in adopting stringent elevation rules for buildings in flood-prone areas. The state also leads the nation in flood deaths over recent decades and has more structures in high-risk flood zones than any state except Florida, according to the analysis.
What the Right Is Saying
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's office defended the state's approach, noting that the governor has focused on funding post-disaster mitigation projects rather than preemptive building restrictions. "Governor Abbott has addressed flooding issues by funding mitigation projects designed to lessen the impact of future storms," his office said in a statement earlier this year.
Republican legislators have generally resisted statewide mandates on private property development. State Sen. Brian Hughes, who represents part of the affected region, said local governments are best positioned to understand their communities' needs. "Texans value their property rights and local control," he said. "One-size-fits-all regulations from Austin don't account for the diversity of our state's geography and economy."
Some conservative commentators have argued that forcing homeowners out of flood-prone areas or imposing costly elevation requirements could devastate rural economies. The Texas Public Policy Foundation, a free-market think tank, has cautioned against policies that would make it economically impossible for families to remain on land they own.
What the Left Is Saying
Democratic lawmakers and progressive advocacy groups say Texas officials have failed to enact commonsense safeguards that could prevent future losses. State Rep. Jessica González, a Dallas Democrat who has pushed for stronger building standards, said communities deserve better from their government. "Every cycle of flooding and rebuilding without meaningful policy change means more families facing the same devastation," she told ProPublica in May. "We're watching people die because we haven't had the political will to act."
Environmental advocates point to the 2025 flood's disproportionate impact on low-income communities and older residents. The Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services has argued that vulnerable populations are often concentrated in flood-prone areas with fewer resources for evacuation and recovery. A coalition of housing advocacy groups sent a letter to state leaders this year calling for mandatory elevation requirements statewide, noting that voluntary standards have proven insufficient.
Floodplain management experts consulted by ProPublica said Texas could have taken steps decades earlier to prevent development in the most dangerous riverside locations. The state failed to pass legislation requiring youth camp cabins to be moved from flood-prone areas in 1989; it only passed after the drowning deaths of 27 campers and counselors at Camp Mystic during last summer's flooding.
What the Numbers Show
Texas recorded more flood deaths than any other state over recent decades, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data cited in the investigation. An analysis of structures nationwide found Texas has more buildings located in federal-designated flood zones than all states except Florida.
More than 40 people died at two RV campgrounds in Kerr County during the 2025 flooding. Those parks had not reopened when this year's flood struck again, according to local officials. State law does not restrict where new RV parks may be built in flood-prone areas unless local governments adopt stricter ordinances.
Under current Texas rules, damaged homes can be fully repaired without being brought up to modern flood standards as long as repair costs remain below 50 percent of the structure's value. Homes can be rebuilt entirely if elevated to the height a 100-year flood is expected to reach, which does not account for increasingly severe weather patterns.
The youth camp legislation that passed this year requires cabins at camps along rivers to be relocated away from flood-prone zones within two years. It mirrors a bill that died in committee during the 1989 legislative session after previous flooding deaths.
The Bottom Line
Kerr County residents face an uncertain future as climate-driven extreme weather events increase in frequency and intensity across Texas. Families like Connor and her husband must decide whether to rebuild again or relocate, often at significant financial and emotional cost.
State leaders have rejected calls for mandatory statewide elevation standards, instead pointing to mitigation funding as their primary flood-response strategy. Without changes to building codes or development restrictions, communities in the most dangerous zones remain legally permitted to rebuild in place.
The 2026 legislature will likely face renewed pressure from families affected by this year's flooding and from advocates who argue that Texas cannot continue its current approach without more deaths. What lawmakers choose to do—or not do—will shape which communities get protection and which remain at risk when the next storm arrives.