No mission is more important than improving the ability to notify people in harm's way and get them out

WASHINGTON, D.C. – In his opening statement at today’s Senate Commerce Committee nominations hearing, Chairman Ted Cruz (R-Texas) expressed his condolences to the victims, families, and communities affected by the severe flash flooding in central Texas. He also announced he hopes to soon reintroduce bipartisan legislation aiming to improve NOAA’s emergency weather radio system, which could be lifesaver for Texans and others who live in areas with spotty or no cell service.

Sen. Cruz underscored the critical role of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the National Weather Service (NWS), and first responders in issuing timely and effective emergency warnings. He emphasized the ongoing challenge of ensuring the public not only receives but also trusts and acts on these alerts during life-threatening situations.

Sen. Cruz highlighted the qualifications of two key nominees for NOAA, Dr. Neil Jacobs and Mr. Taylor Jordan. Their previous work at the agency makes them well prepared to modernize weather forecasting, improve emergency communication, and push the agency to be global leaders in weather forecasting.

Sen. Cruz also described Mr. Harry Kumar’s qualifications to serve as the Department of Commerce’s lead legislative liaison. He conveyed the need for the Department of Commerce to have a transparent and cooperative relationship with Congress so that the agency can remain accountable and responsive to the American people.

Here are Sen. Cruz’s remarks as delivered:

“Good morning.  The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation will come to order. 

“I want to take a moment at the outset to address the tragedy in my home state over the holiday weekend. In the early hours of July 4th, central Texas was hit with extraordinary flash flooding. More than 100 people have died, and the death toll is expected to keep growing. Over 160 remain missing right now and the search effort is ongoing as we speak.

“I'm a father of two daughters. When I think of those little girls that were lost at Camp Mystic, it's every parent's worst nightmare. I was at Camp Mystic on Monday. The devastation in that 100-year-old, beautiful girls camp that has helped raise generation of girls and women in Texas, the devastation was the most horrific thing I've ever seen.

“The Guadalupe River is normally a quiet and peaceful river. I've been swimming and floating in that river dozens of times. There's a reason there are 40 camps right there in Kerr County, because it is absolutely beautiful. My own youngest daughter Catherine goes to camp just a few miles up the river from Camp Mystic. My wife Heidi was there the week before, picking Catherine up. We had been celebrating because Catherine had won War Canoe, where the girls race in canoes against other girls in the camp, and Catherine is a good athlete, and she had won War Canoe.

“And I looked at that same peaceful river, and 1.8 trillion gallons of water dumped upon it in the early hours of July 4th, and it rose some 30 feet. Camp Mystic, the river, is hundreds of yards away from the cabins. There's a lot of space there. And yet you looked at the cabins, and in the cabins, there was eight foot of water in every girl's cabin. You could see the water line. It washed out every single thing in the cabin.

“It -- there is one cabin, the cabin where -- the youngest girls were in, called Bubble Inn. The water blew out the windows in that cabin and swept all of the girls and the counselors out. Every girl in that cabin is either confirmed dead or missing.

“Outside that cabin are 17 single white crosses with the names of the girls written on it. The 17th cross, the name written on it is Dick Eastland, who, for 50 years, had been the camp director at Camp Mystic. And Dick likewise lost his life in those early morning hours, in his Suburban driving through high water trying to rescue his girls.

“Texas, our heart is broken. And we saw extraordinary courage, we saw search and rescue, we saw heroes. I met with a young Coast Guardsman on Monday who's accredited with 165 rescues. He landed at Camp Mystic, they put him on the ground in a very difficult helicopter landing, and he was at a field at the highest point on the campground helping rescue little girls. For three and a half hours, they helicoptered out 165 girls, about 15 per helicopter. And he sat there and held their hands and stayed on the ground with them.

“This guy -- I know a lot of my colleagues have gotten to meet Coast Guard swimmers, who I have analogized they're kind of like Navy SEALs and California surfers mixed together. Like, this young guy, he described himself in the press. He said, ‘I'm just a dude,’ which is something a Coast Guard swimmer would say. But they're completely fearless.

“And when I saw him, he had just hung up the phone from talking with a mom and dad and with their daughter, and they were crying. They said, ‘You saved our daughter's life. And when she was there, terrified out of her mind, you held her hand and told her it'd be OK.’

“So, the weather can have enormous consequences. Our thoughts today are also with the people of Ruidoso, New Mexico, who faced flash flooding just yesterday evening. The power of a flash flood, the power of a tornado, the power of a hurricane, the power of a wildfire to devastate and destroy -- flying in a Coast Guard helicopter up the Guadalupe River, it was astonishing, the devastation that water can produce.

“Cars were flung around like Matchbox cars. And, you know, when a car hits a tree, the car loses, the car crumples. But I'll tell you, when water hits trees, the trees lose. And all up and down the Guadalupe River, you saw thousands of trees just run over like a bulldozer had knocked them down. That was the force of the 30-foot wall of water that just -- everything in its path, obliterated.

“Now, when tragedy strikes, we ask ourselves what could have been done differently? That’s  a question that we need to ask. In any crisis, there's an order that things play out.

“Stage number one is search and rescue, and that's got to be the first priority, saving lives, getting lives out of harm's way.

“Stage number two is recovery and rebuilding, and that's a process that takes months or even years as you go to the homes that are destroyed, you go to the buildings that are destroyed, and you look to rebuild. And we'll do that. Texas will rebuild. We're strong.

“But there's also a process of engaging in a retrospective and saying what is the exact timeline of what transpired and what could we have done better? Look, every one of us looking at the flooding in Texas, if we could step in to a time machine and go back to 2 or 3 in the morning on July 4th, we would rush into those little girls' cabins and get them the hell out of there.

“And so one question -- Dr. Jacobs, you and I had a very good conversation in my office yesterday. And I want to thank each of the nominees here for your expertise. But one question we will certainly be asking in Texas and we ought to be asking across the country is how can we improve the speed and rate of response that when an extreme weather warning goes out -- in Texas, National Weather put out one at just after 1 a.m. and another just after 4 a.m., but the problem is most people are asleep at 1 a.m. and 4 a.m., so those little girls never heard the warning.

“And so, there are discussions about all sorts of steps we can take, including setting up sirens and warning systems along the Guadalupe River Valley, which I think makes an awful lot of sense, but we ought to be asking what lessons can be learned, and what can be done more effectively to protect human life.

“Now, this hearing, we have three very qualified nominees, we have Dr. Neil Jacobs, who was the nominee for Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and NOAA Administrator. We have Mr. Taylor Jordan, the nominee for Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Environmental Observation and Prediction. And we have Mr. Harry Kumar, the nominee for Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs.

“I think each of them are highly qualified. And I appreciate your willingness to serve, and I appreciate your commitment to protecting public safety. There's no mission that is more important, particularly concerning weather related events than early detection, knowing what is happening, and improving the ability to notify people in harm's way and get them out of the way.

“We know we're going to have other disasters going forward. There will be more floods. There will be more hurricanes. There will be more tornadoes. But every step we can take to remove someone from the path of that devastation is a step we need to take, and I appreciate each of your dedication to doing that.”

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