Catastrophic Floods and Extension’s Call to Action
by Jordan Baze, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service Disaster Assessment & Recovery Unit
Catastrophic floods occurred on July 4th, 2025, impacting multiple counties in the Texas Hill Country and parts of West Texas. As the Guadalupe River swelled to historic levels during the early hours Independence Day, sadly, these flood events caused multiple fatalities with over a hundred lives lost. Hardest hit were youth camps and those that were camping along the river.
Extension’s role during the disaster was multi-faceted, involving the Disaster Assessment and Recovery Unit as well as numerous County Extension Agents and staff members in affected counties. From the start of the event, the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service answered the call for assistance by taking on various response roles:
- Staffing the State Emergency Operations Center
- Deploying to Incident Management Teams
- Conducting damage assessments
- Deploying staging area manager teams and providing logistical support for the Texas A&M University Veterinary Emergency Team
- Extension provided response resources deploying personnel from the DAR Mitigation Branch to assist with mapping efforts for damage assessment teams.
As the disaster phased into recovery, AgriLife Extension deployed personnel to provide educational resources at eleven Disaster Recovery Centers, reaching over 690 individuals directly affected by flooding. DAR provided educational resources such as insurance options, livestock indemnity, mold remediation, and food safety handling. Other online resources were provided via texashelp.tamu.edu. QR code printed resources were also provided making information readily available for flood victims with smartphone access.
Extension also partnered with several local nonprofit agencies and volunteer groups to procure and deliver fencing materials to ranchers who were forced to rebuild due to lost fencing during the floods. Other agricultural losses resulting from the flooding included livestock—sheep, goats, and cattle—as well as hay and cotton acreage. Barns and other infrastructure were part of loss assessments. Preliminary estimates totaled more than 500 miles of fence sustained damage across nine counties affected by the flood.
DAR Specialists were also deployed to provide logistical resources for the First Responder Peer Support efforts conducted by the Texas Division of Emergency Management.
Disaster Assessment and Recovery Specialists worked closely with county extension agents to ensure the needs of landowners and families were met.
These efforts continued into October as recovery efforts are ongoing for Hill Country Texans.
