{"id":372961,"date":"2026-07-14T20:02:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T20:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/372961\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T20:02:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T20:02:08","slug":"gov-abbott-declares-disaster-in-59-texas-counties-including-central-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/372961\/","title":{"rendered":"Gov. Abbott declares disaster in 59 Texas counties, including Central Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"

AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 Gov. Greg Abbott issued a disaster declaration<\/a> Tuesday for 59 Texas counties, including Travis and several other Central Texas counties, as severe storms<\/a> and flash flooding threaten the state.<\/p>\n

Abbott also directed the Texas Division of Emergency Management to continue 24-hour operations at the State Operations Center at “Level II Escalated Response” to support the state’s response.<\/p>\n

PREVIOUS COVERAGE | Governor Abbott activates state emergency response resources ahead of flood dangers<\/a><\/p>\n

The declaration certified that the severe storm event beginning July 13 posed a threat of imminent disaster. It covers a large portion of the state.<\/p>\n

Counties included in the declaration are Atascosa, Austin, Bandera, Bastrop, Bexar, Blanco, Brazoria, Brewster, Burnet, Caldwell, Colorado, Comal, Crockett, DeWitt, Dimmit, Edwards, Fayette, Fort Bend, Frio, Galveston, Gillespie, Goliad, Gonzales, Guadalupe, Harris, Hays, Jackson, Karnes, Kendall, Kerr, Kimble, Kinney, La Salle, Lavaca, Lee, Llano, Mason, Matagorda, Maverick, McMullen, Medina, Menard, Pecos, Real, Schleicher, Sutton, Terrell, Travis, Uvalde, Val Verde, Victoria, Waller, Washington, Webb, Wharton, Williamson, Wilson, Zapata and Zavala.<\/p>\n

The declaration allows the state to suspend certain regulatory statutes that could hinder emergency response and authorizes the use of all available state and local government resources to respond to the disaster. Abbott’s office said additional counties could be added as conditions warrant.<\/p>\n

“The protection of Texans is my top priority,” Abbott said. “As severe storms and the threat of dangerous flash flooding continue across the state, this disaster declaration ensures we can rapidly deploy state resources to support local communities.”<\/p>\n

At Abbott’s direction, the state emergency management division asked representatives from several member agencies of the Texas Emergency Management Council (including the Texas Department of Transportation, Texas A&M Forest Service, Texas Department of Public Safety, Texas National Guard and Texas Parks and Wildlife, among others) to report to the State Operations Center and ready their resources for possible deployment.<\/p>\n

RELATED | Texas activates rescue resources as storms raise flood concerns in Austin area<\/a><\/p>\n

The declaration follows a weekend order from Abbott<\/a> directing state emergency response resources to activate ahead of the rainfall threat.<\/p>\n

In Central Texas, CBS Austin meteorologist Avery Tomasco said the flash flood danger was especially high Tuesday. He said the Weather Prediction Center had upgraded the southwestern Hill Country to a level 3 out of 4 “moderate” flood risk, a designation rarely issued in July, while the rest of Central Texas, including the I-35 corridor, remained under a level 2 “slight” risk.<\/p>\n

\"Areas<\/p>\n

Areas of Central Texas are under rare, high levels of flood risk. (CBS Austin)<\/p>\n

As of 5 a.m. Tuesday, storms had already dropped more than 10 inches of rain west of San Antonio<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Tomasco warned that torrential rain would expand northward into Central Texas through the morning, with peak coverage before noon. Rain totals of 1 to 3 inches were considered likely across the region, with isolated totals up to 6 inches possible in the Hill Country.<\/p>\n

\"Areas<\/p>\n

Areas west of San Antonio could receive significant rainfall, potentially causing catastrophic flooding (CBS Austin)<\/p>\n

Forecasters said another round of heavy rain was expected to move into Central Texas around sunrise Wednesday.<\/p>\n

State officials urged Texans in affected areas to monitor local weather forecasts, avoid driving through flooded roadways, and keep emergency supplies on hand. Residents can find severe weather safety information at TexasReady.gov,<\/a> check road conditions at DriveTexas.org<\/a>, and find preparedness tips at tdem.texas.gov\/prepare<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 Gov. Greg Abbott issued a disaster declaration Tuesday for 59 Texas counties, including Travis and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":372962,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-372961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/372962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}