A Fight for Public Accountability – Newsrooms Face TPIA Challenges in Flooding Disaster Reporting

posted on 1.20.2026

Texas broadcast newsrooms have fought hard for public records to assist in stations’ reporting of what went wrong with local governments’ disaster response in the horrific Hill Country summer flooding.

Stations have shown great diligence in seeking documents, 9-1-1 recordings, and even text messages between government officials to highlight governmental action, and inaction, in the flooding. The governmental response to the mountain of TPIA requests has been slow, often times going well past the required response/release period dictated by the Texas Public Information Act.

This past week, reporters from the Texas Newsroom, the public radio journalism collaboration including NPR stations KUT, KERA, KUHF, and Texas Public Radio, and the online news outlet The Texas Tribune, filed a story featuring the texts sent between Kerr County government officials during and in the immediate aftermath of the July 4th flooding. 

The texts show the confusion and urgency in the rapidly developing disaster. They were released only recently, nearly six months after the fact. Intrepid reporting by the Texas Newsroom’s Lauren McGaughy and the Tribune’s Emily Foxhall demonstrates the chaos of the first 24 hours with a timeline comprised of the texts.

“The manner in which the communications are presented is especially compelling,” said Stacy Allen, a partner with TAB’s state legal counsel Jackson Walker. “The TPIA—which TAB fights tooth and nail to protect from more exceptions that would swallow the whole—is the most effective tool for journalists to hold government officials accountable for their actions (or in this case, inactions).”

Despite it being a smaller, more rural county, Kerr County officials released documents and did not charge for the release of 9-1-1 recordings. It sought guidance from the Texas Attorney General’s Office on whether the calls should be redacted and was told they should be released in full.

In some cases, however, TPIA requests for such information generated expensive cost estimates for requestors. 

Travis County, which saw its own share of dangerous flooding, sought to charge one Austin station’s newsroom $4,000 to release audio recordings of the 9-1-1 calls it received in flooding generated by the same storm. KXAN-TV Austin was later provided, after its request, the 9-1-1 call log which will help its newsroom determine which calls to seek release in full. The call log “shows in the early hours of July 5, when the water was rising quickly, many people were forced to rescue themselves — walking, climbing, or driving to higher ground. Others were rescued by first responders. Some calls show first responders ended up in trouble themselves while taking calls,” reported KXAN. 

This narrowing of a station’s TPIA request is just one way that stations have found to address the problem of high records costs in certain locales. 

TAB commends Texas radio and TV newsrooms for their work to hold local government accountable. Informing the public this way can help lead to a positive outcome from an area tragedy, a valuable community service indeed. 

Questions? Contact TAB’s Michael Schneider or call (512) 322-9944.

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