Texas flooding: First Emergency Order issued, all courts should be delayed as necessary

Texas - The Supreme Court of Texas has issued a First Emergency Order along with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on the Texas Hill Country flooding over the 4th of July weekend.

First Emergency Order for Texas flooding

Through the order, all Texas court proceedings should be delayed or modified as recovery efforts continue, where reasonably necessary.

All courts should consider disaster-caused delays as good cause for modifying or suspending any deadline or procedure, in any case, civil or criminal, the order stated.

Under the order, any statute of limitations applicable to a civil claim is suspended if the claimant shows the flooding disaster prevented the timely filing of the claim.

According to the Courts, this order will expire on Aug. 6, 2025.

Why you should care:

Due to the severity of the flooding, legal proceedings will be impacted as travel in parts of the flooded area will be difficult or impossible.

The Courts also recognize the loss of life or property would personally impact court personnel, lawyers, and litigants.

Central Texas flooding

The backstory:

The death toll from the catastrophic flooding over the 4th of July weekend has risen to 109.

Most of those deaths happened in Kerr County, where at least 87 people have died, including 30 children.

At least five girls and a counselor from Camp Mystic are still missing.

There has been significant damages to homes, buildings, roadways, and more.

Governor Greg Abbott declared a state of disaster in fifteen counties on July 4 and expanded it to include six more counties. These counties include: Bandera, Coke, Comal, Concho, Gillespie, Kendall, Kerr, Kimble, Llano, Mason, McCullough, Menard, Reeves, San Saba, and Tom Green Counties, Bexar, Burnet, Caldwell, Guadalupe, Travis, and Williamson Counties.