Texas renews – Gov. Greg Abbott renewed three statewide disaster declarations on June 16—covering flood recovery across 30 counties, drought-driven wildfire risk across 111 counties, and border security across 70 counties—placing 164 of Texas’s 254 counties under state emerg
By the time the water rose, central Texas roads looked different—streets filling fast enough to make driving feel like a gamble rather than a routine commute. The danger, in that moment, was immediate. The government response behind the scenes is now built into a wider set of emergency powers.
On Tuesday, June 16, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott renewed three statewide disaster declarations—one for flooding, one for drought, and a third focused on border security—together placing 164 of the state’s 254 counties under emergency authority.
Each order. signed by Abbott and filed with Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson. authorizes the use of “all available resources of state government and of political subdivisions that are reasonably necessary to cope with this disaster.” The proclamations also carry the same operational mechanism: suspending or temporarily lifting certain legal requirements that could slow contracting. procurement. and other steps needed during emergencies.
Flood disaster order expands to 30 counties
Flooding rooted in the state’s deadly 2025 Hill Country storms is at the center of the newest flood-related renewal.
On July 4, 2025, Abbott issued a disaster declaration after heavy rainfall and flooding caused widespread and severe property damage, injury and loss of life across several counties. That timeframe also covered the Camp Mystic flooding that killed 27 campers and counselors.
The original declaration included 21 counties in the Texas Hill Country and the Concho Valley. The disaster order has since been renewed over the past year and expanded in the June 2026 renewal to cover 30 counties.
In the renewed order, Abbott’s declaration does the following:
It suspends all laws that prevent the transfer of bodies to families as soon as possible. It suspends all laws regarding state agencies’ contracting or procurement rules that would impede its emergency response necessary to protect life or property threatened by the declared disaster. It temporarily suspends— with written approval from the governor’s office— laws that would prevent. hinder. or delay necessary action to respond to the disaster.
The flood declaration now sits alongside other emergency measures as Texas also continues to face dry conditions and wildfire risk.
Drought disaster renewal keeps wildfire risk tied to 111 counties
Abbott also renewed a drought disaster order that was originally issued on July 8, 2022. The order has been renewed several times over the past four years.
When it was first signed, it impacted 158 counties across the state—stretching from the Texas Panhandle to the Permian Basin and into the Texas Hill Country.
The original order said persistent drought conditions had increased the wildfire threat in the region. In the June 2026 renewal, the Texas Division of Emergency Management confirmed that the same drought conditions persist, but the renewed order lists 111 counties.
The drought order’s renewed steps include:
Suspending all laws regarding state agencies’ contracting or procurement rules that would impede its emergency response necessary to protect life or property threatened by the declared disaster. Temporarily suspending—with written approval from the governor’s office— laws that would prevent. hinder. or delay necessary action to respond to the disaster.
Border security disaster declaration renewed for 70 counties
The third renewal focuses on border security. The disaster order first began in May 2021, issued in response to a “surge of individuals unlawfully crossing the Texas-Mexico border” described as an ongoing and imminent threat of disaster for a number of Texas counties.
The original May 2021 order affected 34 counties along the Texas border from El Paso to Brownsville. Abbott said at the time that the action was in response to former President Joe Biden’s open-border policy.
In a June 2021 statement. Abbott said: “President Biden’s open-border policies have paved the way for dangerous gangs and cartels. human traffickers. and deadly drugs like fentanyl to pour into our communities.” He added that “landowners along the border are seeing their property damaged and vandalized on a daily basis while the Biden Administration does nothing to protect them.”.
For June 2026, the renewed and amended order now impacts 70 counties, running from El Paso through the Hill Country and the lower Rio Grande Valley. The renewed order declares a state of disaster for those counties and for all state agencies impacted by the prescribed disaster.
How three emergency declarations stack across Texas
The declarations span very different kinds of risk—storm-driven flooding. drought conditions tied to wildfire threat. and border security concerns—but they share the same core operating structure: each renewal expands or maintains the ability for Texas officials to move quickly by suspending or temporarily pausing rules that could slow response.
What emerges from the June 16 renewals is a state government running emergency authority across large parts of Texas at once: a flood order covering 30 counties. a drought order covering 111 counties. and a border security order covering 70 counties—together placing 164 counties under emergency authority out of 254 statewide.
Abbott’s renewals come as Texas continues to keep more than half of its counties under a state of emergency.
Texas disaster declaration Greg Abbott flood emergency drought disaster wildfire risk border security emergency authority Texas counties