When the hearse carrying Virginia Hollis' body arrived at her home in Bellville on July 16, it was followed by Virginia's horse, Salt Lick, and her family. Virginia was killed in the July 4 flash flood in the Texas Hill Country.

On overpasses along I-10, firefighters stood atop their vehicles on July 16 to salute the procession bringing home Virginia Hollis' body.

A few days before a newly formed legislative commission on disaster preparedness and flooding met in Austin for the first time, Texans watched on Facebook as a long procession of law-enforcement SUVs, fire trucks and ambulances, their emergency lights flashing, headed eastward out of San Antonio on I-10. Traffic gave way, and at overpasses along the route, firefighters silhouetted against a blue summer sky stood at attention atop their gleaming red trucks as the entourage passed below them.

Exiting the interstate at Columbus, the procession made its way along winding farm-to-market roads through rolling fields and pastures. At each little town — Frelsburg, New Ulm, Industry — men, women and children stood in silence as the procession passed. Organized by the Austin County Sheriff’s Department, the entourage was bringing 8-year-old Virginia Hollis home to Bellville, a small town an hour west of Houston. The dark-haired youngster, who loved horses, the Houston Astros and looking after her little sister, lost her life when the rampaging Guadalupe River swept away her cabin at Camp Mystic.

Some version of that poignant homage had been repeated for more than a hundred flood victims from throughout Texas — including 27 children — by the time nine state representatives and nine state senators, members of the joint Disaster Preparedness and Flooding Committee, convened at the Capitol to hear testimony from state officials and disaster-preparedness experts. The committee is scheduled to meet in Kerrville on July 31 to hear from Hill Country residents who bore the brunt of the devastating flood.

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“Right now, we must focus on the recovery of those still missing, then rebuilding communities in flooded areas,” Lt. Gov. Dan........

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