Ft. Worth (WBAP/KLIF News) – A disaster evacuation drill is underway in Texas, involving state and local agencies along with non-profits. The drill simulates a hurricane, dubbed Hurricane Tejas, and brings evacuees and people who have been injured from El Paso to DFW.
“It’s a great opportunity to practice and use some of the equipment cache that the City of Fort Worth has just for events like this, like cots and blankets,” says Ft. Worth Fire Lieutenant Kyle Falkner.
Evacuees arrived Wednesday evening and were brought to two shelters; one in Dallas and the other at a community center south of downtown Ft. Worth.
FEMA has designated shelters that meet specific requirements about space and supplies.
“FEMA stipulates that you have to have a certain number of square feet per person, so we know that this site can handle up to a hundred people,” Falkner says.
While agencies are preparing for the potential of a hurricane, the Salvation Army says it nearly was forced to evacuate thousands from the Houston area to the Metroplex during last week’s flooding.
“With just a little bit more rain, with the inundation levels in Brazoria County, there was talk that there might be a need to evacuate as many as six thousand people,” says Jimmy Stanford, the Salvation Army’s Emergency Services Manager.
He says agencies have looked at how to better handle evacuation orders. Before Hurricane Rita in 2005, some people spent an entire day stuck on roads. Of the 139 people who died in the storm, 73 died from heat stroke before Rita made landfall.
“There some big take-aways from that storm,” he says. “We worked with the state on comfort stations so people could stop, get a snack and use the restroom. We’ve also got fuel plans, so if people run out of gas, we’ll have trucks restocking stations.”
Stanford says the drill can help during any large-scale evacuation. He says an issue with a refinery in the Houston area or a major industrial accident could lead to an evacuation order with little warning. Stanford says exercises like the El Paso to DFW drill can establish relationship and communication among agencies before they become necessary
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