By Kristin Edwards
The Walker County Emergency Operation Center will be in full operation beginning today at 8 a.m. until the conclusion of Hurricane Ike, and county officials will also work to coordinate the activation of any needed evacuee shelters.
According to Butch Davis, Walker County emergency management coordinator, as many as four evacuee shelters may be opened in preparation for the storm’s landfall, and evacuees from Houston, Galveston and other parts of Texas may be coming to Walker County.
“At this point, not even the National Weather Service knows where this storm is going to make landfall,” Davis said Tuesday. “However, it looks like it could move north toward our area which would put us in the path of some tropical or hurricane force winds.
“When we get more information from conference calls scheduled beginning [today], that will be the time for county officials to come together and make some heavy duty decisions.”
Without knowing precisely where the storm will make landfall, Davis said Walker County citizens should prepare for possible high winds and rain by the weekend.
“If the storm comes in at Freeport or somewhere like that, we could possibly see some of those high winds, winds high enough that we may be in a power outage situation,” he said. “I don’t know how long those situations will be, but we do need to be prepared.
“With this storm moving more to the north, it doesn’t put us right in the center, but there’s a chance we could get some of the outer winds and rain.”
Depending on where the storm makes landfall, Davis said a high volume of evacuees may be headed to the county.
“Right now we have four shelters on standby, and less than two hours ago, I was expecting a group of 2,500 evacuees,” he said. “We may have general population evacuees out of Harris County and Galveston, but we don’t know at the present time what to expect.
“We do know we’ll have an animal issues team on standby as well as a donations management team. We have also contacted the state to request additional EMTs to help our Huntsville-Walker County EMS.”
Additionally, Davis said a shower trailer, a mobile kitchen from the Salvation Army and several packaged meals have also been requested.
“We feel confident we’ll get all of our needs met, and once this storm decides where it’s going, we’ll make some serious plans,” he said.
For more information both before and during the storm, contact the EOC at (936) 435-2400.
