Houston: Better than most in disaster preparedness.
“I’d give us probably a solid B if I was grading us, and we’re working towards the ultimate A+,” [Harris County Judge Robert] Eckels said.
So far, Harris County has achieved interoperability with most of the neighboring cities and counties, the Metro system and the airports but not yet with the city of Houston’s police and fire departments, Eckels said. “The big hole is the city of Houston,” he said. “That’s our next goal.”
The biggest issue is funds, he said. Eckels estimates it will cost the area “tens of millions of dollars, if not more” to reach full interoperability.
“We are far ahead of many other areas of the country, but because we are so big and so diverse, we’re not all there yet,” Eckels said. “In our area, it’s going to cost well over $100 million in equipment alone. It’s not something you can buy overnight.”
Is it just me, or did you find it a little weird that the article contained no quotes from any actual City of Houston officials, just Judge Eckels? KPRC fills that gap.
Among Texas cities, Houston and surrounding areas got a better grade than Dallas and San Antonio in the study. Houston had well-developed operating procedures and well developed use of its communications systems. Its effectiveness in coordination among local governments was given an intermediate grade.
Joe Laud, a spokesman for Houston’s Emergency Center, said the city is in the middle of efforts to make sure area authorities can work together and communicate in a disaster. He said the city is more than halfway along on a project to get new equipment distributed to improve communications.
“It’s still in progress, but it’s a progress that is happening much faster than it has been in many years,” Laud said.
Between this and the Jordy Tollett defenestration, it’s been a pretty decent year so far for Mayor White, wouldn’t you say? Thanks to Houstonist for the KPRC link.
because of this year’s calmness, a reminder:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-hurricane3jan03,0,3253020.story?page=2&coll=la-home-headlines
Hurricane center chief issues final warning
A departing Max Mayfield is convinced that the Southeast is inviting disaster.
By Carol J. Williams
Times Staff Writer
January 3, 2007
MIAMI — Frustrated with people and politicians who refuse to listen or learn, National Hurricane Center Director Max Mayfield ends his 34-year government career today in search of a new platform for getting out his unwelcome message: Hurricane Katrina was nothing compared with the big one yet to come.
Mayfield, 58, leaves his high-profile job with the National Weather Service more convinced than ever that U.S. residents of the Southeast are risking unprecedented tragedy by continuing to build vulnerable homes in the tropical storm zone and failing to plan escape routes.
snip
And he argues that his dire predictions don’t have to become reality.
The technology exists to build high-rise buildings capable of withstanding hurricane-force winds and tropical storm surge more powerful than those experienced in the last few years. Much of Hong Kong’s architecture has been built to survive typhoons, and hotels and apartments built in Kobe, Japan, after a 1995 earthquake devastated the city are touted as indestructible, he said.
What is lacking in the United States is the political will to make and impose hard decisions on building codes and land use in the face of resistance from the influential building industry and a public still willing to gamble that the big one will never hit, he said.