Tyler

By DANNY MOGLE
Assistant Managing Editor

On Sunday, signs on U.S. Highway 69 directed hurricane evacuees into Faulkner Park where fire department personnel registered them in a computer database, assessed their needs and directed them to shelters.

Salvation Army volunteers handed snacks and bottles of water to frazzled evacuees arriving by the busloads.

At the East Texas Food Bank, warehouse workers were busy filling orders for drink and food shipments needed at the rapidly filling emergency shelters.

Inside the Emergency Operations Center at Tyler Police Department, officials were tracking the approach of Gustav and on the phone with state disaster coordinators.

At the Medical Operations Center at ETMC EMS, a team of health officials were posting information on the number of patients coming to Tyler from the Gulf Coast.

In the livestock facilities at the East Texas State Fairgrounds, others were taking care of pets evacuees had brought from home.

By most accounts, the emergency relief effort in Tyler is coming off with few hitches.
It is a far cry from 2005 when hurricanes Katrina and then Rita had emergency responders and relief organizers scrambling to keep up with and tracking an influx of evacuees.

Local officials say this time they were ready and organized.

“There was a lot of planning and coordinating,” said Robert Bush, director of the East Texas Food Bank. “We knew what to do from the first minute.”

He said food packs are now being prepared for shipment into areas that will soon be recovering from the hurricane.

“I think everything (with local disaster relief) is going very well,” Mayor Barbara Bass said during a news briefing Sunday morning. “Our preparation is paying off and our planning is coming to fruition.”

City Manager Designate Mark McDaniel, who was monitoring the emergency relief effort, agreed. “The system is working.”

Coordinators said federal, local and state planning began almost as soon as the winds of Hurricane Rita subsided.

After hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, Gov. Rick Perry formed a task force to figure out what went wrong. Its recommendations for improvements became the basis of the state’s hurricane response plan, according to information from the governor’s office.

The state also formed public-private partnerships with industry that kicks in during emergencies when special services are needed.

When a hurricane or tropical storm approaches, state agencies, the National Weather Service, Federal Emergency Management Agency, volunteer organizations and the fuel industry report to the State Operations Center in Austin to coordinate preparedness and response.

On Thursday, Perry began issuing orders putting emergency operations including the mobilization and pre-positioning of state resources, into motion. On Sunday, he ordered more resources to support evacuation efforts and took part in a conference call with President George W. Bush and governors of other coastal states to discuss preparations.

“I urge Texas residents to heed the warnings from local leaders to keep their families and themselves safe as this hurricane heads toward the Gulf Coast,” Perry said in a statement Sunday. “Texas has pre-deployed substantial resources and stands ready to respond to either a direct hit or serious flooding as a result of Hurricane Gustav. We will continue to work with our local leaders, federal partners and neighbors in Louisiana throughout this storm.”

Under a revised emergency response plan, Tyler was designated as the special needs shelter for residents of Beaumont. Many were loaded onto buses after a mandatory evacuation order in Beaumont and sent to Tyler where coordinators, notified of their estimated arrival, were waiting and ready.

Instead of having evacuees find a shelter on their own, all are directed to an intake center created at Faulkner Park.

Tyler Fire Capt. Mickey Haisten worked at the intake center on Sunday.

“We are doing a lot better this time than with Katrina and Rita and everyone is working hard to keep this thing going,” he said. “There are a lot of people doing a lot of work and right now everything is looking good. We have a few trouble areas, but for the most part it is running smooth for this large of an operation.”

Dr. Jonathan MacClements, who is helping direct the Medical Operations Center, said needs of evacuees are being met because of planning and an outpouring of help from volunteers.

He said relief workers are “blessed to have support of the community.”

Staff Writer Kenneth Dean contributed to this report.

Evacuees from Hurricane Gustav play games and watch TV as First Baptist Church Pastor Mike Massar and Tyler Mayor Barbara Bass hold a press conference at the Red Cross Shelter at the church Sunday.
(Staff Photo by Herb Nygren Jr.)