As seen in the recent Hill Country flooding, plans in place before a disaster can have life and death consequences. The quality of preparation can be en- hanced by those who lived through previous disasters sharing their experiences and lessons from earlier events.
DeWitt County will hold one of several public meetings to gather input for updating its Hazard Mitigation Action Plan (HMAP) at 5 p.m. today at the Anne Friar Thomas Homemaking Building.
“This is a great opportunity to get every person’s voice heard to improve our capability to respond in a crisis,” Billy Jordan, emergency management coordinator, said.
The purpose of the public meeting is to provide a project overview from consultant H20 Partners, Inc., to the project, and ask for information from citizens. Public input will help the project team analyze potential hazards affecting residents and recommend possible actions to reduce their impact.
“It’s crucial that we get the stories about the impacts on families and people who lived during previous natural disasters here,” Jordan said. “Capturing the point of view of anybody and everybody, whether it was in schools, hospitals, nursing homes, not having cars or needing oxygen, we need to hear it all.”
County officials have been working with leaders from the cities and school districts as well as the Green-De-Witt Drainage District to update the county’s HMAP with the help of H20 Partners as consultants.
According to Jordan, once the HMAP is approved by FEMA, all organizations within the county will be able to access recovery funds more smoothly after a disaster.
“H20 Partners worked with several surrounding counties,” Jordan said, “including the city and county of Victoria, Lavaca County and Wilson County.”
For those who cannot come but want to participate, a QR code may be used to give input.
Some of the events for input in DeWitt County would include Winterstorm Uri, COVID-19 pandemic, Hurricane Harvey, and the Flood of 1998.
For further information contact Billy Jordan, DWC emergency management coordinator, at 361-275-0878 or billy.jordan@dwcotx. org.
