Emergency Management and Response

About the Program

Category: Risk and Emergency Management (Best in Category)

Year: 2009

Galveston is a coastal county in Southeast Texas. Galveston has three components—Galveston Island, Bolivar Peninsula, and a mainland component. Galveston County has 100 chemical plants, refineries, and ancillary business that mostly reside within a very small part of the County. Since the 1900 Hurricane that took as many as 12,000 lives, the Commissioners Court has been proactive in providing funding for protection systems for population and industry as well as Emergency Management support in order to properly plan for and respond to a hurricane or a large industrial accident. The Court has authorized a number of pre-event response contracts, encouraged relationship building by county departments with outside agencies, and tasked all departments to be prepared to operate in the case of a serious threat to the County. The County has the only Emergency Operations Center that is co-located with the National Weather Service office for the entire Southeast Texas area. This is a model pioneered by Galveston County whose success has prompted the National Weather Service to examine doing it in other localities. Galveston County owns and operates two hurricane flood protection systems in the county, the Galveston Seawall, and the Texas City-La Marque flood protection system.