‘Baytown’s prepared for disasters’

Baytown Sun
By Matt Hollis, matt.hollis@baytownsun.com
Sep 16, 2022David Alamia, Baytown’s Emergency Management Coordinator, says Baytown is ready for when the next hurricane or winter storm hits. 

Speaking to members of the Kiwanis Club of Baytown, Alamia gave a rundown on how the city has made preparations to handle disasters in case one should ever hit the area again. 

Alamia explained that the city’s Emergency Operations Center is a division within Baytown Fire Department and has been a division since Hurricane Harvey struck the area in 2017. The EOC is managed by two full-time employees, Alamia said. 

“We are surrounded by risks in terms of where we are located geographically with hurricanes and other severe weather,” Alamia said. “And we also have a tremendous amount of economic activity around us with our industrial partners. We are also prepared in terms of chemical preparedness and safety. Although there are only two of us, we do a lot of work. There is a lot of activity going on in the city. And we are growing.”

Alamia said one of the most significant initiatives they are working on is accreditation.

“We have been pursuing Emergency Management Accreditation for the past year and hope to get designation by 2025,” he said. “It is a very arduous and detailed process, and it requires us to review all plans, policies and procedures to make sure they meet these national standards. We are going through and revamping our entire planning process.”

Alamia said they are updating each city department on these changes as they aim to achieve the accreditation process.

“Part of that is we’ve actually implemented continuity of operations plans for each of our city departments to help them be more resilient in maintaining and sustaining their critical operations during a disaster,” he said. “Everyone remembers (the Winter Storm of 2021) and its impact on communities in Texas. The continuity of operations plans we have in place are to help prevent any disruptions within our critical operations. Or course, a disaster is a disaster, so we’ll handle those case by case as they come up.”

Part of the accreditation process includes developing a strategic plan, Alamia said. 

“We decided along with (Fire Chief Kenneth Dobson) and our own division to develop a strategic plan to help guide us over the next five years,” Alamia said. 

Alamia said the process for the strategic plan will start in 2023 and will include members of the community. 

“We will also establish a new advisory committee,” he said. “One of the accreditation requirements is we establish this committee. Typically, it only includes city departments as a part of that. We are taking a whole community approach and have community members be a part of that committee. It is another integration with the community that we will have.”

Alamia said the city has partnered with ExxonMobil and other industrial partners for the local emergency planning committee, or LEPC. They meet monthly at the Bernard C. Olive Jr. EOC on North Main Street.  

“Everyone in our community has a right to know what chemicals are in the community and what hazards they may pose,” Alamia said. 

The public is welcome to attend the meetings, Alamia said. 

Alamia also spoke about a shelter-in-place education program that Goose Creek CISD, LEPC and ExxonMobil have collaborated to launch next week. It includes going into classrooms to provide videos, lesson plans and equipment to be used in case they have to shelter in place. 

Alamia mentioned the Community Emergency Response Team program, where volunteers are educated about disaster preparedness for the hazards that may occur where they live. It is an eight-week course that meets over the course of two months. 

“It goes through disaster preparedness, disaster psychology, fire suppression, search and rescue, and a little on medical operations and triage, a lot of elements you can use and make your own communities more resilient,” Alamia said. 

Kiwanis member Mark Hall asked who activates the EOC.

“Activation can come from different sources,” Alamia said. “Under Statue Chapter 418 of Government Code, (Mayor Brandon Capetillo) is the Emergency Management Director and that duty is then delegated to Emergency Management Coordinator, which is myself.”

Alamia added that the emergency manager, police chief, fire chief and city manager can activate it. 

Alamia explained how the city is ready for another hurricane, such as Harvey, which dumped 50-some inches of rain in the area, causing massive flooding.

“The City of Baytown has made several improvements post-Harvey,” Alamia said. “One of the major improvements we made in terms of preparedness and making sure we have the logistical support we need is to have a new centralized disaster supply warehouse. In the past, pre-Harvey, we had some of our equipment and materials stored throughout the city. One of the changes we made post-Harvey was to centralize everything and get equipment for emergency response in one warehouse. Anything we might need in terms of emergency operations center activations, we can go to the warehouse and get it.”

Alamia said the warehouse is located in one of the city’s water towers. 

“We retrofitted that area and use it to store shelter equipment and generators and use that space,” he said. 

Alamia said expanding the EOC is another improvement.  

“I mentioned the 12 activations in 2018, and subsequently, we activated (the EOC) multiple times, and we kept running out of space,” he said. “One of the things we had on Capital Improvement Projects is entering into the design phase of expanding the EOC next year and helping build it out in 2025.”

Alamia added that the city has multiple high-water vehicles ready to be deployed in case of a major flood. After losing the fleet in Harvey, Alamia said they replaced them with new vehicles thanks to a FEMA grant and all seven fire departments have them, as well as the police department and even ExxonMobil. 

Alamia said they are also adding Thomas Quinn from Lewisville as the city’s new deputy EOC in October. 

“He is a great asset and will bring knowledge to our community,” Alamia said.