JP DeMeritt, emergency services director, said, “Heart of Texas covers areas from Stephenville down to Temple, and Killeen over to Bryan- College Station and Palestine up in Anderson County, and pretty much all points in between. Because most of our emphasis is on the eastern portion of Texas, we are working very hard to make sure that we have shelters for people coming into the Bryan-College Station area and into Palestine.
“As it stands, we are in the process of mobilizing our people, deploying equipment and working with the national level Red Cross to make sure we have the assets necessary to support people primarily who are evacuating from coastal areas of Louisiana,” he said.
Even though residents in areas of Texas ravaged by Hurricane Rita three years ago began fleeing Saturday ahead of what authorities said would be a mandatory evacuation order, DeMeritt said the national Red Cross is concentrating its efforts on Louisiana.
“We’re concentrating on where the national hurricane center seems to think the most likely target for the storms approach is. That is pretty much the central Louisiana coast.”
Still, he said, “They are also saying that once this storm comes ashore it is likely to make a hard left turn, go into northern-east Texas and then kind of stall over Central Texas,”
“We’ve got promises of about 1,200 beds in the Palestine area and somewhere in the vicinity of 1,200-1,500 positions in the Bryan-College Station area should we need to activate them.”
That’s not to say preparations are not being made in Temple and surrounding areas.
Thirty-five hundred possible shelter spaces will be available in the Temple area if the need arises for evacuees, said Bob Roberts, American Red Cross Temple/Killeen branch manager.
“We are on standby at this stage,” he said.
New Orleans Mayor Ray Magin gave his city the mandatory evacuation order Saturday evening, but DeMeritt said a lot of people were evacuating on their own from Louisiana. People who take Highway 290 to the Austin area may go north along Interstate 35 and need services in Bell County, he said.
Capt. Le Roy Vargas, with Temple Fire and Rescue, said emergency services is on standby.
“We are standing down just for now,” he said, adding they were looking at setting up shelters possibly Saturday and today to start receiving people.
Fire Chief Lonzo Wallace is emergency management director and the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) will be placed on standby to help at shelters, Vargas said.
The state has set up sister counties in Texas, said Thomas Pechal, Temple Fire and Rescue public information officer.
Bell County’s sister is Brazoria County and Temple has been designated to receive Brazoria’s evacuees with special medical needs because of the facilities available at Scott & White Memorial Hospital.
Carol Morrisett, R.N., Scott & White’s safety compliance director, said on Thursday that the hospital had been on alert since Tuesday at 10 p.m.
Scott & White personnel assessed bed availability in case Gulf Coast hospitals were forced to evacuate.
Gov. Rick Perry called on Texas to prepare for potentially 45,000 evacuees from Louisiana, where roads began clogging with traffic as a million people took to Gulf Coast highways.
Jefferson and Orange counties in Texas planned issuing an evacuation order at 6 a.m. today, and officials urged people to pack up pets and 10 days worth of clothes and supplies in case Gustav delivered another Rita-like punch to the area.
“Most people that went through Rita understand the seriousness of this decision when we start asking people to leave,” Beaumont Fire Department Capt. Brad Penisson said.
Mandatory evacuations already began Saturday for special needs residents, such as those who have medical issues or lack transportation, in Jefferson, Orange and Hardin counties.
More than 100 buses and 200 ambulances had either arrived in the Beaumont area or were en route to transport residents inland, Penisson said. Four C-130 aircraft Saturday were to begin evacuations of people with special medical needs, according to Perry’s office.
Texas was preparing to shelter 10,000 residents from Louisiana who are unable to evacuate themselves, state officials said. They were to begin arriving by plane today, with most being sent to the Dallas area and San Antonio.
More than four times that many evacuees from Louisiana could flock to Texas in all, according to Perry’s office.
Meanwhile, as many as 500 critical-care patients were being airlifted Saturday from hospitals along the Gulf Coast to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, a spokesman said. The patients were being transported to about 20 hospitals around North Texas.
In Beaumont, close to where Rita roared ashore as a Category 3 hurricane in 2005, Penisson said residents were already boarding up homes and taking to the highways. Officials in neighboring Orange County were inundated “by thousands” of people calling to register for evacuation assistance, said Jill Frillou, a county spokeswoman.
“People are taking precautionary measures,” Frillou said.
Hotels in East Texas began filling up as early as Thursday, when tourism officials in Tyler said most of the city’s 2,200 rooms were already booked.
Perry has already activated 7,500 members of the Texas National Guard and issued a disaster declaration for 61 counties along the coast.
Areas south of Houston were less wary of Gustav. In Galveston, a city statement said there were no plans to evacuate and “pleasant weather is expected for the duration of the holiday.”
Weatherwise, Central Texans can expect hot and humid weather through the holiday weekend with temperatures reaching the high 90s by afternoon.
