San Antonio, Bexar County leaders actively preparing for hurricane season, feel ready

SAN ANTONIO – Bexar County and San Antonio leaders have been preparing for hurricane season while acknowledging the city’s pivotal role as a key evacuation center during emergencies.

“Fortunately where we are in San Antonio, we don’t often see the direct negative weather impacts of hurricanes, but what we do have a lot of times is being an evacuation center for the entire gulf coast,” Joe Arrington, public information officer for SAFD said.

Arrington said local leaders have been preparing for hurricane season for months, recognizing the city’s history as a crucial evacuation center during emergencies.

“Working with the Texas Department of Emergency Management, we coordinate efforts to shelter those individuals; say they need to leave the Corpus Christi area of Galveston. We’ve received them in the past from Louisiana to the Mexico border in Texas,” Arrington said.

The city has also offered shelter to emergency responders.

“The emergency responders that are coming in to go towards where the damage is, so the urban search and rescue teams, the red cross teams, we offer shelter or a place to stage,” Arrington said.

During a major weather event, the Emergency Operations Center at Brooks is activated.

“If they city needs to send a message it happened during COVID, sometimes it happens during inclement weather that is all controlled here,” Arrington said.

The center features various rooms, where city and county officials and leaders of different organizations can strategize and coordinate.

“Say an event happens and a hurricane enters the coast, and we see that we will receive some evacuees here, this place will fully become operational. Everyone that you can think of that may be needed will come here, fire department, police department, all the hospitals,” Arrington said.

Arrington said to listen to your local weather and stay aware of what’s happening.

“If we get heavy rains from the outer bands of a hurricane, we are going to get flash flooding. That’s just a reality of where we live. Don’t go through the flooded roads, have back up batteries,” Arrington said.

You can also prepare now by having an emergency kit, reviewing your flood insurance, safeguarding critical documents and learning evacuation routes.

Here is a link to the city’s flood preparedness guide.