JUDGE: Staying strong in Milam County
This last week was exactly the sort of event we think about when we have Emergency Management training like we did on Jan. 24. There is never a way to tell what will happen, when something will happen, or what the dangers will be. But this last week Milam County became the epicenter of Winter Storm Mara and while many folks suffered from its affects, Milam County Stood Strong, worked hard, and braved this storm – together!
During our recent training, it was stressed to those in attendance what I like to call the “Rule of 72.” This means it might take 72 minutes in case of an accident or 72 hours in the case of a disaster before outside help comes. During that initial time it is imperative that we work together and rely on each other to meet our needs until outside resources and manpower arrives to help us through. That’s what we did.
For the first two days we worked together as a county to keep our fellow Milam County folks safe and secure. On Wednesday morning I filed a Disaster Declaration with the state to expedite resources being moved around and into Milam County. Then, sometime Thursday evening we began to see the reinforcements from outside Milam County that helped us get our power on, water restored, phones back up, and begin a return to normal life so we can start the clean-up.
As I write this, there are still some folks who are waiting for their power to be restored but be assured that we are working on this and talking to the power companies to make sure they understand how serious we take this. What has happened has not gone unnoticed by regional and state authorities and I plan to make it a priority that this isn’t soon forgotten either. We will work to find ways to make sure our local electrical grid is better handled in the future.
There are so many people to thank that I fear naming names as I don’t want to leave anyone out. From law enforcement, to first responders, fire departments, county and city employees, electrical linemen, and all the volunteers who offered their parishes, buildings, and homes as warming stations; the list is too long to include everyone here, but everyone seemed to pitch in, and we took care of ourselves until the help arrived.
I would also like to thank U.S. House Representative Pete Sessions and State House Representative Stan Gerdes for taking the time to call and then working with us to secure help outside the area. A special thanks to the folks at the Texas Division of Emergency Management also came in to help us coordinate and get our Emergency Operations Center up and running.
The state also has a program available for property and business owners to log in damages and help evaluate the situation to help us in the future. Please try it out and add your voice to the process. The site can be found at https://damage.tdem.texas.gov/
In the next week we will be having some After-Action Reviews and looking what worked, what didn’t work, and what we can do in the future to be better prepared. In the end, we did a pretty good job as a small rural county in handling this event; however, we will look at ways to improve and make Milam County the safest place possible for us all.