Hurricane Dean had made its way past the Lesser Antilles and was moving rapidly toward the Gulf of Mexico. "All storm projections at that point showed the entire Texas coast well within the storm's projected path," said Krista Moody, deputy press secretary for Texas Gov. Rick Perry.
But unlike in hurricanes Rita and Katrina, officials would not be caught off-guard this time.
On August 17, President George W. Bush declared a state of emergency in Texas, days before Hurricane Dean was predicted to strike the Gulf Coast, United Press International reported. Federal aid would supplement state and local response to the impending disaster.
But Texas officials weren't waiting to be rescued.
On the same day, Perry declared Hurricane Dean an "imminent threat" to Texas, initiating full-scale hurricane preparedness efforts -- including deployment of 5,000 Texas National Guard troops and more than 1,000 paramedics, police officers and firefighters, according to the governor's office. Public safety officials reported that at least 25,000 people would be involved in the mobilization effort.
"With the potential of another major storm entering the Gulf of Mexico and threatening the Texas coast, now is the time to begin mobilizing our resources and implementing our plan to ensure an orderly response before landfall," Perry said at a press conference that day. "As we continue to monitor Hurricane Dean, the state is preparing to deploy ample resources, manpower and equipment to meet any potential need to ensure the safety of Texas residents."
It's no secret now that Dean never landed on Texas ground. However, that didn't stop Texas emergency management officials from executing their plan to evacuate more than 100,000 residents, distribute millions of gallons of fuel throughout the state, and secure more than 3,000 buses from across the nation.
Collaboration is Key
In contrast to Rita, where the private sector participated in the relief effort but wasn't integral in planning the response, officials point to the private sector's role as instrumental in their success this time around.
"When it comes to the storage and distribution of commodities -- fuel, water, ice, pharmaceuticals, diapers -- the private sector does it best," said Steven McCraw, Texas Homeland Security director. "Although we had worked closely with the private sector [during Rita], we had not partnered with the private sector and organized our response capability around them to leverage their expertise."
Now, McCraw said, when the governor's Emergency Management Council is activated in anticipation of a hurricane, private-sector partners are called together to begin their support functions.
Using a unified command structure, where all participants -- federal, state and local -- are under one command, Texas Emergency Management Chief Jack Colley was able to coordinate with a host of agencies and local governments so that the response was "seamless."
"The size and scope of this operation ... we couldn't have done this any other way," he said.
Instructive Exercise
One success experienced was the use of a fuel operations group -- made up of 24 providers throughout the state -- that helped monitor fuel demand and move fuel through the retail system. During the Dean exercise, it moved 4 million gallons of fuel to stations up and down the state.
"That went very right for us," Colley said.
Also going right was the operations group's ability to move another 400,000 gallons of fuel to the responders in the field -- the 3,000 buses, 300 ambulances and other assorted personnel.
Colley said the operation's primary focus centered on the Texas coast and, specifically, the Rio Grande Valley.
"[The valley] is a very dynamic area, no resources are there, and our biggest challenge is the large number of people who need assistance in evacuating," Colley said. "So everything had to be brought to them."
It's also a 10-hour bus ride round-trip, through rocky terrain, just to get to the counties and back, let alone the extra time it takes to evacuate people, so officials started their rescue mission early.
School districts throughout the state stepped up, no questions asked, and sent fleets of buses to San Antonio, while commercial providers throughout the nation did the same.
Using San Antonio as a staging area, officials checked buses for safety and sent them on their way -- about 1,500 of them, with another 1,500 on stand-by, through Cameron, Hidalgo and Willacy counties. Their initial charge: Pick up 133,500 people who -- because they are elderly, disabled or car-less -- couldn't evacuate on their own. Of those, 9,000 are considered to have special needs, and another 1,600 are non-ambulatory. Three hundred ambulances followed. Residents in need had been identified in the previous year and a half through the statewide 211 registry system, officials said.
"We didn't evacuate after all," Colley said. "But if the storm hadn't turned toward Mexico, we were prepared. We had planned for the worst."
Again and again, Colley stressed the coordination of the fuel delivery system and the transportation of evacuation buses as being two major successes in the operation.
The Texas Department of Transportation began displaying public service announcements urging residents to keep their gas tanks full.
"The use of our fuel group to ensure there's no shortage is key," Colley said, "so citizens can take care of themselves and make the decision that when it's time to leave, they can leave."
As for those who can't, "The collaboration statewide with school districts to provide school buses -- having that capability now really adds to the success we can have in evacuating people who cannot evacuate themselves," Colley added.
Capt. Tom Polonis of the San Antonio Police Department served as regional commander for the Alamo Regional Command Center during the Dean response, supervising more than 600 law enforcement personnel and directing work at the staging area.
Because of San Antonio's proximity to the Rio Grande Valley, and its large number of disabled and elderly residents, in 2005, officials there formed the Alamo All-Incident Management Team composed of area nonprofits, members of the private sector and public agencies. The team meets monthly for training and strategy sessions and, perhaps most important to the mission, Polonis said, they present a unified front.
"It's not any single organization that can handle a disaster," Polonis said, "so when we come together, the patches on the shirts stay at the door. I might represent the police department, but when I'm on the team, I represent the team. We all have to work together toward a single goal."
During the Dean response, between 40 and 50 agencies were represented -- including the American Red Cross, Salvation Army and public health services, and the local Baptist Child and Family Services was there to assist people with special needs. The San Antonio Food Bank provided meals for more than 3,000 responders. The Texas military helped stage all the buses and manage the fueling plan.
There were also more than 50 private-sector companies, including the 24 fuel providers, that were ready to help out, McCraw said.
"The one thing we didn't have with Katrina or Rita? Definitely partnering with the private sector," he said, adding that it makes a difference when trying to deploy resources quickly.
"The governor's been very clear: We don't gamble with the lives of Texans," McCraw said. "So if the Texas coast is threatened, his order is you deploy based on risk, not occurrence. That's why we started five days before [the hurricane was supposed to hit].
"Once the tropical winds arrive -- even if they're 35 mph -- you cannot move resources into an area," he added. "It's too late at that point."
That meant buses making the long trek into the Rio Grande Valley had to arrive in time to be pre-positioned in case of evacuation, as well as come equipped with resources for evacuees.
"The best lesson we learned is this: The private sector must be leveraged," McCraw said. "They're the experts, not government. We're very proud of our private sector. They're right there with us. Between Rita and Dean, it's like night and day."
Still Learning
Not everything went according to plan, and officials are already refining their response for next time.
For instance, Polonis said officials didn't realize they would have to stage the responders in San Antonio for more than 24 hours (they ended up being there for more than 48 hours), and found they didn't have enough shelter.
"We'll have to do a better job of providing enough shelter for the 3,000 bus drivers, 300 ambulance drivers -- and that's before they're sent out, and then after they get back and provide shelter until the storm passes," Polonis said. "It's something we're already working on."
The timing of the bus arrivals into the city and fueling lines needs refinement as well.
"We have to do a better job so that all the buses aren't coming into our city at once," he said. "Instead of 1,000 coming at one time, have them phased in, coming in by the hour instead. We're already working with bus contractors on that."
Those missteps aside, Polonis is confident that his state's response to Hurricane Dean was light years ahead of where they were just two years ago with Katrina and Rita -- and that's something to be proud of.
"There's no doubt about it; all the preparation we did paid off," Polonis said. "All the training paid off. To quote Jack Colley, 'All roads lead to San Antonio.' And this operation wouldn't have been possible pre-Katrina. It wouldn't have been as organized. We would have attempted it, but it would have been ugly."
For Krista Moody of Gov. Perry's office, the best lesson learned: "Texas is ready."
Amy Yannello is a journalist based in Sacramento, Calif., where she writes for several publications. She has spent nearly 20 years covering California politics, health care and health-care reform, issues of homelessness, and the public policy and treatment issues surrounding mental illness.
