Travis County Commissioners Court
April 12, 2005
Item A1
A 1 consider and take appropriate on the following, a response from governor's division of emergency management to request to have Travis County declared a federal disaster area under fema guidelines as a result of damage sustained on Friday, March 25, 2005; and b. Recommendations from governor's division of emergency management regarding other possible relief.
>> good afternoon, pete baldwin, Travis County emergency management coordinator. As requested and reported to the court last week, we did go back out with the state division of emergency management and review our initial assessment damage. Once again, we did not meet that threshold for sba designation, nor did we meet it certainly for the presidential disaster declaration. However since then we've had discuss with central volunteer organizations here in central Texas, and we do have a meeting scheduled for 9:30 Thursday morning to see if we can address some of the long-term needs for these individuals. I do also know that the -- that the sheriff's office, victims services, have been working very diligently with some of these clients to see what they can do to assist. What we are going to do is put together, get this central Texas voad together and see what we can do to address some of these needs for these individuals since they will not be -- there will be any state or federal assistance coming.
>> pete, what's an example of a long-term need?
>> well, anything that was -- we would consider a short-term need, I need some dry clothes, I need my prescriptions filled, I lost my glasses. Something like that. We consider those short-term needs. But when we start talking about long-term needs, we are talking about repairs, damage repairs, replacement of -- of major items, maybe that were lost, appliances, tv's, things, bedding. However, red cross usually comes in and replaces mattresses very quickly. But we take a look at those and long-term recovery these can also include the mental health aspect of it. If there were mental health trauma, due to some of these storms. So we'll be looking at all of those aspects when we ask the central Texas voad to take a look at these, see what we can do to address it.
>> okay. So the first piece of news is that -- is that after consulting and getting the cooperation of the appropriate state -- yes, sir.
>> -- officials, a determination has been made that we do not meet the threshold of having $25 million of uninsured loss.
>> right.
>> but there may be other -- other relief available and so we'll spend the next couple of weeks, you think?
>> we will spend at least the next couple of weeks identifying that. I had visited with a couple of the residents out in littig earlier this week and I have not had a chance to talk to pastor wilson of the shilo baptist chufnlg, he has -- church, he has recommended and was recommended to be our point of contact to assist us in determining needs in that community and then we will work through some of the other agencies in the western part over around the hudson bend area to make sure we address those.
>> okay. So they ought to keep working with you.
>> yes, sir.
>> I guess if they have what they consider to be a long-term need, they need to call that to our attention, but we will able to get assistance --
>> we will be including in that meeting, also, I wanted to ask the housing services department of the county, because I know they have some programs, although they have indicated that some of these people are already participants, we want to explore all of those options, also.
>> okay. Should we have this back on in two weeks, three weeks or --
>> I would think two weeks will give us a chance to actually put together some numbers and figures for you.
>> all right. We'll have it back on April 26th. We appreciate your dedication and hard work, et cetera.
>> thank you, sir.
>> thank you, pete.
>> any questions of pete?
>> thank you very much. We'll have it back on in two weeks.
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Last Modified:
Wednesday, April 13, 2005 10:09 AM