Travis County Commissioners Court
September 16, 2008
Item 2
Number 2 is consider and take appropriate action on assistance Travis County and residents may provide to persons affected by hurricane ike including, a, update from emergency services and health and human services departments on impact of hurricane and need for assistance; b, ratification of county judge's authorization for health and human services department to provide emergency food to noncounty residents through Travis County community centers; and b, in response to a briefing and communications with staff, I did authorize health and human services to go ahead and prepare for the distribution of food we received from the food bank to needy persons. Namely, evacuees. And we did that, right?
>> that is correct, judge. And the -- the need for approval and ratification by the court is that some persons who may be served she have been served were noncounty residents. As you know our policies require that we serve residents of Travis County.
>> and that food basically comes to us from the food bank.
>> it does. It comes to us at no additional cost, and on last week we needed to be able to authorize the food bank to be able to publicize our locations. And so that was necessary for us to have permission to provide that information and say that we would engage in that process. So that was the reason we needed such a speedy approval on that particular process. It's important to note that the food bank is continuing to serve persons who have been impacted by hurricane ike but also they are continuing to serve their partner agencies who routinely help our residents with food items. And so the food bank is quite busy and much in need of donations to continue this process. And we can talk about that a little more before we finish.
>> as far as the food bank is concerned, let's say that I'm a person that left from the flooded area down in galveston, houston, and I'm here in Travis County. Let's say that I am in need of food, for example. Where would I go to acquire the necessary items to tide me over until everything is taken care of in the area? Is there a location specifically designated for the relief that will be made available from what we're doing here today, is there an address, per se? Or how does that work?
>> all of the Travis County community centers and that information is available on our website. It is available on channel 17. It is available by calling our office at 854-4100.
>> repeat that number.
>> okay. It would be 854, 4100. And taking into consideration that many of our -- our visitors may have phones outside of the 512 area code that they probably need to dial 512. So it would be 512-854, 4100. Just with a few minimal questions we could determine where you are in our community and which community center would be closest to you. So certainly they may access the Travis County community centers. There is -- the food bank at 8201 south congress a and multiple partners who are also receiving items from the food bank and the food bank could provide an additional list or information about other locations across the community.
>> okay. Thank you.
>> move approval of b that we ratify the judge's decision to authorize basically distribution of food to noncounty residents through the county community centers. Only b.
>> second.
>> seconded by Commissioner Davis. Discussion? All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. And on c, recommendations from staff to waive certain policies or provide additional services to affected person.
>> and this is sort of a continuation of our discussion in that because our policies require us to serve persons who are within Travis County, we are requesting the waiver of certain policies at this time through October 31. Those specific policies include the residency requirement which basically states that persons have lived in Travis County for at least 60 days and have intent to remain. And you would find that even for state programs that intent to remain language is a part of the policy or eligibility requirements. And so we would ask that there are portion of our policy be waived. We would also ask what the court waive that requirement for social service providers who might use county funds to serve evacuees. At this point we are not completely updated on what fema will be providing so we are just not sure what our community may have to supply in terms of response to this event. The second request has to do with income requirements. For the most part, our policies require documentation of a person's last 30 days of income in order for us to determine eligibility. We know that from our experience with katrina that folks often don't have information that would allow us to sufficiently determine their income. And certainly not documents that would satisfy that requirement. So for this period of time we would ask that we be able to take clients' statements and basically they will complete a form that would attest to what their income is and not require specific documentation of income. And that would also be true of persons who might be host families. They may be local and have documentation, but they may not have documentation for the persons that they may be hosting in their homes. So we are requesting a waiver of that requirement until October 31st.
>> but we do try to connect the applicant for assistance to hurricane ike.
>> yes, absolutely. We do and we do have that information as well that we can share. We do try to connect them with the red cross. We do try to connect them with fema. Because that will be their most long-term and sustainable assistance, but we do recognize that food specifically, and that's specifically what we're discussing at this point, emergency food, and then food vouchers which we could anticipate from persons who might have special dietary needs that we might not be able to satisfy from our food pantry, we might see a few requests for food vouchers. Just so you know, as of today we have served 10 households with food, donated food, and we've served 37 individuals with donated food. So we do have folks who are needing to come and access these services through our community centers.
>> questions?
>> the other thing is we could probably help them save money by not having to go out and buy bottled water. We might let them know that our water is one of the best and fluoride, great for children's teeth. And so we might save them a little bit of money that way. I think I've seen people walking out buying bottled water. And maybe they can save that money.
>> yes, ma'am, and bottled water is part of the boxed food items that they are receiving from the capital area food bank.
>> I think the city of Austin has a policy, though, that we need to reduce our use of bottled water.
>> they do.
>> and we are partners with the city of Austin.
>> do we know -- do we know or have any inkling of the number of persons that have been affected from hurricane ike residing here in Travis County now that are looking for services? Has there been any type of effort to tally the number of persons that need to be served here in Austin or the other communities? I'm quite sure there are pockets of persons in the community that are needing services, but it just -- I'm just basically just fishing to see what that number, ballpark, whatever it may be, that we are really looking at right now. Looking for these services.
>> well, I know mr. Baldwin has the census on those remaining in shelters. Unfortunately there's really no way to know how many families are hosting residents from the coast across our community. I think we know that it's a tremendous amount, but a number, I don't know that we have --
>> I understand there are folks that have, you know, loved ones here, relatives that they are kind of moved in to kind of take up some of the effort. But just as far as the folks that are relying on our public facilities and -- that was a kind of tally I was looking to, not for the private situation, just the public because the other is probably unknown. But it would be good to know that if at all possible. And again also, within this item itself, and I understand it's just basically to -- judge, I guess I'm in the line with the way the item is posted as far as what I'm requesting, but has there been a farout cry for volunteers? They say it's about a shortage of 200 needed volunteers to help assist in all of these things. My question to you is is there a telephone number for those folks that want to volunteer, help serve, to meet some of the needs of the persons that's requiring these services? Is there a telephone number for volunteer persons within Travis County?
>> yes, sir. We're encouraging residents who are interested in volunteering to contact the red cross. And the red cross has indicated that they would request that persons not actually present at the shelters, but that they would either contact them at (512)928-4271. That number is also available on 800 exchange, 89284271. Or through their website, which has actual documents that volunteers would fill out to begin the process, and that is www.centex.red cross.org. If, so we are directing folks to the red cross for those volunteer opportunities.
>> okay.
>> move that we -- staff recommends waive the county's requirement regarding residency and documentation of income in order to facilitate our aiding victims of hurricane ike.
>> second, judge.
>> those two will get it?
>> those two will get it.
>> there will be an order for us -- for the court to sign, probably a one-pager, later today? One-pager, two-paragrapher. Any more discussion of that motion? All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. Can I just put the court on notices of one thing. State constable chief precinct 3 and his folk have been assisting our guests to transfer from schools to burger center and other facilities. You know, schools were closed over the weekend so using them was fairly easy. You know, with school starting back yesterday, they have to be transferred to other places. Stacy's note basically is in order for them to keep assisting, they will will to pay overtime and he's not sure their budget will cover that the rest of the fiscal year. And I told him that I thought the court would want us to assist as much as we can. For example, yesterday I think a few hundred folk were moved from mcneil high school to burger center because mcneil students were there. And the problem is nobody knows exactly how long this may continue. They don't think it will continue for months, but it certainly may continue for weeks instead of the days, as we thought, right?
>> that is correct.
>> because some of the areas that they would return to basically are still without electricity, heavy flooding, a whole lot of damage.
>> and very long gas lines.
>> the officials there are saying don't come back home yet. I told them I thought being put on notice is sufficient and if this budget does run short or any of the other constables, then we would understand and step in.
>> okay.
>> and if we may, judge, Commissioners, health and human services personnel are being utilized in the shelters, specifically the medical special needs shelter which up until yesterday was at the Austin convention center. It has now been moved to the pickle center. But we are also along with the city of Austin providing staffing for the medical special needs shelter as well as a general population shelter that is set up now at the Austin convention center. And so we are doing the best that we can to maintain our operations as well as provide that backup staffing for -- for those services necessary at the convention center and other sites. I don't know if pete wants to speak to that at all.
>> yes, I was just going to give you an update of what's been going on because at the height of this, this was a very difficult storm to deal w we chased fromth from brownsville to beaumont. It was up and down the coast. People would evacuate and return home. We started receiving our first evacuees on Thursday. It at one point in time we had upwards of 22 shelters open with about 64 to 6500 people in it. That fluctuated all the time. As of today, consolidation will be complete. The mcneil is being consolidated today. We will have it down to five shelters. One city-owned facility -- actually -- yeah, one city-owned facility, two aisd facilities, one u.t. Facility and one marks i.s.d. Facility. Our total population this morning as of 5:00, what we call head bed count, was 1,809.
>> repeat that number.
>> 1,809 in our shelters. So we -- we have seen this number sort of drop. We will see a more continued drop once they open up those zip codes south of i-10, primarily southeast of houston is where it's impacted and they are not allowing people back in. Our intent is to -- we now have it down to five shelters, of which we are now trying to man. All of these have been pre-planned. All of our laugh is pre-planned, it's in the capital area plan who is responsible for what shelters. And I must say that between sherry's folks, the sheriff's office, the county has had a very large presence in this operation even though we don't wind up on t.v. Quite as much as some of the rest of them do. But we've been there and providing our support the whole time. With that being said, we are determining what our long-term needs are. We know the convention center will not be available very much longer, up until the 25th or 28th, I can't remember which date on that one. So we will be looking at options for that population, which is the greatest population that we're housing right now. We were waiting to hear from fema to see what their plans are, how they are going to assist, and once we find that we can better make plans on what to do with our long-term personnel. Because as the Commissioners all realize and judge, it could be 10 days, it could be six weeks, we just don't know what it's going to take to be able to let these people return home.
>> are we still using the exposition center?
>> that exposition center as of yesterday afternoon had six horses in it. And the reason -- all six of those belonged to one individual and the reason they were still there is because one of those horses was sick and was taken to a george town vet and we're waiting for that to recover. They said it would be today or tomorrow before they will pull out and we will be through over there. We didn't have that large animal influx this time. I think we had upwards of 15 horses at one point, but we still have a few there, but they are waiting on this one so they can travel.
>> and we would like to mention that our partnership with a&medical and the extension has been responsible for large animal sheltering so they have been engaged throughout this process and worked with us really well so we want to appreciate them as well. Just a few final points. Any persons that might be listening to us are strongly encouraged to register with fema if they are from the impacted areas. And so that number is 800-621-3362. If you require services for deaf or hard of hearing persons, that tty access is available at 800-462-7585. You may register online at www.fema.gov. And for our residents who may be wondering how they can help, the capital area food bank continues to need donations of pop-top meats, peanut butter, personal hygiene items and bottled water. Those donations currently are being accepted 24 hours. If you drop those items off they would be most appreciated.
>> as far as the bottled water, you can refill the bottle from the tap after you drink it.
>> cash contributions I guess are welcome.
>> cash contributions are welcome and may be facilitated through the food bank's website. That is www.austinfoodbank.org. We will be getting this information up on our website so folks may link to it if they are looking for information. Also any evacuees who are looking for services, the hurricane hotline is still up and that number is 974-1110. So that's the hurricane hotline, 974-1110.
>> judge, one thing too is had capital area shelter hub plan has been a work in progress and we'll continue to develop as we see how to improve it. But we have to thanks our partners in hays county, Williamson county, the city of Austin, all of school districts, and I'm not about to even try to name all the ones who participated who without that we would not have that ability to take in these evacuees. We've had to go behind some closed doors every now and then after long stressful days and have discussion, but as we come out, we know what our common goal is and we've come to that point. I just want to say that it is a good thing that we are doing and it has worked well.
>> can I ask a quick question? In regard to those in the shelter who are facing the possibility of having to stay a good number of more days than they anticipated, it's my understanding -- I wanted to make sure I was correct, that if one ring stories for fema, even if you have insurance, fema could ultimately be able to reimburse you for hotel expenses if you needed to go to a hotel?
>> at this point all we are aware of is the potential benefits that may be available, but we've learned through katrina that it gets down to very specifics of individual homeowners and their specific property situation. And so I would say that every person who is in our area who is impacted should register with fema and work with them on an individual basis about what they may or may not be eligible for because it really varies from person to person.
>> get through with the damage assessment, we won't be getting those hard and firm rules. There may be housing assistance, there may be hotel assistance, we just don't know until they get pretty well through with their damage assessment.
>> as far as those who are stranded here with children, with school-aged children, is there any opportunities, are there any opportunities for parents with children to get their kids into a -- school had just started and I know that the children are out of sorts with not having some structure. Are there any opportunities there for parents?
>> Commissioner, on yesterday county and city health and human services staff sort of met four our planning on the social services response, the movement that we're having right now to consolidate enough shelters and to identify things such as school attendance and all of that. So we are making those contacts with our partners in the community. There's a meeting this afternoon with fema that we hope and pray we will have lots more information about, you know, the immediate long-term plan, if there is such a thing, and so we will be bring in our local supports once we have that information. But right now the evacuee population is sort of in flux because of this consolidation happening between the shelters so we're hoping to have that settled down, we know where everyone is so we can figure out how to make the necessary connection with school, child care, a hundred other things we know they will need.
>> any other action required of us today?
>> no, sir. We may want to ask that we have an item that will allow us to come back before you next week to give you an update and also should there be situations that we need to request further assistance, we would have that opportunity.
>> request granted.
The Closed Caption log for this Commissioners Court agenda item is provided by Travis County Internet Services. Since this file is derived from the Closed Captions created during live cablecasts, there are occasional spelling and grammatical errors. This Closed Caption log is not an official record the Commissioners Court Meeting and cannot be relied on for official purposes. For official records please contact the County Clerk at (512) 854-4722.
Last Modified:
Tuesday, September 16, 2008 2:37 AM