The Gazette-Enterprise

SEGUIN — Nearly a year after creating a volunteer disaster planning and recovery group, county emergency management officials are still looking for volunteers — as well as local non-profits, businesses and service clubs — who can step up and help their neighbors the next time the region experiences a flood or other disaster.

Guadalupe County Volunteer Coordinator Kay Hays, who works with county Emergency Management Coordinator Dan Kinsey, spoke at a pair of quarterly meetings of the county’s Volunteer Organizations Active in Disaster to let those already involved in preparing for the county’s next emergency know she’s still looking for help — about 800 volunteers who can help their neighbors and their community in the next flooding or storm event.

The meetings were conducted so H-E-B Store Director Susan Holdman could talk to VOAD members about what her store and the H-E-B chain does to prepare for emergencies and how it helps communities where its stores are located to recover from them.

The VOAD is now rewriting its bylaws and doing other administrative housekeeping work, including applying for non-profit status and preparing for future disaster drills.

Now, Hays said, she’d like to see more volunteers — as well as groups who can provide them.

“It’s really important if you know of any organization, faith-based or otherwise who wants to get involved,” Hays told volunteers assembled at the Silver Center. “We’re trying to get everyone to the table ahead of time so we can talk about what we have so we know what we need.”

A few local churches and other groups became involved with the VOAD established last November in the wake of the response to Hurricane Ike, which devastated the Texas Coast but had only scattered effects here. Kinsey and other county officials believe they would need about 1,000 volunteers in an extreme emergency, and have recruited 200.

While officials know from past experience they can expect a good volunteer turnout in any emergency. But it would be more helpful still, officials say, to have them available in advance for planning purposes and to more fully know what resources are available in an emergency.

Hays said what the group really needs is other organizations who can register, maybe recruit or provide some volunteers and let the county know what resources they could provide — or might need — in case of an emergency.

It’s not time-intensive, Hays said.

“We have a registration form they need to fill out, and we’ll put your group on our contact list,” Hays said.

Holdman, whose Lake Placid home flooded in 2004 and who has helped H-E-B respond to hurricane emergencies on the coast, outlined what stores do to prepare for disasters and how they help their communities recover.

“I’ve helped respond to four hurricanes since I started with H-E-B,” Holdman recalled. “I participated in one disaster recovery trip to Houston to reopen a store that had been closed for a week. It absolutely touches your heart. I’m a changed person.”

Such a response is more effort than it might first appear.

H-E-B has its own Emergency Operations Center, and it coordinates its recovery efforts with state and local officials.

H-E-B prepares for an emergency, when it has advance notice, by running down the stock of non-essential and perishable items to free up shelf space for staples.

“In the event of an emergency, we can get products folks need in hours, not just days or weeks later,” Holdman said.

To keep stores operating, H-E-B has a fleet of semi trucks and tankers, and a fleet of generators established in 2005 and expanded in the wake of Hurricane Ike in 2008. The chain even has its own water treatment plants that can be trucked to a store if needed.

It also has a mobile pharmacy and business center that can be placed on a store parking lot — along with a mobile shower and bunkhouse for H-E-B employees, which the chain calls partners.

It includes a drug store stocked with 800 of the most commonly required prescriptions, a Western Union, an ATM machine and a check-cashing facility.

“We’re serious about heading back into a community, and trying to get those centers up and running,” Holdman said. For more information about H-E-B, log on to www.heb.com .

For information on VOAD, contact Kay Hays at 830-303-9702 or by e-mail at kay.hays(at)co.guadalupe.tx.us .

Share | Save | Mail | Print | Comment

Bringing Life To Your Doorstep Since 1888

A Southern Newspapers publication.