Update: Communication Partner Update: Texas 8/22 Floods DR 793-23 08/28/22 10:00

[Kevin_McCoy]

Our hearts go out to all those that have been impacted by the recent Texas Floods.

We started a State Wide Disaster Relief effort DR 793-23 about 9 days ago due to a storm in the Bay of Campeche, residual flooding in the Nueces River, and alarming rain accumulation forecasts from the National Weather Service covering much of Texas. As things evolved the major impacts were in North Texas within Dallas and Tarrant counties suffering the bulk of the dwelling damage.

Detailed Damage Assessment Dashboard TX 8/22 Floods > 450 in person assessments

We use an ESRI based tool called RC View for mapping, and a mobile app - Survey 123 to gather detailed damage assessment.

We also have access to the data from TDEM https://gov.texas.gov/news/post/governor-abbott-issues-disaster-declaration-for-statewide-flood-response for self reporting, and can use that to assess percent completion, together with data collected from Emergency Response Vehicle Drivers, Calls to local offices, and calls to 1-800-RED-CROSS…

Weather: Weather and river levels seem to be moving towards normal for the present. No threats are expected over the next several days of the operation.

Completed:

• Sheltering is complete and all shelters are closed.
• Detailed Damage Assessment is complete. From here on we do “Hot Shots” in case of a dispute or new property is discovered in casework.
  
  Serving Impacted Clients - Balch Springs Recovery Center at Balch Springs Rec Center

In progress:

We have shifted to the recovery phase and client service is our main effort.

• Casework Teams began opening cases for impacted residents in the Balch Springs, Mesquite, and Greater DFW areas.

• A Recovery Center has been set up at the Balch Springs Recreation Center, and

• mobile teams met at the Dallas and Fort Worth offices before heading into the field to meet with clients.

• Support includes financial ( on Major Damage/destroyed), health, mental health, spiritual care, Disaster Emergency Supplies, information, and referrals.
  

Government and partnerships:

• We have been sharing resource lists with other partners so that we can advise clients on resources available. (VOAD - Volunteer Organizations Active in Disaster)
• We continue to liaise with the State SOC which remains at Level III activation.

I expect that the formal Disaster Relief effort will transition to Long Term Recovery, and back to steady state chapter operations & resources possibly as early as next week.

Warehouse Operation:

A short Facebook video on our warehouse operation south of DFW https://fb.watch/fbesyc2gL3/

Best

Kevin McCoy

Lead Disaster Services Technology Tactical Winlink TXRCHOU-DST

Digivol / @KF5FUZ TXRCAUS-DST

American Red Cross

[Kevin_McCoy]

Greg and Jeff,

A few days ago we did an audit of our properties with the state self reporting tool and discovered about 40 properties that we are doing detailed damage assessment on.

We have also participated in Multi-Agency Resource Centers and Recovery Centers, that allows us to gather together Government and Non-Profit organizations active in disaster into a single location, so that in one stop folks can get all the available services and active organizations in one place to get help. Sometimes folks have a special consideration, such as being a veteran, and this can help them navigate the organizations that can provide them special service and support.

The MARC today as yesterday will focus on Dallas County. However impacted folks can still get service by calling 1-800-RED-CROSS.

The volume of requests is slowing down, and casework is diminishing, so we will be demobilizing the special resources and transitioning back to normal operations on Friday 9/2.

That does not mean we stop, just that we are moving back to steady state resources, so response may be slower as these steady state Disaster Relief resources also handle home fire response, etc. So it behooves anyone with dwelling damage to reach out to us ASAP so we can reach them while we have more and dedicated special disaster relief resources from around the state assigned to this specific disaster.

Here is hoping that all of your members get enough rain to bust the drought, but not enough to have to call us!

Best

Kevin @KF5FUZ

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