The beds are gone now, and the trailer is set up to be ready for anything, from a wildfire to a flood to the aftermath of a tornado to the heart of a criminal scene.
Wichita County Emergency Management Coordinator Lee Bourgoin pointed to radar and mapping images on a computer screen — images that can also appear on any of the three TV screens in the unit — and demonstrated how they can help emergency officials know what’s happening when every second counts.
On Wednesday, the community had a chance to check out that equipment and more inside Wichita County’s new mobile command post/communications unit.
The time had come for a new unit. The one the county had before was similar to a delivery van, and wasn’t mechanically fit for the trips it needed to make, Bourgoin said. It had a hard time making it down the road. Plus, he added, the old one didn’t offer much room to move around. He touched a dinette table that sits in the center room of the new unit, and said that was about all the space the old one provided.
He got an e-mail letting him know about excess trailers from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. These trailers did not have issues with formaldehyde, and were extra and available, so the county took the steps to get one.
Wichita County put forth $3,600. Bourgoin pulled together what money the emergency management budget could spare, the Emergency Planning Committee pitched in some, and a donation came from Hotter’N Hell. Amateur radio operators put in hours upon hours of work to lay out the unit.
It took plenty of work to get it to this point, and that included getting input from a lot of agencies to make sure it would work for everyone, Bourgoin said.
It came ready for a camping trip, he said, and that’s when the real work began to transform it into what it is now.
To buy a new unit set up for emergency operations, it would cost somewhere between $60,000 and $75,000, Bourgoin estimated.
About $20,000 is invested in this one, and less than $5,000 of that came from taxes, he said. Nonprofits and donations took care of the rest.
“I think this thing is going to work just fine,” he said. The new mobile unit is designed to help when an emergency strikes in the rural parts of the county, but it’s not confined to those areas. If Sheppard Air Force Base or Wichita Falls asks for its help, if it’s available, it will be on its way. It will also be able to help in Archer and Clay counties.
There will be guidelines in place for it, and Bourgoin anticipates that when emergency officials project that a scene will last for more than two to three hours, they’ll use the mobile unit.
Right now, it doesn’t have a designated pull vehicle and will rely on Bourgoin’s truck. Once there is a pull vehicle specifically for this trailer, the sheriff’s office and amateur radio operators have offered to help with hauling it to scenes. While it would take longer to get it somewhere now, when everything is in place, it should be able to be up and running in an hour or less.
Bourgoin brought up the wildfires that have plagued North Texas in recent weeks and said the unit could go out when scenes such as those happen.
It has broadband connections and two phone lines dedicated to it, as well as a generator, so it can go out to scenes and work as it’s supposed to without delays waiting for phone or electrical services to be hooked up.
It has e-mail, fax and printing capabilities, a DVD recorder and player and a list of other equipment.
David Gaines, who is the amateur radio emergency coordinator for the county, pointed out the ham radios and the commercial radios inside the unit, as well as the table, couch and chairs that sit in the back room. That section can serve as a quiet meeting space when necessary, he said.
He also mentioned the generous donation from Hotter’N Hell, and said that the unit provides a mobile facility with enough space. Emergency officials will be able to take it where they need it to help coordinate efforts during an emergency, he said.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Jessica Langdon
Quelle/Source: Times Record News, 07.08.2008
