The City of San Antonio and Bexar County are preparing for hurricane Harvey, and that includes providing assistance to any evacuees that will come to the Alamo City.
The city and county activated its Emergency Operations Center Thursday as the threat from Harvey grew. Weather maps on television monitors track the storms every move. Top officials are on site to make essential decisions. San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg said at a press conference, forecasters believe this could be a damaging storm.
“This storm has the potential to be a weather event that we talk about for years to come,” he said
San Antonio officials are urging people not to leave their homes this weekend unless it’s a necessity and to avoid any low water crossings.
Bexar County and San Antonio are under a disaster declaration in advance. The city is also a staging area for some of the state’s emergency resources. Nirenberg says that includes providing support to evacuees.
“We have capacity for evacuees, we have services for evacuees and we are deploying those as we speak,”he added
Emergency shelters have been set up. And buses are ready to help with transporting evacuees.
“We have received and we’ve staged over 100 buses at this point, we’re receiving more for that kind of transport,” Nirenberg said.
Evacuees are being asked go to 200 Gembler Road to be directed to shelters. You can also call 311 for assistance. Officials are asking residents to download an app called Ready South Texas to help with storm preparations.
Hurricane lanes on Interstate 37 between Corpus Christi and San Antonio are now open and its possible contraflow, where both sides of the highway move in one direction, could be activated.
