Cities focus on emergency preparedness for local businesses From the cover
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Two-minute impact
The city of Bee Cave hosted their quarterly Business Roundtable meeting in January, where they discussed emergency preparedness with approximately 50 business owners, Bee Cave Mayor Kara King said. Austin Energy, Lake Travis Fire Rescue and You- sofzoy answered questions, provided resources and tips at the meeting, Yousofzoy said. King said she felt it was important for Bee Cave to up the level of engagement with local business owners. She said the meeting helped business owners to understand the utility aspect as it pertains to emergency situations. “We want them to feel supported in case they did have to shut their businesses down for a few days [due to an emergency situation],” King said. The most important thing business owners can do for themselves is to sign up on the Voyent Alert system, Yousofzoy said. “We’re trying to do our due diligence by making sure they’re able to be in the system and get those important messages,” she said.
role, Abbott said. The biggest challenge for LTFR during Winter Storm Uri was ensuring the re stations remained functional and online with the number of utility challenges, Abbott said. “The entire team rose to the needs and adapted to the challenges,” he said. “During the peak of the event, we had anywhere from 40-50 reghters on duty at any time, around the clock.” Winter Storm Mara hit in January 2023, just a couple of months after Yousofzoy began serving in the position, she said. Yousofzoy said communication is key when it comes to emergency management in a disaster situation. “I don’t think anybody was expecting Storm Mara to occur,” she said. “We utilized Voyent— the cities’ alert system—a lot to prepare the community.”
The three cities decided to create one position to oversee emergency management after Lake Travis Fire Rescue approached them with the idea of hiring an emergency management coordinator in late 2019, LTFR Fire Chief Robert Abbott said. Abbott said since LTFR oversees the three cities, it would make sense for the emergency management coordinator to all serve the same area. Lakeway City Council approved the creation of the position in June 2020, according to prior reporting by Community Impact . The rst emergency management coordinator, Paul Harvey, was hired in April 2021. “Winter Storm Uri absolutely highlighted the need for a full-time, professionally trained and accomplished EMC,” Abbott said. Prior to the hiring of the emergency management coordinator, LTFR served in the
Four factors of emergency management
Response using available resources to meet needs in a disaster situation
Recovery long-range support of restoring the community to predisaster conditions
Mitigation/prevention actions taken to prevent an incident from occurring
Preparedness planning, training, outreach and public education to create awareness of potential dangers
Around 50 business owners gathered in January to discuss emergency preparedness.
SOURCE: CITY OF LAKEWAYCOMMUNITY IMPACT
COURTESY CITY OF BEE CAVE
22
COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM
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