Hamilton County Emergency Management
NEW NON-EMERGENCY NO. (254)-386-3300
Planning for Emergencies and Disasters in Texas
In Texas, Mayors and County Judges have responsibility for emergency preparedness and response within their local jurisdictions. These officials may appoint an Emergency Management Coordinator (EMC) to manage day-to-day program activities. Local emergency management and homeland security programs include threat identification and prevention activities, emergency planning, providing or arranging training for local officials and emergency responders, planning and conducting drills and exercises, carrying out public education relating to known hazards, designing and implementing hazard mitigation programs, coordinating emergency response operations during incidents and disasters, and carrying out recovery activities in the aftermath of a disaster.
Local emergency management and homeland security organizations may be organized at the city level, at the county level or as an inter-jurisdictional program that includes one or more counties and multiple cities. Local emergency management organizations may be organized as part of the Mayor or County Judge's staff, as a separate office or agency, as part of the local fire department or law enforcement agency, or in other ways. Local emergency management and homeland security agencies may be identified as emergency management offices or agencies, homeland security offices or agencies, or some combination of the two.
Most local governments have an Emergency Operations Center (EOC) staffed by members of its various departments that is activated to manage the response to major threats and incidents and coordinate internal and external resource support. Some local governments have an alternate or mobile EOC as well. Most local governments use the Incident Command System (ICS) as their incident management scheme. Under ICS, an Incident Commander typically directs the on-scene response by local responders from a field command post set up at or near the incident site. Responders from other jurisdictions and state and federal responders that have been called on to assist when local resources are inadequate to deal with a major emergency are integrated into the local incident command system.
Lacy Alexander is the Emergency Management Director in Hamilton County.