By Scott Harvey
– Emergency crews and South Texas residents are preparing for Hurricane Alex to make landfall.
Over 500 first responders and over 100 boats are ready to respond, should there be flooding. The National Hurricane Center says the Category 1 storm is the first June Atlantic hurricane since 1995. The Alamo Regional Command Center has been activated, with 100 buses for evacuation on standby.
Area counties are preparing for the possibility of housing evacuees, should coastal residents be displaced and choose to head this way.
According to Rockwall County Emergency Management Coordinator Joe Delane, evacuees would first be sent to distribution areas, with the closest being in Mesquite, before being sent to a shelter. But he says based on where the storm is expected to make landfall there may not be as many residents traveling this far.
"Our region serves as the evacuee station for areas like Galveston and Houston," Delane said. "If they're [the state is] evacuating people down in Brownsville and Padre Island, they would be more likely to go to somewhwere like San Antonio."
In 2008, thousands of evacuees for the Louisiana, Galveston and Houston areas sought shelter throughout Northeast Texas following Hurricane's Gustav and Ike.