By Tracy Idell Hamilton
San Antonio Express-News
 AP Photo/Brennan Linsley A U.S. Coast Guard helicopter takes off as another is loaded in the Bahamas Tuesday. Aid has been deployed to help out the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike. |
SAN ANTONIO, Texas — As Hurricane Ike leaves Cuba behind and begins to make an expected turn toward the Texas coast, state and local emergency preparations have already hit high gear.
Gov. Rick Perry issued a disaster declaration covering 88 Texas counties Monday, including Bexar and surrounding counties, while San Antonio prepared, once again, to be the state’s major staging area for emergency personnel.
“We’re in the same mode as during (Hurricane) Gustav,” said Orlando Hernandez, Bexar County’s emergency management coordinator. “We’re preparing to accept buses, ambulances, cots, water, pillows and blankets.”
Local officials are also scoping out sites for possible shelters, Hernandez said. The shelters open for Gustav evacuees were closed last week.
One shelter is already open and prepared to house ambulance and bus drivers and other emergency personnel, and a mobile kitchen has been set up to feed the growing group. Hernandez expects about 1,300 buses and between 250 and 300 ambulances to descend on the Alamo City, where they will wait to learn if, when and where they will be deployed.
Ike is not expected to make landfall until Saturday, but state officials say they cannot wait to see which path the storm will take.
“Hurricanes by their nature are unpredictable,” Perry said, “and although we cannot predict to a certainty where Ike will make landfall, we continue to monitor this storm and prepare for any potential impact on our communities.”
Perry also requested a presidential disaster declaration for the 88 counties.
As of Monday evening, Ike was a Category 1 hurricane. Once it reaches the warmer waters of the Gulf of Mexico, however, it is expected to strengthen.
Forecasters say that over the next few days, an upper-level atmospheric disturbance moving east across the southern U.S. will disrupt the high-pressure ridge that has kept Ike moving to the west. That disturbance Monday afternoon was moving across North Texas.
Ike is expected to slow down and start drifting to the northwest as the high-pressure ridge weakens, but forecasters said they expect the quick-moving disturbance to be replaced by another ridge of high pressure across the South.
That would force Ike to take a more westward track toward Texas instead of turning north and getting caught up in the eastward flows of the upper atmosphere that prevail further north.
Federal Emergency Management Agency spokesman Peter Lembessis said FEMA officials who came here for Hurricane Gustav didn’t leave and would continue to stay in San Antonio in preparation for Hurricane Ike.
“Right now, we’re replenishing everything and we’re ready for Ike if Ike comes our way,” Lembessis said. “FEMA has not left Austin or San Antonio. Preparedness is the key. People need to be prepared. It’s better to be safe than sorry.”
Texas has also taken the following actions: 7,500 guardsmen and 19 “aerial resources” are on standby; Texas Task Forces 1 and 2, part of the Texas Engineering Extension Service, are on standby if search and rescue capabilities are needed; electronic signage is being used on the state’s freeways to urge residents along the coast to fuel up their vehicles; and a “fuel team” is working to ensure adequate supplies along potential evacuation routes.
People who cannot self-evacuate can let responders know who and where they are before an emergency or evacuation takes place by calling 211.
For the latest information, visit the Web site: www.governor.state.tx.us/hurricane.
Staff Writers Jerry Needham and Jeorge Zarazua contributed to this report.