The largest potential disaster that Harris County, Texas, confronts is flooding. So 15 years ago, when federal dollars initially were being allocated to emergency management, Harris County made sure those dollars went to planning and coordination, said Mark Sloan, emergency management coordinator for the county’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. The initial emergency management partnership was between emergency management and flood control. They installed numerous gauges to monitor the creeks, bayous and streams, and then expanded the partnership to include transportation. “Because that’s the most critical aspect of what happens in a tropical storm or hurricane — the evacuation process,” Sloan said. “So it made perfect sense to merge the two and partner.”
What began as a three-man operation now includes 22 people, he said. And all monitoring and coordinating of waterways and traffic happens in one location — the Greater Houston Transportation and Emergency Management Center, known as Houston TranStar.
Houston TranStar is composed of three primary components for monitoring, coordinating and responding: the command room, the TranStar Center and the Emergency Operations Center.
In the TranStar Center, large screens at the room’s front display images from traffic cameras that run from the coast to Dallas to San Antonio to Austin, so all roadways can be monitored — though the center’s primary focus is the metro Houston area, Sloan said. The cameras are digital, spaced about one mile apart and have zoom capabilities. Roadway sensors transmit traffic speeds, which also are monitored. The TranStar Center is a 24/7 operation, and the entire center is being redesigned and updated with new technology. “The old monitors generated a lot of temperature and heat, and took up a lot of space,” Sloan said. “We’re going to be able to double the capacity of the personnel who sit on the floor.” During an evacuation, the screens are split into four sections, and the center monitors all evacuation routes and makes timely decisions. “We know exactly what’s happening when, where and on what roadways when it comes to accidents and other issues,” Sloan said.
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During an emergency, all decisions for the region are made and coordinated in the command room. During Hurricane Ike in 2008, Sloan said he sat at the table with then-Mayor Bill White, Harris County Judge Ed Emmett and then-U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, to name a few. Harris County has 34 jurisdictions, 54 fire departments, 125 law enforcement agencies, and many appointed and elected officials, Sloan said. “We have to coordinate and work together to serve the 4 million-plus residents who reside here,” he said. “A disaster isn’t going to stop at the city or county line; it’s going to impact a region.”
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The Emergency Operations Center has 26 seats, but is expanding to seat 140 — it ‘ll be twice as large as the TranStar Center with the same type of technology it already has. That technology also includes traffic, HAZMAT, waterway and airplane monitoring. “We have secure cameras in buoys and a variety of other homeland security-related sensitive equipment that we can monitor from here,” Sloan said.
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