McALLEN — The COVID-19 pandemic and recent grass fires sparked by dry conditions in the Rio Grande Valley were among the highlights of the South Texas All Hazards Conference on Wednesday at the McAllen Performing Arts Center.
McAllen Fire Chief Jim Schultz believes the conference helps emergency responders such as the fire department build relationships that allow for them to communicate more efficiently in an emergency.
With the summertime around the corner, it brings drier conditions across the Valley that are more susceptible to fires. In the past few weeks, there have been grass fires in areas such as Hidalgo, Starr and Brooks counties, burning through acres and prompting temporary evacuations in those areas.
“We’ve had across the state a lot of large grass fires, especially in West Texas. We are experiencing some in the Valley but not quite as severe, so it is very important for us to collaborate with really anyone who wants to come to this conference,” Schultz said, adding that the conference allows them to share tactics and information from one department to the other.
“We plan for the worst and hope for the best and it is these kinds of conferences where we can do that.”
Knowing that each department faces their own set of unique challenges, Schultz said communication between agencies is imperative.
“We can help share information with each other,” he added.
The last time the conference was held was two years ago, before the pandemic. After the region suffered greatly from the impact COVID-19 has had on residents, leading to thousands of deaths, emergency officials communicated about how unity and interagency support has never been more important.
For Eddie Olivarez, chief administrative officer for Hidalgo County Health and Human Services, the previous conferences assisted emergency response teams to build relationships that had a positive impact on the efficiency and effectiveness of response teams during the pandemic.
“This conference, the training we’ve had here, the collaborations we’ve had here, has been the foundation for how successful we were here in South Texas to deal with this pandemic,” Olivarez said.
According to Olivarez, due to the distance between the Valley and other areas, the Valley is largely self-dependent, emphasizing the importance of interagency communication.
With recent natural disasters impacting the Deep South, the theme of the event also centered on preservation as well as emergency response.
“As we saw this past week with hurricanes, with strong wind, with fires, we got to be ready to protect our residents, our families and preserve our properties…,” McAllen Mayor Javier Villalobos, who was at Wednesday’s event, said. “We are too big to act as individuals; we have to act as a region. Part of this is in a sense a foundation of what we need to start doing, working together, learning together, acting together and providing public safety and emergency response together.”
