State of Emergency Nearing An End In Ector County
By: Jamie Kuras
Updated: February 3, 2011
ODESSA -- Ector County Judge Susan Redford issued a state of emergency for Ector County because the recent freezing temperatures threatened lives and property.
The state of emergency is a joint operations plan by the city and county that allows agencies to open shelters, monitor the situation together and quickly activate any personnel needed to help with issues.
"Our first priority was to issue this to one, to warn them of this extremely hazardous conditions that exist," said Redford. "The second motivation behind that is the declaration enhances our ability to go out into the community as far as our emergency management efforts. It activates our emergency operations center and the plan that goes with that."
Should the situation worsen, Redford said the next step would be the disaster plan. However, she believes that it will not come to that and the state of emergency will expire in a week without moving further.
The American Red Cross opened a warming shelter as a way for people to stay warm and have something to drink. But that shelter was shut down when only two people took advantage of it. Most people just made alternative plans.
"I think individuals were very proactive in taking care of themselves," said City of Odessa Public Information Coordinator Andrea Goodson. "The hotel and motel rooms in Odessa were booked full last night."
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas -- or ERCOT -- also announced they were no longer in an emergency situation.
That means they are conducting normal operations with no more rolling outages.
