RANDOLPH AIR FORCE BASE, Texas –
The Atlantic hurricane season officially begins June 1, so Joint Base San Antonio leadership and staff met last week at the San Antonio Emergency Operations Center at Brooks City-Base to review the process for requesting military aid by state and local governments.
District Fire Chief Larry Trevino is the soon-tobe appointed emergency management coordinator for the City of San Antonio.
"It's good to see who we need to call," Trevino said as he addressed Maj. Gen. (Dr.) Byron Hepburn, 59th Medical Wing commander, and Brig. Gen. Leonard Patrick, 502nd Air Base Wing/Joint Base San Antonio commander.
Two natural disaster nightmare scenarios keep some Texas emergency planners up at night, according to Col. Sean Kavanagh, emergency preparedness liaison officer for
Texas. One event is a category four or five hurricane affecting the Rio Grande Valley resulting in catastrophic flooding. Kavanagh said some one to two million people could be evacuated and head north to San Antonio.
Kavanagh said the other disaster would involve an earthquake along the New Madrid Fault which affects several southern and Midwestern states. Quakes along this fault line in the early 1800s rang church bells on the east coast and caused the Mississippi River to run backwards. A quake today in this now densely populated area would likely result in massive death and property damage.
San Antonio would almost certainly become an evacuation point in both scenarios and during any other natural or manmade disaster that threatened Texas or surrounding states. That's when Joint Base San Antonio installations could be asked by state and local authorities to provide major support in evacuee and aircraft sheltering, transportation, medical care and other needs. The Joint Base structure mandated by the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure legislation streamlines the process for requesting military resources.
"Civil authorities now have one point of contact for requesting help, and that's the 502nd Air Base Wing," said General Leonard Patrick. "In the past they had to contact each base."