Tom Ramsey - Harris County Commissioner Joins Houston's Morning News

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Yeah, we wondered the same thing during Harvey did only
seven fifty two our time. Here in Houston's morning News,
Tom Ramsey joins US Harris County Commissioner, the lone right
spot on the Harris County Commission to talk about, well,
something that when you get right down to it, Tom,
how do you prepare for Harvey? What could we have
done differently? What have we done differently since Harvey to

(00:21):
prepare for a repeat if that should ever happen, God forbid.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Well, Jamie, thank you for having me. This is a
important topic, not only considering what happened last week, the
tragedy that happened last week. But we still remember Harvey.
But I can tell you every storm is different, whether
it's alisiha. I remember the night Alisha came about three
o'clock in the morning. I thought it was going to

(00:46):
all be over at that point. That was in the
early eighties. Then Allison, then Tax Day, then Memorial Day,
then I and then finally Harvey. And every storm is different.
But there's things you got to do preparation wise. I'm
not saying this because I'm O KTRH, but get your
radio tuned in because one of the biggest problems we

(01:10):
have in a storm event we saw this this past
week is people getting information, getting alerts, knowing what's happening
because you don't know where the rain is going to
fall necessarily, and being aware that the storm has moved
like it did in Harvey. It came over the UH

(01:30):
the areas to the north and west of US and
UH they just dumped thirty inches of rain, but it
all fell at the at the at the right time,
as it were, and and certain areas were flooded while
other areas weren't. Tropical Storm Allison was an equally damaging

(01:53):
UH and that was just a tropical storm that went
to Lufkin and came back. So people have got to
pay attention. And and we in the county and I
know that my other colleagues and the other precincts, but
we prepare. I've got over two hundred and fifty people
that are on alert when we get noticed that a

(02:13):
storm may be heady, so they put assets in different
areas and locate We know the areas that are likely
to flood in event we respond and get there well.

Speaker 1 (02:26):
And I know some of the first responders have gotten
new equipment to help with a flooding situation. We just
weren't used to that level of flooding. But I know
a lot of the fire departments now have boats and
other things that they can do out to help with
high water rescues.

Speaker 2 (02:41):
Exactly that we have added. We had equipment every year
and you learn from every storm and when you consider
probably the worst storm that in history is a storm
of nineteen hundred. So when they say, well, this is
a recent phenomenon of it's not. We've been having storms
and Texas in this area for well over one hundred

(03:05):
years that that we can we can document, well, it's it's.

Speaker 1 (03:08):
Part of it's part of where we live. And it's uh,
you know, we we knew that before we built here.

Speaker 2 (03:13):
So we just we did we live in a plot plain, Yeah,
we did.

Speaker 1 (03:16):
We do. Always. Good to talk to you, sir, Thank
you for your time. That is Harris County Commissioner Tom Ramsey.
Y'all have a great day. We'll see you tomorrow morning,
bright and early, five am. Hope to see you this
afternoon four on AM nine fifty k PRC