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Weather

County Officials Say The Key To Protecting Lives And Property Is Being Proactive

The severe weather didn’t have that much impact in our region.

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The severe weather forecast for different parts of Texas this week didn't have that much impact in Harris County.

However, following its protocol, the county's Office of Emergency Management raised its alert level before this latest weather threat.

In 2015, Harris County activated its Emergency Operations Center dozens of times.

In some cases, such as in the weeks of Memorial Day and Halloween, both roadways and homes were flooded.

But other times, such as this week, some might say the activations were false alarms.

Francisco Sanchez, a spokesman for the County's Office of Emergency Management, says officials use thresholds to raise alert levels and the bottom line is being proactive.

"Any time the National Weather Service tells us that there’s a potential to have high water locations, we know that threatens lives and people on the roadways. Any time they tell us there’s an incident that could impact homes we know people’s properties are at stake and people really do deserve from us advanced warning," Sanchez explains.

Jill Hasling, President of the Weather Research Center in Houston, agrees with Sanchez.

With more than 40 years of experience as a meteorologist, Hasling doesn't think there is over-vigilance on the part of authorities because the storm missed us this time, "but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be prepared if we see the weather patterns setting up that could cause a large amount of rainfall that could possibly cause flooding."

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