City Government/Public Safety/Emergency Management
Mission Statement
The City of Deer Park’s Office of Emergency Management’s (O.E.M.) mission is to save lives and protect property as well as prevent damage to the environment from disasters both natural and manmade. We work to accomplish this through development of continuing programs of education, communications, coordination, planning, training and exercising, for "all hazards" through all four phases of emergency management - preparedness, response, recovery and mitigation.
The Office of Emergency Management is responsible for coordinating the City of Deer Park’s preparation for and response to emergency or disaster situations internally and externally both natural and manmade. The term emergency means a set of circumstances which demand immediate action to protect life, preserve public health or essential services, or protect property. Disaster means the situation is beyond the capabilities of the responding jurisdictions or organizations.
The Office of Emergency Management provides planning, training, exercises and educational programs and activities designed to provide our customers, internal and external, with the ability to prepare for, cope with, and recover from the effects of local emergencies or disasters. This is achieved through information and resource exchange and working in partnership with the public and private sectors, as well as all levels of government.
The City of Deer Park; its citizens, businesses and industries are exposed to many hazards, which have the potential for disrupting the community, causing damage and creating casualties. Due to its proximity to Galveston Bay, the Gulf of Mexico and the Houston Ship Channel the hazards may be natural which include hurricanes, floods, tornadoes and severe storms. But as home to many petrochemical facilities Deer Park also faces the manmade threat of hazardous material accidents involving the manufacture and storage of chemicals, as well as the transportation of those chemicals on the highways, the railroads and in the City's industrial areas.
In order to address these potential threats, the Office of Emergency Management has overseen the development of the City's emergency management plan. This plan provides the framework upon which the City of Deer Park prepares for, responds to and performs its emergency response functions during times of natural or man-made disasters which occur internally or externally. The plan is based on the four phases of Emergency Management which are:
- Preparedness - Those activities which governments, organizations and individuals develop to save lives and minimize damage.
- Response - Those actions to minimize loss of life and property damage and provide emergency assistance.
- Recovery - Those short and long-term activities which restore city operations and help return the community to a normal state.
- Mitigation - Those activities which eliminate or reduce the probability of disaster.
To contact the Deer Park Office of Emergency Management call 281-478-7298 or send an email to spipkin@deerparktx.org.
Links:
National Weather Service: http://www.weather.gov/
National Weather Service Houston/Galveston Office: http://www.srh.noaa.gov/hgx/
Harris County Hurricane Tracker: http://www.hcfcd.org/hurricanetracker/download.html#
Federal Emergency Management: http://www.fema.gov/
Harris County Emergency Management: http://www.hcoem.org/
Texas Emergency Management: http://www.txdps.state.tx.us/dem/
Texas Commission on Environmental Quality: http://www.tceq.state.tx.us/comm_exec/forms_pubs/pubs/gi/gi-002.html
Ozone information: http://www.tceq.state.tx.us/nav/data/ozone_data.html
Toxicology Data Network: http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/
Hazardous Substance Data Base: http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/htmlgen?HSDB |
