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Beaumont tries to move more people out of town

BEAUMONT, Texas — Everything from heart attacks to births are keeping emergency workers here and in Orange scrambling as the cities start slowing restoring services.

Beaumont officials said Sunday that they are working to restore water and sewer service in this city of more than 100,000, and that they have brought in large generators to help run the system.

Water and sewer service to other cities and towns in Jefferson County is expected to also be operating in the next several days.

"It is a number one priority," said Jeff McNeel, a district chief for the Beaumont Fire Department. "That's a critical need."

The Salvation Army is trying to establish sites throughout the county where they can distribute water and other supplies to residents who did not evacuate before the storm and still wish to stay at their homes.

Hundreds of other people were being brought on buses and ambulances from their homes to Ford Park, a large sports facility just west of downtown Beaumont on Interstate 10. Officials said the evacuees will be taken to a shelter at Kelly Air Force Base later today.

McNeel said about 200 to 300 people have called in the day and a half since the storm requesting medical assistance.

"We've had everything from heart attacks to this morning a woman had a baby," McNeel said.

Brown Claybar, the mayor of Orange, showed up at the Jefferson County Office of Emergency Management Sunday to ask for much needed supplies in his town east of Beaumont.

Claybar said the police and emergency dispatching system in his town has failed, which prompted city officials to go inside a Radio Shack where the windows were blown out to take walkie talkies.

Police are still able to accept 911 calls, but the police officers must respond to a single call and then return to the dispatching center to accept another call.

"We need hot meals, we need bathrooms and we need showers," Claybar said. He said as he was leaving that officials at the emergency operations center have agreed to address "our basic needs."

At the Ford Center, dozens of ambulances have arrived from throughout the state and country, including a team from as far away as Kentucky.

Also at the center, convoys of large 18-wheelers began arriving late this afternoon carrying 15-kilowatt to 1000-kilowatt generators. John Johnson, an official with the Beaumont and Jefferson County Office of Emergency Management, said that the generators will be used first to help get hospitals in Jefferson County up and running again. Then the remaining ones will be used for other facilities, including police stations.

U.S. Rep. Ted Poe, R-Humble, who represents Liberty, Jefferson and parts of Harris County, was also at the operations center.

"We are just making sure bureaucracy and red tape is eliminated so we can get aid and service to the Jefferson County area," he said.

He said the federal response to the region "will be significant."

Justin DeMello, a FEMA representative now stationed in Beaumont, said that his agency is working to obtain thousands of MRE's and other supplies from contracted companies across the nation and that the supplies were being taken to Reliant Stadium in Houston. The supplies will be distributed by Texas National Guard officials.

"Based on what I'm seeing, the state has put together a good plan to get commodities to their citizens," DeMello said. "We will step in and assist any way we can."

McNeel, a district chief for the Beaumont Fire Department, said there is an estimated 4 million cubic yards of debris covering the city and that city workers have begun to clear the streets. City officials are developing a plan to burn off the trees at a site yet to be determined.

FEMA assessment teams are on the ground throughout the affected region of Southeast Texas evaluating damage.

Don Ford, a captain with the Salvation Army, said they are on the ground in Orange, Jefferson and Hardin counties and that right now they are responding to the needs of first responders, including police, paramedics and FEMA representatives.

"We are trying to take that load off of their hands so they can focus on the larger priority of getting our communities back up and running," Ford said.

Salvation Army workers are handing out water and meals to those first responders. In addition, they have stationed eight canteens throughout the hurricane-damaged region and have more on the way.

Ford said once people are allowed back into the region and they start arriving, the Salvation Army's focus then will shift to helping returning residents.

Tony Plohetski writes for the Austin American-Statesman. E-mail: tplohetski@statesman.com