Officials Prepare for East Texas Heat

TYLER – With summer approaching, the Tyler Fire Department and several other agencies re-grouped Friday to finalize the draft for their 2017 Heat Response Plan. KETK reports it’s nothing new, but they continue to meet each year to make sure the public is informed properly. “It’s not uncommon to hear about heat related injuries, of course, and illnesses — but also, unfortunately, deaths,” said Tyler Fire Marshal Paul Findley. “Also tied to that, the incidents of children in vehicles.” Findley points to “some startling statistics on how hot it can get inside of an enclosed vehicle.” Their drafted plan shows if the outside temperature is 95 degrees, within an hour the interior air temperature of a car is around 140 degrees.

The plan also discusses heat-related illnesses and who is most at risk. “If you have an elderly neighbor, go over there and check and see how they’re doing every once in awhile; make sure their air conditioner hasn’t broken. Some of them are on medicines and they’re not even aware of how hot they’re getting,” said Dr. William Moore, ETMC EMS Medical Director. Their plan has a list of places to go if in need of air conditioning, as well as shelters. “We’ll help people get pointed in the right direction if there is a need,” said Findley.

The newest part to it this year is the State of Texas Emergency Assistance Register (STEAR) program. “STEAR provides some in the community an ability to go ahead and pre-register so that in the event of an incident we have the ability to know where these target populations or high risk populations are,” said Findley. The bullet points within the plan are as follows: purpose, responsibility/lead agency, science, precautions, medical evaluation, shelters, City of Tyler facilities, Smith County Day Time Locations, transportation, identification of isolated/elderly at risk individuals, welfare concerns, public affairs network/hotlines, utility assistance programs, water, donations, reporting systems, and users of this plan. They’re finalizing the plan and will release it to the public in a few weeks.