Texas Town Prepares For Disaster

The City of Marshall,TX is preparing for disaster. Saturday city and county officials, along with the Harrison County Red Cross met with local volunteers to discuss emergency preparedness. "We`re doing a preparation to try and get things ready before things happen. Instead of being caught off guard like we were last year with Katrina." said Darrell Riley, Services Director for the Harrison County Red Cross. And they weren`t just preparing for the possibility of hurricanes. Officials discussed how to prepare for a number of other emergencies like tornados, winter storms and explosions. "We`ve got a whole bunch of volunteers in Harrison county, I just want them to get organized." said Harrison County Emergency Management Coordinator Randy Pritchard. Pritchard says the goal of Saturday`s event was to make all of the local and state agencies aware of the services they could offer eachother in the event of an emergency. He encouraged each organization to team up with a group of local volunteers, and familiarize them with their services. "I want these people involved ahead of time before we have to use them," said Pritchard. So the next time disaster strikes, they`ll be ready to take action.