GALVESTON, Texas – Officials in Galveston County continue to monitor Tropical Storm Beryl as it approaches the Texas coast.
Galveston County Judge Mark Henry has signed a disaster declaration for the county as Beryl approaches. He spoke with KPRC 2 about the declaration and what officials are doing as they watch Beryl approach.
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“The, disaster declaration is a building block which allows us to be able to receive state and federal money if a (damage) threshold amount is met. The state just added Galveston County to the state disaster declaration. So all of the pieces are in place now. Should this turned out to be an expensive storm, we have a mechanism to recover some of the funds that we would have to spend to recover,” Henry said.
Henry said the county has activated its Office of Emergency Management and people are monitoring Beryl at all times as the storm approaches.
“The current track might spare us some of the more significant damage, but we like to point out this has changed about 100 times over the past six days. So we watch it until it’s gone and out of our area before we say, okay, it’s all over with,” Henry said.
Right now, Henry said there are no evacuation orders in place for Galveston County, but that could change should Beryl’s track move any closer.
“If it comes any more to the east, we might encourage a voluntary evacuation off Bolivar Peninsula, simply because the ferry service is likely to be disrupted and Highway 87, which is the only other way off Bolivar, gets water over it on a fairly regular basis. So we will consider that should the storm come any more to the east,” he said.
Henry encourages residents of the county to have a plan in place and to also check over their property and secure any loose items that could become airborne should the area get any stronger winds.
“Make a plan and build a kit, and your kit needs to contain prescription medications and a plan for your pets as well. If it’s not safe for you, it’s not safe for your pets. Also go out and look for anything that might become airborne when the winds pick up,” he said.