HOUSTON – City leaders, including Houston Mayor John Whitmire and Acting Houston Police Chief Larry J. Satterwhite, responded to the comments of a city councilmember at a news conference Sunday in regards to the city’s preparedness for Hurricane Beryl.
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Mayor John Whitmire said the city continues to work in the aftermath of Beryl and that as of Sunday afternoon, around 3,000 customers remained without power across the city.
The city leaders addressed comments from District J City Councilman, Edward Pollard, who they say was quoted in a news article about Russell Richardson, the HPD employee who died after driving through high waters on his way to work during the storm.
“My phone lit up from chiefs, directors, rank and file employee groups said he can’t get away with misinforming the public that perhaps if we’d have been better prepared that Russell Richardson would be alive. Friends, words matter,” Whitmire said.
In response to the comments, Whitmire said the city has ”never been better prepared.”
HPD acting chief Larry Satterwhite echoed Whitmire’s comments and spoke about Richardson.
“Russell was a man who had a sense of duty and honor. He was a military vet and having served in the Air Force, and when he came on HPD as a part of our family, he always maintained that attitude, that sense of duty, that sense of honor. That was who he is, and that was who we all saw in him and how much we really respected and his professionalism and all that he does and everything he is,” Satterwhite said.
Satterwhite said the department and the city do everything they can to keep their employees safe.
“Our employees are our number one response priority, keeping them safe because they are the ones that keep you all safe. And so we message to them to always take that into account. But they’re also heroes, and they’re also going to try to save lives and do everything they can. And sometimes they might take risks. Sometimes that happens in our field of work. We all understand that risk. We all, we all know that possibility. But that’s what we do,” Satterwhite said.
Satterwhite and Whitmire said they have both talked to Richardson’s wife about the situation.
“Words matter to the Richardson family, who I’ve had to talk to and tell that this narrative is now out there and she was devastated because she knows her husband and she knows who he was and what he is doing, and she knows his level of dedication and sacrifice,” Satterwhite said.
Satterwhite said the city and the department had prepared for Beryl and took no chances despite the uncertainties in Beryl’s final track. He said they had ordered ice, were ready to set up cooling centers, water distribution, and more. They also requested additional officers from other cities to come and help.
“It’s unfortunate that an elected official would confuse the public on CenterPoint’s lack of preparation with that the city was not prepared, it might have saved lives. Nothing could be further from the truth,” Whitmire said.
Acting Homeland Security/OEM Director Thomas Munoz said they had been monitoring the storm’s progress all the way until it hit Houston. He said it was an all hands on deck situation from all departments.
“We’re still in the recovery stage. We’re still helping process people to get back to normalcy. But I can say that the city was prepared. We were responding,” Munoz said.
Whitmire said every storm is an opportunity for learning and they will use Beryl to learn lessons, but emphasized the city was prepared when Beryl struck.
“We have more preparation to do for the next storm. But this storm for anyone to say, Imply that lives would have been saved if we’d have been better prepared. The city staff did everything humanly possible,” Whitmire said.
Councilman Pollard provided this statement in response:
First, my heartfelt condolences go out to the Richardson family. They should never have to relive such a tragic experience.
It is deeply disheartening to see our city resort to a press conference aimed at smearing me politically. My comments were solely focused on the logistics of mobilizing our officers a day earlier to ensure their safety and readiness before Hurricane Beryl hit. I hold the utmost respect for our officers and all first responders. At no point have I cast blame on any individual, and I refuse to politicize this tragic event for personal gain.
This experience has been a learning opportunity for all of us, and I am confident that we will be even better prepared for future natural disasters.
SEE ALSO: Mayor Whitmire extends disaster declaration after Hurricane Beryl’s devastation