East Texas Treatment Facility employees battle Hurricane Ike  

In the early hours one Saturday morning this fall, Hurricane Ike made landfall near Galveston, Texas. It moved north, spreading destruction throughout east Texas, western Louisiana and later in Arkansas, Missouri and the Ohio River Valley.

East Texas Treatment Facility, located 185 miles north of Houston, sat squarely in the path of the storm. Ike roared into Henderson with winds in excess of 60 miles per hour and dumped 2½ inches of rain in just a few hours.

Power was lost throughout the region and the East Texas facility operated on emergency generators for the next two days.

While dealing with its own emergency issues, staff members from the East Texas facility responded to requests from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and dispatched its transport vehicles to the Houston area where they picked up more than 70 offenders from badly damaged state facilities, moving them back to the MTC facility.

Meanwhile, several days prior to Hurricane Ike coming ashore near Galveston, its projected path put the two MTC correctional facilities in Raymondville, Texas in jeopardy. Both facilities made plans to evacuate; and the Willacy Processing Facility, contracted with ICE, did have to evacuate nearly 600 detainees. Once the actual path of Hurricane Ike was determined, the 600 evacuated detainees were quickly replaced by almost 600 detainees evacuated from Houston to Raymondville.

Operations in south and east Texas are finally returning to normal; and MTC can be proud of its staff and their ability to respond in an emergency.

(11/30/08)

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