This week Fort Bend County participated in the Texas A&M Winter Institute exercise, with many public and private partners testing technology in a series of hyper-realistic disaster scenarios at Disaster City and other locations around College Station, Texas.
Fort Bend County provided expertise, simulating the Emergency Operations Center in a widespread earthquake on the Texas coast. Assets deployed to gain situational awareness and perform tactical operations ranged from human search and rescue (SAR) professionals and dogs to ground, marine, and aerial robots.
A member of our team participated in a panel discussion titled “Information sharing in large disasters, what is the promised land and how do we get there.” Panelists included representatives from the Texas Division of Emergency Management and the Texas Parks and Wildlife.
We’re excited at the opportunity to learn from our public and private sector partners, and to interface directly with graduate students on emerging technologies that can help us reduce the impact of disasters on our communities in Fort Bend County.