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Partial cloudiness early, with scattered showers and thunderstorms overnight. Low around 75F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%.
A construction crew carries supplies across the floor during renovation for Victoria Fire Department Station No. 1 at 660 E. Goodwin Ave.
Renovation for Victoria Fire Department Station No. 1.
A sign on a gate warms pedestrians of ongoing construction outside Victoria Fire Department Station 1.
Victoria Fire Chief Tracy Fox stands inside Victoria Fire Department Station 1, that is undergoing renovation.
Construction crews work on renovation for Victoria Fire Department Station 1.
Construction crews work on the renovation for Victoria Fire Department Station 1. It is being remodeled and hardened to withstand hurricane-force winds.
Construction crews work on the renovation for Victoria Fire Department Station 1.
A construction crew carries supplies across the floor during renovation for Victoria Fire Department Station No. 1 at 660 E. Goodwin Ave.
Renovation for Victoria Fire Department Station No. 1.
A sign on a gate warms pedestrians of ongoing construction outside Victoria Fire Department Station 1.
Victoria Fire Chief Tracy Fox stands inside Victoria Fire Department Station 1, that is undergoing renovation.
Construction crews work on renovation for Victoria Fire Department Station 1.
Construction crews work on the renovation for Victoria Fire Department Station 1. It is being remodeled and hardened to withstand hurricane-force winds.
Construction crews work on the renovation for Victoria Fire Department Station 1.
A wind-driven fire in the middle of a monster hurricane sounds like an apocalyptic story. Fire. Wind. Whipping rain. All of this happened at once for Victoria firefighters five years ago during Hurricane Harvey.
The Victoria Fire Department fought a residential fire for three hours on Aug. 25, 2017, while also battling sudden hurricane-force winds.
Fire Chief Tracy Fox and other frontline responders explained the lessons they took from Harvey as well as how they are preparing to battle the next tropical monster, including hardening Fire Station No. 1, adding generators and water wells to local hospitals.
Firefighters would not normally, in most circumstances, go out to quell a fire in sustained winds over 45 mph, but as Hurricane Harvey was blowing into Victoria, it knocked down a weather tower, giving the department an incorrect reading on the wind speed.
Firefighters rushed to put out a house fire in the 500 block of Westwood Street just as Harvey amped up, Fox said.
“It turned from a regular house fire into a severe wind-driven fire. We set up the ladder truck and ended up pointing straight into the wind,” said Engineer Dale Hartman. “I was pumping as much pressure as I could pump off of the water supply that I had.”
The water came right back at him with the wind, instead of hitting the fire.
“It was doing little to no good,” he said. “We had to advance hose lines closer and closer. If the wind let up, we could reach the flames. It was an ebb and flow kind of a thing.”
The fire, which normally would have been extinguished in less than an hour, took three to four hours to put out, Battalion Chief Jeff Cowan said. The house was a total loss.
“What was unique about Harvey was that it ramped up so quickly,” Fox said. “We were here at the department, talking and thinking we’re just going to get a lot of rain. We thought it was not going to be a significant storm. Within 24 hours of that conversation, it escalated quite significantly.”
The fire department was still in the process of preparing when Harvey raged over the city.
Three fire stations on the southern side of Victoria had to be abandoned —stations 1, 3 and 5. Those stations were older and less likely to withstand the storm. Stations 2, 4, and 6 were built more recently and to hurricane standards, Fox said.
Those t hree newer stations were packed full, Fox said. All the equipment and personnel from six stations were crammed into three.
Fire Station No. 1 was almost 40 years old when Harvey hit, Fox said.
Now, the station, 606 E. Goodwin Ave., is in the process of a $3.2 million overhaul.
Steel beams reinforce a new two-layered roof on the gutted building, and modern windows, designed to withstand hurricane-force winds, and the debris those winds carry, will soon be installed.
The new windows will not have to be shuttered in the event of a hurricane, the fire chief said.
The walls were about the only part of the building that were up to hurricane standards. They are made of thick concrete, he added.
The project is scheduled to wrap up in February.
Assistant Chief of Fire Operations Shannon Martin said the department learns from each weather event and enhances their preparedness accordingly.
“We’ve all been able to experience several of these events over the course of many years,” he said. “As a result, the fire department has a well-developed, well-defined plan with different hour marks which tell us at what time to take which steps. It’s been instrumental in helping us be prepared. This is a very structured plan for what to do during hurricanes. ”
He and Fox said that firefighters will not respond to every emergency call once the winds reach a sustained force of 45 mph or greater.
“That is not to say that we are not going to respond to some type of significant event, but, after 45 sustained, that decision will be based on whether a chief officer says we’re going to go out there,” Martin said.
One call they had to ignore involved an 18-wheeler toppled by winds on U.S. 77. The driver made it safely to a convenience store to hunker down, Martin said.
But they were able to answer a call for help to deliver a baby.
When Hurricane Harvey was approaching, employees at the local hospitals hunkered down and prepared to serve patients who needed to stay and those in need of emergency attention.
However, as the storm’s winds ripped through the Crossroads, it became clear that neither Victoria hospital could sustain full operation.
Five years later, both hospitals have made infrastructure investments, including generators and water wells, which will keep them operating in the next disaster .
When the storm was approaching, hospital executives and staff prepared to ride out the storm and continue to serve the patients, Citizens Medical Center CEO Mike Olson said. Many even stayed at the hospital on cots and inflatable mattresses.
Citizens’ four-story physician’s office building sustained a lot of damage. The wind ripped off part of the roof, allowing water to get into the building as it continued to rain and saturate every floor of that building, he said. Other roofs also sustained water and wind damage. Water got into the south tower elevators, which made them inoperable.
Eight months later, the physician tower was repaired. In the interim, other offices shared space with the displaced doctors.
Before the storm, Citizens discharged patients to families who were evacuating the area and transferred those who needed critical care to other hospitals, said Dr. Daniel Cano, Citizens chief medical officer.
But the real challenge came when the city’s power and water infrastructure went out two days after the storm, Olson said.
It became clear operations beyond emergency work were not tenable, Cano said. The lack of access to water made keeping a sterile environment impossible, not only just for equipment, but for patients as well, with the air conditioning no longer functioning.
“Not having air conditioning in a hospital when the heat is here and the humidity is so high is a real difficulty for staff and for patients,” Olson said. The hospital turned on the emergency power of diesel generators, but they could only power up certain critical areas at a time. The generators did not have the ability to power up the air conditioning system throughout the hospital.
Despite having some vulnerability to the storm, the hospital’s IT system was relatively unaffected. Employees were able to print the records of patients who were evacuated and send the records with the patients.
Citizens now has seven natural gas generators that will power the hospital completely if the power is lost, Olson said. When not used for emergencies, the generators are used to provide support for the power grid.
The hospital has also put its IT network in a climate-controlled environment that will keep patients’ digital records safe. Protocols were added to print all patient records before a hurricane in case evacuation is needed.
An onsite water tank and cooling towers were added to keep water available in the event water service is lost.
“As long as we have the ability to truck in water, we should be able to continue to operate,” Olson said.
Having a local hospital available in the middle of a disaster is critical, Cano said.
“If we aren’t able to operate, for whatever reason, it puts patients and the community at risk,” he said.
DeTar Healthcare System endured similar experiences, according to a statement from DeTar CEO Bernard Leger.
“The challenges we faced in the wake of Hurricane Harvey made us stronger and helped us develop processes to become more self-reliant hospitals,” Leger said.
This includes improving communication systems at the hospital, installing an onsite water well on the DeTar Hospital Navarro campus and installing additional docking stations at both hospitals to allow for external generators to keep the hospital going, Leger said.
“While we are extremely confident in our technology, our most important achievement is our teamwork,” Leger said. “It powered us through the storm and helped us during the recovery. “
Tamara covers the public safety beat for the Advocate. She can be reached at 361-580-6597 or tdiaz@vicad.com.
Kimberly Bagnall, 35, thought her family would be safe from Hurricane Harvey when they hunkered down in their Victoria rental home.
Tamara covers crime and courts as the public safety reporter for the Victoria Advocate. She is a graduate of the University of Washington and a native of Minnesota.
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Kyle Cotton was born and raised in San Antonio and graduated from San Antonio College and the University of Texas at Arlington. Cotton has covered economic development, health care, finance, government, technology, oil and gas and higher education.
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