Harris County OEM facilities get state of the art upgrade

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- The facilities designed keep Harris County residents safe in stormy weather got a much needed upgrade earlier this year.

The headquarters of the Harris County Emergency Management offices are still housed inside the Houston Transtar building. However, a reworking of existing space has opened up a 100 seat joint operational command center.

The state of the art emergency management center can now house dozens of agencies in one open space. It is crucial for mass emergency situations like hurricanes. Portions of the facility were in use today. Fortunately, there were no major incidents, but officials say they are ready.

"One of the things we did was to reach out to places around the country, to find what are the best practices for an emergency operations center, to make sure we can bring those here to Houston," said Francisco Sanchez, the Public Information Officer for Harris County Emergency Management.

The entire facility is still undergoing renovations, which will continue for a few more months. Transtar, which monitors the traffic that crisscross Houston, still operates out of the building as well.