The Fort Bend County Office of Emergency Management (FBC OEM) serves the residents of Fort Bend County in four main ways:

Preparedness

The OEM maintains the Basic Emergency Operations Plan and twenty-two annexes covering everything from public warning to terrorism incident response. Other plans like the Hazard Mitigation Action Plan and the Traffic Management Plan also require regular updating and reviewing. OEM also participates in regional planning efforts with the 13-county council of governments, Houston-Galveston Area Council (HGAC), and in the Houston Urban Area through the Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI).

Another piece of what we do during the "ready state" is preparing our residents for disasters. This website, our Twitter account, and our Facebook page are one way we prepare the public with vital information. Another way we do this is through training classes offered as part of our Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training. CERT classes are offered regularly and are open for anybody to attend.

Response

When disaster strikes Fort Bend County the OEM coordinates the response and provides critical resources to the responders in the field. We leave the hands-on response to the professionals in the field: your local firefighters, police officers and EMTs. We work behind the scenes to ensure they have everything they need.

Recovery

When the news trucks are gone and the dust has settled, OEM is still working hard. Recovery is the long, slow, and critical process of getting our community back on its feet. Our role in recovery includes, but isn't limited to: helping the community get recovery grants, helping residents file claims, and getting reimbursements for all the agencies involved in the response.

Mitigation

Mitigation is a big word for a simple concept: make sure that if disaster happens again, it hurts us less. This means everything from pre-staging response and recovery assets, to ensuring our levees are stronger and safer. You also play a critical role in the mitigation efforts by buying storm-resistant windows, having a tornado shelter, and trimming your tree limbs over your house.

It all adds up to a lot of work and full and busy days for all thirteen full-time employees of the Fort Bend County Office of Emergency Management!

Recent Updates

• FBC Training and Exercise Plan Workshop: This Wednesday, June 19, 2013
• Reminder: FBCCC Meeting This Wednesday, June 19, 2013
• ZOMBIE-Squad-Overview and Upcoming Dates
• Join the Zombie Squad-Volunteers wanted for Region-wide disaster drills
• Fort Bend County-CERT Overview

Latest from Jeff Braun's Blog

• Failure Is Not An Option – Robert Smalls
  By: Jeff Braun
  from: Jeff Braun's Emergency Management Blog