LONGVIEW, Texas — Amid hundreds of power outages and storm-related damage, Gov. Greg Abbott has issued a disaster declaration for five East Texas counties and other local counties have issued their own proclamations.
According to the Texas Association of Counties, a disaster is defined as an occurrence or imminent threat of widespread or severe damage, injury, or loss of life or property. This could be the result of any natural or man-made cause, such as a fire, flood, earthquake, wind, storm, oil spill and water contamination.
The governor, a city mayor or county judge has the authority to issue a disaster declaration for a certain amount of time.
On Sunday, Abbott issued disaster declarations for Franklin, Harrison, Marion, Upshur and Wood counties.
The Gregg County and Panola County judges on Monday issued disaster declarations locally for their counties respectively. Local declarations aim to make obtaining state resources easier and loosen red tape.
Gregg County Judge Bill Stoudt said the county disaster declaration opens up a whole new avenue of support from the state. He said Gregg County is working with the Texas Division of Emergency Management.
Trucks are coming in to bring ice and the declaration should help with bringing in additional bottled waters. It could also open the door for giving relief to businesses that lost inventory amid power outages, Stoudt added.
Stoudt said he believes there shouldn't be a need to extend the declaration as the power should be restored by this Friday.
The Texas Government Code states these declarations provide for cooperation in disaster mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery. It also authorizes coordination of activities related to disaster response by agencies.
In Abbott's declaration, he authorized the use of all available resources of state government and of political subdivisions reasonably needed to cope with disaster.
Under the government code, the governor can "temporarily reassign resources, personnel, or functions of state executive departments and agencies" for the purposes of responding to the disaster.
The code also allows for any regulatory statute to be suspended amid a disaster to ease the response time. Through Abbott's declaration, the governor authorized the suspension of rules that would hinder any state agency’s emergency response to protect life or property.