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Cameron County Urges Residents To Call 211 For Hurricane Help
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More than 100,000 Cameron County residents lack the necessary transportation needed to evacuate if a major storm threatens the area.
 With Hurricane Season underway, officials report that only a fraction, 560, have signed up with the 211 Texas Information and Referral hotline. It’s “the number to call when you don’t know who to call,” according to the organization’s Web site, 211texas.org.
It connects Texas residents with health and human services outlets in their area, including emergency information and disaster relief.
The possibility of a mass evacuation this season has county officials worried that if a storm strikes, they will be unable to locate some 87,000 to 120,000 individuals who have no way out.
“When you register with 211, that’s how I know where you are,” said Johnny Cavazos, emergency management coordinator for Cameron County. “That’s how I know that you don’t have the means to evacuate yourself.”
County and city officials are encouraging residents without personal transportation or with special health care needs to pre-register with the Texas 211 Information Referral Network.
Pre-registering will provide local officials with details on the individuals’ location, and if an evacuation is ordered, officials will know where to go and pick up people who need a way out.
By pre-registering, residents will be provided with transportation to an evacuation center. School districts will provide buses and bus drivers to pick up residents and take them to the county’s staging area in San Benito. From there, residents will be put on buses provided by the state and taken to the county’s designated evacuation center in San Antonio.
The Texas National Guard will help with the evacuation process.
The Associated Press reported this month that if a hurricane threatens the lower Gulf Coast, officials plan to set up hubs in Cameron, Hidalgo and Willacy counties.
As many as 1,000 school buses and motor coaches have been lined up for use in an evacuation, officials at this year’s State Hurricane Conference said.
The buses would be sent to the “state staging area” at Dodge Arena, just south of McAllen. From there, the buses would be dispatched up to four days before a hurricane’s landfall to transportation hubs throughout the region. There, the buses would be loaded with supplies, fuel and passengers for transportation inland toward San Antonio.
Evacuations would continue until just before tropical force strength winds began coming ashore, according to reports from the conference.
The FCC activated the 211 system nationwide in 2000, prompted by lobbying from the United Way and the Alliance of Information and Referral Systems.
 The registry played a key role coordinating mass evacuations during hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005.
Cavazos believes some residents are hesitant to sign up with 211 because of misinformation about the program and who can use it.
“A lot of people, I think, are apprehensive about registering with 211 because they think they are going to be asked other questions,” he said, referring mostly to concerns about immigration status.
“My job is to save lives not to inquire about your immigration status. The county judge has ordered me to ensure that lives come first and not their legal status in this country.”
While 211 users won’t need to show proof of citizenship to board an evacuation bus from home, it’s yet unclear how far they could make it along the northbound evacuation routes.
All buses transporting residents out of the Rio Grande Valley must pass through U.S. Border Patrol checkpoints in Falurrias or Sarita, where federal agents will inquire about citizenship.
A Border Patrol spokesman said this week that the agency is researching their policies in case of mandatory evacuations but could not comment for this story.
Cavazos said he urges residents who will need to be evacuated to pre-register with the 211 referral network so he will know how many buses to order from the state.
“I may not have enough buses” for those who don’t register in advance, Cavazos said.
The last time an evacuation was ordered in Cameron County was in 2005 when Brownsville Mayor Eddie Treviño Jr. asked residents to leave because of threats by hurricanes Emily and Rita.
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