CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Through both natural disasters and even a pandemic, one city employee, Billy Delgado, and his team have helped navigate the hundreds of thousands of citizens through it all.
Delgado's job as an emergency management coordinator required him to engage and coordinate with multiple departments, both locally and at the state level.
He tells 3NEWS that working with the city truly felt like working with family and that it's something he'll miss most about the job.
"The employees, the unsung heroes are the ones behind the scenes doing a lot of things that people never see, and being a part of that is fantastic," Delgado said.
Delgado has given his all to Corpus Christi. With over three decades of experience working for the city, he's had stints in parks and recreation, as well as engineering departments.
He's been serving in his current position as the city's emergency management coordinator for the last 14 years.
"The rough times, the tough times during the evacuations and the different storms, the performance of our city employees; that's probably the highlight of everything," Delgado said.
Delgado helped navigate the city's numerous emergencies such as hurricane Harvey, the 2022 winter storm and Covid-19.
City manager Peter Zanoni says Delgado's tireless work behind the scenes was vital to keeping the public informed and safe.
“Many nights I got some sleep because of Billy. When we had some of our natural disasters, Billy and I would talk and he said 'City manager, go to bed. I got this covered.' We'll talk early in the morning," City manager, Peter Zanoni said. "Billy cares about the people the most and our community has been really fortunate to have Billy leading the numerous events."
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