CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Leaders in San Patricio County are assessing the needs of the community by creating a Health Equity Task Force that will help fill in gaps for the county's disadvantaged population.
San Patricio County Emergency Preparedness Director Kimberley Watson said due to the county's rural landscape, getting residents the resources they need can become difficult.
"We don't have hospitals, we have individuals with low income, individuals who may not be able to understand English," Watson said.
The taskforce recently sent out a survey to county residents in hopes to get their feedback.
"What our gaps are, where we need to improve and how we need to reach the individuals who need the assistance," she said.
Once the results come back, Watson said they can start moving forward with supplying residents with the resources in the event of a natural disaster.
"We need to know, do we need to gather up more transportation, do we need to go to gather up more resources," Watson said. "Not everybody has cellphones, not everybody has access to the news."
It's preparations like this, that Matthew Rosencrans with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said will come in handy as we approach an expected active hurricane season.
"People should be starting to prepare now for the upcoming hurricane season," he said. "You want to have that supplies on hand now. If you start to buy them little by little now, it's less of a financial hit."
Rosencrans said that due to our geographic location, there are certain factors that we need to be mindful of.
"Your going to be very prone to some intense flooding, but the heavy and intense rainfalls and storm surges is a very big threat in the southern Texas area," he said.
Watson said that filling out the survey helps ensure as many voices as possible are heard and assisted.
"For instance, Hurricane Harvey, what were their difficulties, the survey will help us figure out what our gaps are," she said.