Texas Emergency GIS Response Team is having training class on March 17th at the Freese & Nichols Austin office. Register here: https://guestlist.co/events/451497
We really need to boost our response capabilities in the Central Texas area so I hope you will all consider attending the training, or sending your co-workers if you are already a member.
It is an in-person class from 8:30 to 4:15 provided to you for free – bring a laptop and TX EGRT can provide a 1 year ArcGIS license if you need. After that, the time commitment is minimal until we are activated. Then you may be asked to volunteer for a 6-hour shift in a local or regional EOC and help with the mapping duties. As you know, having fast accurate mapping available during a disaster is extremely valuable, but most agencies can’t support a GIS position specifically for emergency response … that’s where we come in. We train ourselves on the basics, then step in when needed.
Example – we had tornadoes move through 5 counties in the Dallas area. Texas EGRT was deployed to the City of Rowlett EOC and the regional Disaster District EOC. Then TX EGRT members worked within their own agencies to handle the response in 3 other counties. We probably had 25 people involved – each working a 6-hour shift, and we knocked that out in record time. And time is a precious commodity in a disaster … I like to think we helped speed up the overall response and rebuilding effort!
We have a great working relationship with the Texas Division of Emergency Management in Austin to help provide GIS capabilities for state-level disasters – which can either be an on-site assignment or a remote assistance (from your desktop) assignment. We are working with them to standardize the GIS response state-wide but we need GIS people all over to make this really effective.
If you are interested in the class, check out the website below, and if you are already a member please forward to friends and co-workers so that we can get more trained people available for responses. http://www.texasegrt.org/egrt-training.html
GIS has given us all a lot over the years, and this is a great way to give something back. This class is for professionals only and not for students in training.
TRAINING LoCATION:
FREESE AND NICHOLS
10431 Morado Circle
Suite 300
Austin, Texas 78759
Get Directions
WORKSHOP TRAINER / CONTACT PERSON
David W. Allen, GISP | GIS Manager
City of Euless, Texas
o 817.685.1633 | f 817.685.3149 | dallen@eulesstx.gov
