Houston-area first responders deploy to help with Central Texas flood recovery

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — At least five groups of first responders from the Houston area were called on by the state to lend a hand in the devastating flooding.

So far, teams from the Houston Fire Department, Cypress Creek, Galveston County, New Waverly, and Montgomery County have deployed.

HFD District Chief Joshua Vogel is one of four members of the Wildland Group that is deploying. He said they received a call around 11 a.m. and were on the road by 3 p.m.

When ABC13 spoke to Vogel, he said they did not know what their assignment would be. He said they could be assisting with rescues or responding to standard calls for Central Texas fire stations while the area crews deal with the flooding.

All of the Houston area teams headed that way were going to meet up at a gas station outside of San Antonio this afternoon, according to Vogel, and find out their assignments.

He said the teams could be gone as long as two weeks.

“We all have a kit we maintain with about five days of clothes,” Vogel said. “We keep MREs and water everything ready that we’ll need to self-sustain for about 48 hours. Past that, this is just suppression gear, so we bring our fire gear, we have all our firefighting equipment, (and) we bring extra tools like extrication tools. We even brought stuff for chainsaw work in case there’s a lot of debris and things like that. We think forward about any kind of extra help that we can provide the community… but that’s what we’ve been doing is going around (the truck) a couple of times and seeing what else can we possibly bring that could be helpful.”

Vogel said this is his team’s second deployment of the year.

When asked how he prepares mentally, Vogel said, “It could become overwhelming if you’re not in the right mindset. We’ve all done this a couple of times, and I think everyone’s good at it, honestly. You just take it one bite at a time, be flexible, (and) be understanding. There’s a lot of moving parts in a big event like this, and at the end of the day, we’re just there to help. So even if it’s a small bit of help or a large bit of help at the end there, we’re just here to help.”

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