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Mayor, Judge share memorable moments, look ahead one year after Harvey

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner and Harris County Judge Ed Emmett reflect on the storm on year later with KHOU 11 News reporter Jeremy Rogalski.

HOUSTON - We all had to navigate Harvey’s uncharted waters, but two men were steering the ship with 4.5 million people on board.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner and Harris County Judge Ed Emmett reflect on the storm on year later with KHOU 11 News reporter Jeremy Rogalski.

TIMELINE: Hurricane Harvey brings catastrophic rain, flooding to Gulf Coast

KHOU 11 News: “I’d like each of you to complete the sentence: A year after Hurricane Harvey…”

Mayor Turner: “It seems just like yesterday, and this guy (Judge Emmett) and I have seen each other, seems like every day since (laughs).”

KHOU 11 News: “Judge, a year after Hurricane Harvey…”

Judge Emmett: “It’s pretty much what we wake up to every day. What are we going to do to keep people safe?”

KHOU 11 News: “There has to be some snapshots, some kind of memorable moments.”

Judge Emmett: Leading up to the storm, the Friday before, there was a tornado that was tracking northwest. Rains hadn’t started yet. We’re in our emergency operations center, on the floor with a deputy constable, and he looks up, and I said, ‘My gosh, that’s a tornado,’ and he said, ‘Yeah, and that’s my house.’ And he stayed there and worked for days, and we all have people like that.”

KHOU 11 News: “Mayor, same question.”

Mayor Turner: “I remember getting a call from Judge about holding a press conference on that Sunday night, and I left the (Houston Emergency Center) to go over to TranStar with the Mayor’s detail, and we could only get in within two or three blocks away and literally had to park in the street. And we walked the rest of the way to TranStar.”

KHOU 11 News: “You couldn’t get to your own news conference.”

Mayor Turner: “That night stood out very vividly…there was water everywhere.”

Harvey brought highs and lows

Judge Emmett: “Probably one of the lowest moments was realizing we probably weren’t going to be able to set up shelters as easily as we had thought…the magnitude was so great, the volunteers for the Red Cross couldn’t get out of their homes so we couldn’t get those shelters set up.”

Mayor Turner: “The low was recognizing the magnitude of the storm, but not having all the sources readily available when you thought you, when you needed them…even when you knew where the trucks and the supplies were, not being able to navigate through, that was a low moment. The high moment, for me, is just seeing how people just came together. It wasn’t a question of politics or religion or language, people stepped up.”

KHOU 11 News: “A defining moment in covering this storm judge was when you got up to the podium and I’m paraphrasing here, but you essentially said, ‘If you've got a boat, if you've got a high water vehicle, we need you.'"

Judge Emmett: “In this case we needed every asset that we could have — all hands on deck — and going forward, let’s face it, that’s a tool that we’re going to have to use, because if we have this kind of event, there’s no way law enforcement or fire departments are going to have the assets to deal with it.”

Lessons learned

KHOU 11 News: “The decision to release massive amounts of water from the dam, any lessons learned there?"

Mayor Turner: “Communication, that’s the key…you just can’t release it, and release more than what one had said and don’t provide the notification."

Mayor Turner said he received little notice from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which decided to increase the volume of release from Addicks and Barker reservoirs late at night.

Mayor Turner: “There has to be communication with all of the stakeholders so that people will know what’s coming, what’s coming their way, and that’s a critical, that’s a critical lesson.”

Looking ahead

KHOU 11 News: “Complete the sentence: When the next storm hits...”

Judge Emmett: “When the next storm hits, I want us to be a safer community…Hopefully mother nature will give us enough time, because with every completed project, people are going to be removed from harm’s way.”

KHOU 11 News: “Mayor, when the next big one hits...”

Mayor Turner: “Well, we’ll be stronger, better prepared, more resilient. And when the next one hits after that, we’ll be better, stronger, more resilient. And when the third one comes, we’ll be better, stronger and resilient.”

Tap here for more on Harvey One Year Later

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