HOUSTON, TX – More than 40 eighth grade students both from Cy-Fair ISDs Hamilton Middle School and Houston ISDs McReynolds Middle School participated in the AshBritt sponsored hurricane response simulations last week at the Harris County Office of Homeland Security & Emergency Management Emergency Operations Center and the City of Houston’s Emergency Operations Center
The storms tested the students’ ability to handle evacuations, vehicle accidents, damaged homes, fires, flooded neighborhoods, rescues of people, and escaped zoo animals. The Hurricane Storm Simulations were named Nicole and Jasmine for the students’ teacher and principal. The students concluded the simulations by hosting press conferences.
The City of Houston and Harris County EOCs were selected for the simulations due to the long history of flood events and hurricanes in the area. Students were placed in groups corresponding to real-life emergency management roles. City and County staff were on hand to help guide students through the complexities of responding to multiple incidents during a hurricane.
“AshBritt is proud to support disaster impacted communities throughout Texas and the next generation of Emergency Management leaders,” said Brittany Perkins Castillo, AshBritt CEO. “It is education and preparedness that make a considerable difference prior to events, and these simulations provided critical knowledge to the students.”
This opportunity was possible through a partnership with StormZone. StormZone is a multidisciplinary science and social studies organization dedicated to exposing children everywhere to the effects of severe weather including hurricanes, earthquakes, wildfires and more.
“We are happy to have hosted the Weather Rangers today,” said Harris County Emergency Management Coordinator Mark Sloan. “You are never too young to learn the importance of preparedness, especially in a community like ours where we experience weather and man-made events frequently,” said Sloan.
Now in its 27th year, AshBritt is a national turn-key rapid-response disaster recovery and environmental services contractor. AshBritt has conducted more than 330 disaster response missions and 30 special environmental projects, successfully serving more than 600 clients. We have been directly involved in the recovery efforts of more than 60 federally declared disasters in 19 states. AshBritt has been a contractor for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) for 20 years and is currently the prime contractor for the South Pacific Division (AZ, CA, NV, UT, NM) and South Atlantic Division (AL, FL, GA, SC, NC).