Houston's prepared, but not too prepared, for disaster

So, some good news: According to a scorecard released today by the Department of Homeland Security, Houston is the best-prepared city in Texas to deal with a major disaster, scoring higher than San Antonio and Dallas — but the bad news is that that's not really anything to write home about, Harris County Judge Robert Eckels said.

The DHS surveyed 75 U.S. cities, metro areas and territories for their emergency preparedness, including advanced, integrated communication systems. The best-prepared areas were Washington; San Diego; Minneapolis-St. Paul; Columbus, Ohio; Sioux Falls, S.D.; and Laramie County, Wyo. At the bottom of the list were Chicago; Cleveland; Baton Rouge; Mandan, N.D.; and American Samoa. All the areas surveyed have communication policies in place, but the DHS found that only about 10 percent of 6,800 communities surveyed for an earlier report have systems that allow different local agencies to communicate with each other routinely. That's the problem in Harris County, Eckels said:

So far, Harris County has achieved interoperability with most of the neighboring cities and counties, the Metro system and the airports but not yet with the city of Houston's police and fire departments, Eckels said. "The big hole is the city of Houston," he said. "That's our next goal."

Eckels said the county is ahead of other areas in the country in terms of its readiness, but getting things to the point he'd like them to be will cost far more than $100 million. "It's not something you can buy overnight," he told the Chronicle. Unless, of course, you have a couple hundred million dollars tucked under your mattress.

Joe Laud, a Houston Emergency Center spokesman, said the city is about halfway through a project to distribute new communication equipment that will help authorities communicate. "It's still in progress, but it's a progress that is happening much faster than it has been in many years," he said.