COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KRHD) — Governor Greg Abbott visited TEEX's Disaster City in College Station on Tuesday afternoon to present tools to first responders and discuss emergency preparedness for winter.
- Governor Greg Abbott presented $100,000 worth of Black & Decker power tools to TEEX, which trains thousands of first responders year-round.
- Chief Nim Kidd says the tools will help first responders with tasks like rescues.
- As winter approaches, Abbott says the state is better prepared than ever, with a more reliable power grid and greater power capacity than in previous years.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
"I've seen firsthand the faces of the families of our fellow Texans who have suffered crisis after crisis because of the disasters that occur naturally," Governor Greg Abbott said.
Governor Greg Abbott stopped in College Station to present tools to first responders.
"We want to make sure that every region, every staffer in every corner of our state is fully trained to respond with the best training and equipment immediately," Abbott said.
Equipment is just one tool that goes into training them at TEEX's Disaster City.
"There's a lot of construction and demolition-related work that first responders do to access people trapped or missing," Nim Kidd said.
Nim Kidd — Chief of the Texas Division of Emergency Management and Chancellor of Disaster and Emergency Services at Texas A&M — is responsible for preparing the state for emergencies, especially as we head into the winter.
"We just ended the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season," Kidd said. "It ended November 30th."
Texas has experienced brutal freezes over the years, affecting the power grid and leaving many without electricity.
But Abbott says the state is more prepared than in previous years.
"We have far more power available this winter than we've had any winter ever before, and that power is far more reliable than ever," Abbott said.
With the help of the tools and the governor, Kidd believes it will make a difference in safety.
"We are a big state, and we do have a lot of local and statewide disasters, and so having the governor's leadership and support, you can't get any better than that," Kidd said.
