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August 25, 2020 - A Hurricane Warning means hurricane-force winds are expected somewhere within this area within the next 36 hours. Locations affected include [Shelby County].

Wind - Latest local forecast: Equivalent Strong Tropical Storm force wind. Peak Wind Forecast: 45-60 mph with gusts to 85 mph. Window for Tropical Storm force winds: Wednesday evening until Thursday afternoon.

Threat to life and property that includes typical forecast uncertainty in track, size and intensity. Potential for wind 74 to 110 mph. The wind threat has remained nearly steady from the previous assessment. 

Plan: Plan for life-threatening wind of equivalent CAT 1 or 2 hurricane force. 

Prepare: Remaining efforts to protect life and property should be urgently completed. Prepare for considerable wind damage.

Act: Move to safe shelter before the wind becomes hazardous.

Potential impacts: Extensive. Considerable roof damage to sturdy buildings, with some having window, door, and garage door failures leading to structural damage. Mobile homes severely damaged, with some destroyed. Damage accentuated by airborne projectiles. Locations may be uninhabitable for weeks. Many large trees snapped or uprooted along with fences and roadway signs blown over. Some roads impassable from large debris, and more within urban or heavily wooded places. Several bridges, causeways, and access routes impassable. Large areas with power and communications outages.

Flooding rain: Latest local forecast: Flash Flood Watch is in effect.

Peak Rainfall Amounts: Additional 3-6 inches, with locally higher amounts.

Threat to life and property that includes typical forecast uncertainty in track, size and intensity: 

Potential for major flooding rain: The flooding rain threat has remained nearly steady from the previous assessment. 

Plan: Emergency plans should include the potential for major flooding from heavy rain. Evacuations and rescues are likely.

Prepare: Strongly consider protective actions, especially
if you are in an area vulnerable to flooding.

Act: Heed any flood watches and warnings. Failure to take action will likely result in serious injury or loss of life.

Potential impacts: Extensive- Major rainfall flooding may prompt many evacuations and rescues.

Rivers and tributaries may rapidly overflow their banks in multiple places. Small streams, creeks, canals, arroyos, and ditches may become dangerous rivers. In mountain areas, destructive runoff may run quickly down valleys while increasing susceptibility to rockslides and mudslides.
          
Flood control systems and barriers may become stressed. Flood waters can enter many structures within multiple communities, some structures becoming uninhabitable or washed away. Many places where flood waters may cover escape routes. Streets and parking lots become rivers of moving water with underpasses submerged. Driving conditions become dangerous. Many road and bridge closures with some weakened or washed out.

Tornado: Latest local forecast: Situation is somewhat favorable for tornadoes

Threat to life and property that includes typical forecast uncertainty in track, size and intensity: Potential for a few tornadoes

The tornado threat has remained nearly steady from the previous assessment.

Plan: Emergency plans should include the potential for a few tornadoes.

Prepare: If your shelter is particularly vulnerable to tornadoes, prepare to relocate to safe shelter before hazardous weather arrives.

Act: If a tornado warning is issued, be ready to shelter quickly.
 
Potential impacts: Limited

The occurrence of isolated tornadoes can hinder the execution of emergency plans during tropical events. A few places may experience tornado damage, along with power and communications disruptions. Locations could realize roofs peeled off buildings, chimneys toppled, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, large tree tops and branches snapped off, shallow-rooted trees knocked over, moving vehicles blown off roads, and small boats pulled from moorings.

For more information: http://ready.gov/hurricanes

August 25, 2020 - Shelby County is among the list of 36 newly added counties to the State's Disaster Declaration concerning Hurricane Laura on Tuesday, August 25 due to the threat of severe rain, wind, and flooding.

Shelby County Attorney Gary Rholes would like to remind everyone that price gouging in a disaster area is a crime. If anyone suspects price gauging, please contact the Shelby County Attorney's office at 936-598-6100 and it will be investigated.

August 25, 2020 - Governor Greg Abbott today held a press conference at the Alternate State Operations Center in Austin where he provided an update on the state's response to Hurricane Laura. This hurricane is expected to impact the Texas Coast and Southeast Texas as early as Wednesday and bring heavy rainfall, flooding, high winds, and storm surge. The Governor also received a briefing from the Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM), which included an update on response and preparedness efforts from state agency directors and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Additionally, the Governor announced that he has added 36 counties to his State Disaster Declaration due to the threat of severe rain, wind, and flooding. 

During the press conference, Governor Abbott discussed the threat of high winds as well as life-threatening storm surge where Hurricane Laura makes landfall. The Governor also discussed evacuation efforts throughout the state, and announced that reception centers in San Antonio, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Austin will open later today. The state is providing buses to transport Texans that are evacuating. There are also over 225,000 hotel rooms available across the state to provide shelter to evacuees. A full list of mandatory and voluntary evacuations can be found on the Texas Hurricane Center web page. Governor Abbott urged Texans to take action now to protect themselves and their property. 

"Hurricane Laura is rapidly intensifying and poses a major threat to communities in Southeast Texas and along the coast," said Governor Abbott. "Texans in the path of this storm should waste no time preparing for the impact of Hurricane Laura and take immediate action to keep themselves and their loved ones safe. I urge our Southeast and Coastal communities to heed the guidance of local officials, follow evacuation orders, and remain vigilant as we brace for the impact of Hurricane Laura. The State of Texas will continue to monitor this storm and provide the resources needed to keep Texans safe."  

Hurricane Laura was upgraded from a Tropical Storm earlier today. It is currently a Category 1 hurricane but is expected to gain strength to a Category 3 or 4 hurricane as it makes landfall over Southeast Texas and Southwest Louisiana late Wednesday or early Thursday. Beginning Wednesday, these areas will experience tropical storm force winds, heavy rain, significant storm surge, possible flash flooding, and rising water levels. The chances of hurricane force winds will increase Wednesday evening. Heavy rainfall that begins over Southeast Texas on Wednesday will shift into Northeast Texas on Thursday. The primary water threat will be from storm surge. Texans are urged to remain vigilant and aware as Hurricane Laura continues to head towards Texas.

Additional state resources have been rostered to help respond to Hurricane Laura. TDEM has activated the following resources and personnel:

  • Texas A&M Forest Service: Incident management teams, chain saw crews, firefighting strike teams, and water evacuation and rescue teams
  • Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service: Urban search and rescue teams and swift water rescue teams, including Texas A&M Task Force 1 and 2
  • Texas A&M Agrilife: Agents positioned to support emergency operations centers and disaster finance teams
  • Texas Military Department: High profile water rescue vehicles, airplanes and helicopters for evacuation and rescue, shelter management teams, evacuee tracking network teams, 6th Civilian Response Team available for Hazmat response
  • Texas Department of Public Safety: Rescue helicopters, command and control airplanes, swift water rescue boat teams, flood response boat teams, dive boat teams, as well as Troopers, agents, and Rangers to assist local Law Enforcement with evacuation and securing evacuated areas
  • Texas Parks and Wildlife: Game Wardens, State Park Police, swift water rescue boats, Shallow water evacuation boats, air boats, incident management teams, and a helicopter rescue team
  • Texas Department of State Health Services: Emergency Medical Task Force (EMTF) Ambuses, EMTF ambulances, EMTF Medical incident management and support teams
  • Texas Department of Transportation: High profile water rescue vehicles, traffic control devices, and flood protection barriers
  • Texas Commission on Environmental Quality: Water and waste water monitoring teams and hazmat response teams

The Texas Health and Human Services Commission and the Public Utility Commission are also assisting in response efforts. For more information on the state's response to Hurricane Laura, as well as resources for those impacted by the storm, visit the Texas Hurricane Center

Reception Centers for Evacuees:

San Antonio (Opening at 3:00 PM CT  today)
254 Gembler Road
San Antonio, TX 78219

Austin (Opening at 4:00 PM today)
Circuit of the Americas
9201 Circuit of the Americas Boulevard
Austin, TX 78617

Dallas-Fort Worth (Opening at 7:00 PM today)
Mesquite Reception Center 
15515 E. IH-20
Mesquite, TX 75181

Ellis County (Opening at 7:00 PM today)
Knights of Columbus Hall
850 S IH-45
Ennis, Texas 75119

View the Governor's proclamation adding more counties to his State Disaster Declaration.

August 25, 2020 - Highway 96 North is heavy with traffic as evacuees are making their way north to avoid Hurricane Laura. Be alert to traffic delays especially if trying to cross over US 96.

August 25, 2020 - The Shelby County Emergency Management office reports as of 9:18am on Tuesday, August 25, 2020, TxDSHS has reported 2 new cases and the cumulative case count is now 425. The death count is 14 for Shelby County. (The DSHS website dashboard shows 19 deaths for Shelby County as of Aug 25th.)

According to the state's algorithm to determine recoveries, there are 6 new recoveries reported and the total of recoveries is 383. The number of active cases is 28.

Breakdown of cumulative cases by zip code and ages:

Active Cases in each zip code: (Change in Data)

Center (75935) - 13 (1 new, 3 recoveries) 
Joaquin (75954) - 6 (1 recovery)
Shelbyville (75973) - 2 (1 recovery)
Tenaha (75974) - 3 
Timpson (75975) - 4 (1 new, 1 recovery) 

Cumulative Cases in each zip code:

Center (75935) - 281 (1 new)
Joaquin (75954) - 29
Shelbyville (75973) - 27
Tenaha (75974) - 50
Timpson (75975) - 38 (1 new)

Ages of Confirmed Cases:

Ages 1 to 20: 40 cases
Ages 21 to 40: 138 cases (1 new)
Ages 41 to 60: 128 cases, 4 deaths
Ages 61 to 80: 77 cases (1 new), 4 deaths
Ages 81 to 100: 35 cases, 6 deaths 
Age unknown: 7 cases

August 24, 2020 - State Highway 87 South near just south of CR 3012 was the scene of a single-vehicle crash Sunday, August 23, 2020.

When emergency personnel arrived, a Jeep was found partly submerged in a pond.

According to Texas Department of Public Safety State Trooper Dustin Ramos, at around 7:15am a white 2000 Jeep Wrangler driven by Anthony Allen Jr., 42, of Baytown was northbound on SH 87 South.

It appeared the Jeep left the roadway to the right, traveled over a culvert and took evasive action to miss striking a fence. The Jeep then traveled left across SH 87 where it drove through a ditch and then through a fence where it finally came to rest in a pond.

Allen had left the scene, and was located by a Shelby County Sheriff's Deputy during the crash investigation. He was transported by ambulance the Nacogdoches Medical Center - Shelby Emergency Department.

The crash remains under investigation.

August 24, 2020 - The Shelby County Office of Emergency Management and Emergency Management Director, Judge Allison Harbison are keeping abreast of information on the current situation with Tropical Storms Marco and Laura.

We are participating in daily conference calls with the Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM) and the National Weather Service (NWS). 

While TS Marco doesn’t seem to pose much of a threat to Shelby County, TS Laura’s impact on our county remains to be seen until more  information is available as to its direct path and strength. 

Shelby County is still considered a “pass through” county in the states’ coastal evacuation and sheltering plans. There will not be bus loads of evacuees sent to our area but these evacuees will be directed  to areas such as San Antonio and possibly Dallas/Fort Worth where larger shelters are located and resources are more readily available. There could possibly be self-evacuees that fill local hotels and stay with relatives/friends locally. There are no current plans to open shelters for self evacuees because of limited resources available and, due to the COVID Pandemic, sheltering poses even more challenges that would prove to be difficult. 

We encourage everyone to listen closely to your local weather sources to keep informed of impacts to Shelby County from these storms which could include heavy rain/flooding, high winds, and possible tornadoes.  There is also the possibility of power outages.

Personal, family preparation  for any disaster is always important. Following is list of suggested items for a Disaster Preparedness Kit:

  • Water (one gallon per person per day for at least three days, for drinking and sanitation)
  • Food (at least a three-day supply of non-perishable food)
  • Battery-powered or hand crank radio and a NOAA Weather Radio with tone alert
  • Flashlight
  • First aid kit
  • Extra batteries
  • Moist towelettes, garbage bags and plastic ties (for personal sanitation)
  • Wrench or pliers (to turn off utilities)
  • Manual can opener (for food)
  • Cell phone with chargers and a backup battery

August 24, 2020 - Shelbyville Street in Center was the scene of a single-vehicle crash involving a motorcycle Thursday, August 20, 2020.

According to Center Police Officer Justin Whitton, at around 9:20pm a silver Harley Davidson motorcycle ridden by Matt Williams, 64, of Mt. Enterprise, was westbound.

As the motorycle entered a curve in the roadway just before Nancy Street, Williams lost control of the vehicle and traveled off the street to the left and over a culvert before the motorcycle came to rest on its side.

Williams was transported from the scene by ambulance to Nacogdoches where he was placed in an ICU for treatment.

During the crash investigation, emergency personnel noted a baby snake hanging from the motorcycle and what appeared to have been a nest of them in the path of the motorcycle near the culvert. 

August 24, 2020 - The Shelby County Emergency Management office reports as of 8:15am on Monday, August 24, 2020, TxDSHS has reported 2 new cases and the cumulative case count is now 423. The death count is 14 for Shelby County. (The DSHS website dashboard shows 18 deaths for Shelby County as of Aug 5th.)

According to the state's algorithm to determine recoveries, there are 3 new recoveries reported and the total of recoveries is 377. The number of active cases is 32.

Breakdown of cumulative cases by zip code and ages:

Active Cases in each zip code: (Change in Data)

Center (75935) - 15 (1 new, 1 recovery) 
Joaquin (75954) - 7
Shelbyville (75973) - 3
Tenaha (75974) - 3 (1 recovery)
Timpson (75975) - 4 (1 new, 1 recovery)

Cumulative Cases in each zip code:

Center (75935) - 280 (1 new)
Joaquin (75954) - 29
Shelbyville (75973) - 27
Tenaha (75974) - 50
Timpson (75975) - 37 (1 new)

Ages of Confirmed Cases:

Ages 1 to 20: 40 cases
Ages 21 to 40: 137 cases
Ages 41 to 60: 128 cases, 4 deaths
Ages 61 to 80: 74 cases (2 new), 4 deaths
Ages 81 to 100: 35 cases, 6 deaths 
Age unknown: 7 cases

August 24, 2020 - Loop 500 in Center at the intersection of U.S. Highway 96 South was the scene of a two-vehicle crash.

According to Center Police Officer Brian Wright, at 11:45am a white 2015 Nissan Versa driven by Lah Say, 18, of Center with passenger Traveoon McCollister, 18, was southbound on U.S. Highway 96 and was attempting to turn left onto Loop 500. 

At that time a black 2019 Dodge Ram pickup truck driven by Leonard Dupuis, 67, of Center was northbound. Both drivers had a green light; hoever, the Nissan did not have a turn signal, and when it turned left toward Loop 500 it collided with the Dodge.

Minor injuries were reported, but all involved refused treatment from EMS.

No citations were reported at the time of the crash.

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