Dallas Officials Detail Storm Response

On Thursday morning, Dallas city officials updated residents on the city’s response to the unprecedented winter storm.  According to Mayor Eric Johnson, what was expected to be a difficult situation has turned out to be “backbreaking.”

“We’ve been hit, and we’ve been hit hard,” Johnson said. He added that he felt betrayed by those the city depends on to supply power and said he would seek answers after the crisis had passed.  In the meantime, he said the city was treating this as an all-hands-on-deck situation and encouraged people to not lose hope.

On early Sunday, the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center was opened as a shelter and warming station. By Thursday more than 750 homeless people had been relocated there from other shelters.  Director of Emergency Management Rocky Vaz said that the convention center will continue to operate in this capacity until further notice.

Power outages across the city prevented city staff from opening neighborhood recreation centers and libraries as additional warming stations.  Instead, a fleet of 19 coach busses were deployed to these locations to serve as temporary warming stations.  Many residents have utilized them as places to sleep and get a meal. 

Vaz added that the Emergency Operations Center was activated Monday, and will continue meeting (mostly virtually) at least once per day as long as needed.

Water issues have also become a chief concern for Dallas residents. This week the water utilities department has received more than 30 calls per day reporting leaking or broken pipes.  The department typically only received three such calls per day. While these problems are expected to persist for at least a few more days, Dallas Water Utilities department director Terry Lowery emphasized that, unlike many neighboring cities, Dallas was not under a boil order as of Thursday.

Public Works director Robert Perez reported that the city is now deploying approximately 40 sanding trucks across Dallas. They are working 24 hours per day, and focusing primarily on major corridors, bridges, streets with inclines, and areas identified by police and fire rescue officials as safety concerns.

Dallas Fire Rescue Chief of Staff Bret Stidham said his department has seen an unprecedented increase in calls over the past week. On a typical day, the department receives around 800 calls per day.  On Monday that number had jumped to 1,900.  The next two days, it was closer to 2,800. 

A huge percentage of the calls were for either water cut-off or structure fires.  Over the first three days of the week, there were 94 structure fire calls, and 37 working fires.  According to Stidham, many of those fires were the result of faulty wiring, poorly maintained fireplaces, and people using alternate heating methods such as stoves, grills, and space heaters to stay warm. He encouraged those without power to find safer ways of staying warm if at all possible. 

To make matters even worse, 15 fire stations have experienced power outages, and some above-ground water tanks have frozen as well.  In response, Stidham said that the department has increased staffing, and vowed to answer the call when needed.

“We are working diligently to make sure that everyone is being taken care of,” he said.