Joe Moudy, director of the city of Lubbock's Office of Emergency Management, tells AccuWeather how they're bracing for dangerous winds this Friday.
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00:00Lubbock is up in the northwestern part of Texas and they are in the path of a powerful windstorm and extreme weather forecast later today and for tomorrow.
00:10And Joe Mowdy is the Director of the Office of Emergency Management for the City of Lubbock.
00:15Joe, thanks so much for making time for us here.
00:17We appreciate all that you're doing.
00:19And how do you prepare for a high wind event in West Texas and how are your teams getting ready?
00:24Thank you for having me on.
00:26One of the things that we do is we share the forecast out amongst all of our city departments and community partnering organizations.
00:37For the forecast tomorrow, our fire rescue, Lubbock Fire Rescue, will be staffing up additional units.
00:45We will have our electric utilities, our public works teams, Lubbock Fire Rescue and Lubbock PD all in our emergency operations center ready to respond as soon as we identify any impacts from the wind.
01:00So in addition to the wind bringing the overall impacts, there's also going to be a lot of dust.
01:05So how do you prepare differently for dust storms as opposed to just a high wildfire risk?
01:12Make sure that we share information to the public to alert that visibility may be reduced or completely eliminated when they're traveling.
01:22And encourage them to delay travel, to make sure that they're traveling with lights on, and to give themselves extra time to arrive at their destination.
01:33And Joe, with high winds and very dry weather, what's the greatest overall threat and challenge?
01:40Well, with any sparks or open flames that do ignite any fires, those fires will rapidly spread, which then will require additional resources.
01:51That's one of the reasons our Lubbock Fire Rescue is staffing additional people and resources ready to respond to any fire that may occur tomorrow.
02:01So what are you telling residents to do now to prepare their homes and help keep their families safe?
02:09Pay attention to the weather forecast. If it's unsafe to drive, delay that drive or delay that travel.
02:16And to eliminate any type of sparks or open flames tomorrow.
02:22All right. Joe Mowdy, Director of the Office of Emergency Management for the City of Lubbock.
02:26Joe, thanks so much for making time for us here today.
02:29Thank you for having me.