SAN ANTONIO — The city of San Antonio is trying to create new ways to help people in an emergency.
In the proposed budget, the city wants to create what it’s calling resiliency hubs, a one-stop shop for various resources that can be accessed before, during and after any disaster.
The winter storm affected thousands of people including Cynthia Adams, although she admits she didn’t have it as bad as others.
“It was quite a memorable week where we did lose our heat and our hot water, and we were down to a few groceries where we were running out of food…luckily we got the hot water back on and things got better but yeah, for a few days it wasn’t fun,” Adams said.
She likes the idea of the city creating resiliency hubs around town in existing buildings such as a library or senior center.
As part of the city’s proposed $3.1 billion budget, deputy city manager Maria Villagomez says they are trying to identify a plan to build four centers across the city that will act like a temporary shelter.
“As we have opened temporary shelters, either the convention center or we have partnered with schools to open locations, we don’t get a lot of traffic from our community,” Villagomez said.
Villagomez says they want to work with the community to identify locations that can be temporary shelters. They want to explore the possibility of having programs throughout the year so communities can become familiar with the sites.
Those facilities could also be equipped with backup generators that will be able to provide sustainable energy in case of an electrical outage.
The cost would be about $1 million for the four centers, Villagomez says.
Backup generators could also be installed at police and fire substations so those services can continue to be provided to the community.
“Our goal is to make sure that we work with our community to prepare them how to respond to an emergency,” Villagomez said.
Adams thinks the centers would provide help in a time of need.
“I do think it would be a great place that felt like you had a sense of community, even for people for support, because I do think it’s very scary to not have power or heat or hot water,” Adams said.
The city’s budget is set to be approved on September 16, if the resiliency hub is part of the approval then the city will develop a plan for the hubs.