No Evacuees, City Stands Down - KCBD NewsChannel 11 Lubbock

Lubbock is no longer on stand-by to house Hurricane Ike evacuees.  Crews worked to tear down cots and get the Lubbock Memorial Civic Center and the City Bank Coliseum back to normal Wednesday.

"About 1,000 cots were set up, some since the beginning of this month and not one was filled, during Hurricane Gustav or Ike," said Lubbock Emergency Management Specialist Kathleen Henley. 

Better safe than sorry, seems to be a good motto for the city of Lubbock.  Despite taking in no evacuees, the city must always be ready if called upon by the state, especially since Hurricane Katrina. 

"This state is just not going to find itself in the situation that the state of Louisiana was in. The state of Texas takes its plan seriously, prepares evacuation plans ahead of time as soon as they feel there is any inanimate danger. Evacuations begin whether those are mandatory or requested at that point resources start preparing stand up and be ready to receive those if needed," said Henley.   

Although it may seem like a lot of work for nothing, being ready is what really counts. 

"It's not frustrating, we understand this is our job and we have to prepare for those citizens and we certainly hope that the citizens of Lubbock understand that is our job and they don't get frustrated with the process as well," said Henley.   

And with the extensive flooding last week, it was a good thing these cots remained empty. 

"We were very fortunate that during the flood event that we did not receive any evacuees so it was very easy to switch gears without compromising the shelter operations," said Henley. 

Henley also told us a lot of the work to set up and take down the two locations was done by Lubbock County jail inmates who worked over 14-hours a day to help get everything finished.

NewsChannel 11's 100 Year Flood Coverage From road closures and event changes to flood assistance and affected city services. Everything you need to know about Lubbock's 100 year flood event.