The city of Levelland has a secret weapon for fighting severe weather and emergencies this Spring.
The Levelland Emergency Communications Unit is a mobile command center that can be operated on site during emergency situations.
“It can serve as a command post and information center for involved agencies and chief emergency management coordinator,” Whitney Owens said.
It was most recently used on Tuesday when a large grass fire spread from Yoakum to Hockley county and closer to Sundown. The Texas A&M Forest Service reported more than 8,500 acres burned.
Inside the unit, sits amateur radio operators like Owens. They work with weather prediction equipment and other devices to get the most up to date information to emergency responders.
“We can obtain information for them,” Owens said. “For example, awhile ago we had a request ‘Could you get us a spot forecast for this area? What the wind conditions are? Humidity? They tasked us, we got the information, sent it back to them and it helps them make fire fighting decisions. So we serve as a go-to point.”
The biggest benefit to the command center is the ability to communicate no matter the conditions.
“How important? That’s a good question,” Owens said. “But think about this, in a time of disaster when your cell phone goes down, land lines go down, internet goes down, there is only one mode of communication left and that is straight radio waves. That’ll work without all that other stuff.”
The unit is owned by the city of Levelland. Owens said the radio operators volunteer their time and sometimes their equipment. Owens said it is their way of serving the community.
