Gonzales
7,202
Nixon
2,186
Smiley
453
Waelder
947
Edna
5,899
Ganado
1,915
La Ward 200
Lolita CDP 548
Vanderbilt CDP
411
Hallettsville
2,345
Moulton
944
Shiner
2,070
Yoakum * 3,594
CDP = Census Designated Place
* The City of Yoakum is in both DeWitt and Lavaca Counties.
The GCRPC region is large in area and diverse in use.
Victoria and Port Lavaca are the two largest cities in the region.
They also are nearest the Petro-Chemical industries and other
manufacturing plants. They both
have the most facilities as far as law enforcement, fire departments, EMS, and
hospitals. However, with limited
funding resources adequate equipment, training, and deployment are not adequate.
The other areas of our region are primarily rural in nature.
These areas do not have adequate resources available in the event of a Weapons
of Mass Destruction (WMD)
or other mass casualty event.
In the event of a WMD or mass
casualty situation, the region would be compromised quickly with the lack
equipment and response personnel to respond to the incident.
Approximately
1,772 miles of state maintained highways serve the region.
These highways have a high volume of traffic carrying hazardous cargo to
the petro-chemical plants. The
region is served by at least three railroads.
Many hazardous chemicals are carried by these railroads and they travel
through the centers of many of the metropolitan areas of our region.
It is impossible to predict where an incident could occur on any of these
facilities. A catastrophic event,
especially in populated areas of the region, could result in a large casualty
loss.
In the south part of Jackson County is Lake Texana. About 60% of the water is committed to the petro-chemical plants in our region. The remaining water is committed to the City of Corpus Christi, which has a population of nearly 300,000. While Lake
pg. 2