The U.S. Border Patrol Rio Grande Valley Sector (RGV) established an Incident Management Team to work in the Emergency Operation Center (EOC) that would be activated during a wide scale emergency or natural disaster.
Under the direction of the RGV Office of Incident Management (OIM), the EOC assists in the coordination of all Customs and Border Protection (CBP) assets and resources being deployed to impacted areas during significant incidents that occur within the CBP Region VI (Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana).
The RGV EOC was vital during the deployment of CBP assets after Hurricane Harvey made landfall in East Texas last August, which resulted in the rescue of over 1,400 people. Recently, the EOC helped coordinate the rescue of over 300 people throughout the RGV during the flooding seen last month.
Yesterday, members of the Incident Management Team, comprised of Border Patrol personnel from throughout the RGV, helped refine best practices involved with emergency management by participating in table top exercises.
“The Incident Management Team represents a leap forward for CBP’s emergency response capabilities in how we support the community and collaborate with federal, state, and local responders during a disaster,” said RGV OIM Operations Officer, Martin Chavez.
