ODESSA, Texas — Manning their stations again, city IT, city management and Odessa Fire Rescue are back at work at the Incident Command Center at the Lawndale Community Building.
Hospitals and schools need help, so local leaders are stepping in.
"We establish plans, we draft those and then we put them into action," Phillip Urrutia, Odessa assistant city manager, said.
This means more manpower.
"There's an ability for breakout rooms here, but also we are away from the hospitals and things of that nature, so we're able to support from this area here and we have all of our technology, internet, things of that nature from the last set up," Urrutia said.
Their day-to-day operation is 9 to 5. That could change if matters get worse or better.
Each station takes on different tasks: logistics, planning, finance and operations.
"We trace the numbers, we are creating what's called situational awareness," Urrutia said. "We're able to update our elected officials of what the positivity is within the hospital, how many hospital beds are being used, how many ventilators are being used, but beyond that we're able to provide other support. With the Regeneron clinic that's coming up, there is a need for setting that up, so we provided the resources to set that up. There was a need for PPE. That's the masks, the gowns, the things of that nature, and we were able to acquire some of those items from the state to provide to the clinic to open up."
They're looking at the bigger picture too, outside of Odessa.
"We have access to the numbers through the hospital," Urrutia said. "There's a group called the BorderRAC that provides numbers where not only Odessa, Midland, but our surrounding areas receive information on ventilators that are in use, beds that are in use."
And in putting all this brain power together, they're hoping to cut down COVID-19 faster.