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 "If I was a Texas resident, particularly along the southeast coast, I would make sure I was ready," R. David Paulison, the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, told reporters at a briefing at FEMA headquarters. "This is not a time to be complacent."
The Category 4 storm is on a course for northern Mexico, but could shift and hit the region around Brownsville, Texas, along the state's southeastern coast, Paulison said.
In that area, he said there are 400,000 people, many in substandard housing, who lack their own transportation.
Already in place to help with a possible evacuation are 1,300 buses in San Antonio as well as more than 130 fixed-wing aircraft and several hundred helicopters, he said.
The National Hurricane Center in Miami said the first hurricane of the Atlantic season was projected to reach the most dangerous hurricane classification, Category 5, with winds of 160 mph, before crashing into the Mexican coastline near Cancun on Monday night or Tuesday. The Mexican mainland or Texas could be hit later.
"We're going to continue to operate as if this storm is moving into the United States," Paulison said after a video conference with the various federal agencies preparing to respond if necessary.
He said U.S. officials already have spoken with the Mexican government about expedited processing by U.S. customs and border agencies should Mexican residents temporarily need to cross the border.
"We're going to protect people regardless of what country they are from," the FEMA chief said.
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 Paulison took over in 2006 after his predecessor, Michael Brown, was criticized for the government's slow response to Hurricane Katrina in the summer of 2005.
Asked about the problems that ensued after that storm smashed into the Gulf Coast, Paulison said, "From my perspective, it's not going to happen." He cited improved communications among agencies and said contracts are in place that the government "can take off the shelf" for buses, ambulances and relocation camps.
"Katrina was a wake-up call for all of us in emergency management and also for the federal government. We have to play together as a team, have to respond as the federal government, not as individual agencies," he said.
"I do not see this country allowing another Katrina-type event to happen."
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On the Net:
Federal Emergency Management Agency: http://www.fema.gov/
[Associated Press; by John
Heilprin]
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or
redistributed.
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