Montgomery County and Conroe ISD describe hurricane preparedness partnership and resources

Montgomery County emergency management and Conroe ISD staff told the School Safety and Security Committee Wednesday that the county and district maintain a coordinated hurricane-preparedness partnership that includes mutual-aid agreements, shared sheltering plans and communications resources including Starlink and FirstNet-capable mobile cell sites.

Jason Millsaps, director of the Montgomery County Office of Emergency Management and chief of staff to Judge Keogh, described the county's logistics capabilities and urged joint communications to reach residents who do not consume traditional weather media. "I call it the Costco for emergency management," Millsaps said of the county warehouse, noting the county maintains a 78,000-square-foot facility and rotating stock including pallets of ice and other supplies.

District staff and county officials reviewed the operational elements they use in preparedness and response: prepositioned generators and generator trailers, emergency trailers stocked with portable generators and extension cords, priority work on water intrusion-prone locations, and after-action reviews to update plans. Marshall Schroeder, executive director of custodial and maintenance for the district, said the custodial and maintenance team conducts monthly checks on generators and maintains pallets of water and three emergency trailers. "We have 3 emergency trailers. One's called the flood fighter, if you will," Schroeder said.

Millsaps and district staff discussed communications and surge management. The county described shifting to Starlink connectivity where fiber or power nodes fail, and the use of compact mobile cell sites (cells-on-wheels) that, when paired with Starlink, can restore cellular coverage in a roughly half-mile radius for FirstNet users. Millsaps said the county maintains 14 Starlink systems and mobile cell capabilities, and can deploy Pelican cases of 20 FirstNet phones with push-to-talk channels for district distribution in an isolated incident.

Speakers discussed license-plate-reader data sharing and camera image quality in relation to school driveway cameras; county representatives described their regional law-enforcement integrations but stressed that the district's current drive-way cameras are being installed primarily for incident review rather than automatic plate-running.

County and district officials said mutual-aid agreements have been used in recent storms to move buses, staff and supplies, and they encouraged the district to use its robust texting network to help reach households that do not follow traditional news. The county noted it is not an evacuation county and aims to support coastal county evacuations by managing incoming traffic and fuel resources.

Committee members asked about operational details and communications protocols; county and district staff agreed to coordinate notifications as storms develop so district messages can amplify county situational awareness.