Texas Department of Public Safety Houston Stops By to Review the Spanish Early Weather Warning/Alert System

NWS Brownsville/Rio Grande Valley Science and Operations Officer Doug Butts demonstrated Systran translation software to Houston DPS

NWS Brownsville/Rio Grande Valley Science and Operations Officer Doug Butts describe the software that translates NWS hazardous weather information from English to Spanish to Texas Department of Public Safety Houston Assistant Mitigation Officer Ms. Shirley Mayes (center) and Ms. Gavymar Rivera (right).

Texas Department of Public Safety Houston Tours Valley
Spanish Early Weather Warning/Alert System, NWS Brownsville/Rio Grande Valley Visited

Brownsville, TX September 25, 2014 – Ms. Shirley Mayes, Assistant Mitigation Officer of the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) in Houston, joined staffer Ms. Gavymar Rivera along with Mr. Manuel Cruz, Director – Homeland Security of the Lower Rio Grande Valley Development Council (LRGVDC), and Mr. Victor Morales, Procurement Director and Disadvantage Business Enterprise Liaison Officer of LRGVDC, on site visits to both NOAA Weather Radio transmitter sites in Pharr and Harlingen, followed by a tour of the National Weather Service Office in Brownsville.

Houston DPS was asked to visit by the State of Texas to get a first–hand look at how the Homeland Security Grant that funded the Lower Rio Grande Valley Spanish Early Weather Alert/Warning System was being used. At NWS Brownsville/Rio Grande Valley, the visitors were treated to a tour of the facility by Science and Operations Officer Doug Butts, who described how forecasts and warnings are created by operations staff (below), the English to Spanish translation process (above), and how the translated information is broadcast by the new transmitters to nearly all of the population of Hidalgo, Willacy, and Cameron County.

Ms. Mayes and Ms. Rivera left the office satisfied that the grant funds were very well spent. "We were proud to show the successful operations of the Spanish Language Early Weather Alert/Warning System to our Texas partners from Houston," said Director Cruz of the LRGVDC Homeland Security Office. "She was impressed by the multi–agency partnerships among state, federal, and Rio Grande Valley partners that showed great use of Texas funds."

NWS Brownsville/Rio Grande Valley staff demonstrate how forecasts and warnings are created to visiting staff of Texas DPS, Houston

NWS Brownsville/Rio Grande Valley Senior Forecaster Justin Gibbs (left, at workstation) shows how forecasts and warnings are created, then translated from English to Spanish, prior to NOAA Weather Radio broadcast to Texas Department of Public Safety Houston Assistant Mitigation Officer Ms. Shirley Mayes (center, leaning in).