Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff today filed a disaster declaration for the entire county, following the Sunday night tornadoes which damaged hundreds of homes, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
"People sometimes forget we have 26 other communities in Bexar County other than San Antonio," he said. "Many of those cities experienced damage, I know that Live Oak did."
Wolff said the tornado that hit Alamo Heights, which will be covered by today's disaster declaration, has been upgraded to an EF-2, which indicates winds of 11 to 135 miles an hour. That was the tornado that did the most damage, as it skidded along the ground for four miles from San Pedro and Basse to Loop 410 near Starcrest.
Wolff said one of the main reasons why the damage wasn't worse, and nobody was killed, was the $500 million draining project that was implemented following the flood of 2002.
"We have completed thirty major flood control projects, and we have put in place the HALT system at various low water crossin gs."
May or Ivy Taylor submitted a disaster declaration for the City of San Antonio on Monday. The declarations will be filed jointly with the governor's office and FEMA. If grated, the disaster declaration would free up federal and state money to repair damaged local property, like streets and CPS Energy facilities, as well as provide low interest loans for recovery for homeowners and small businesses.