LOCAL DISASTER ORDER ENACTED FOR CITY OF BRENHAM

Josh Blaschke Send an email March 19, 2020
22 767
  
(courtesy City of Brenham)

Brenham Mayor Milton Tate has signed a local disaster declaration for the City of Brenham.

The order, signed Wednesday, declares a public health emergency for the city, and allows it to take actions necessary to promote the health, safety, and welfare of the public while suppressing COVID-19.  Through this action, the city can:

  • establish curfews
  • regulate occupation of and/or closing of food establishments
  • regulate occupation of and/or closing of common bar spaces open to the public and prohibition of alcohol consumption on the bar premises
  • regulate occupation of and/or closing of event venues, entertainment facilities, festivals, sports venues, museums, tourist attractions, recreation facilities, and other similar facilities where people gather
  • include the quarantine of persons and occupied structures
  • examine and regulate hospitals
  • regulate ingress and egress from the City
  • regulate ingress and egress to occupied structures
  • ensure compliance for those who do not comply with the city’s rules
  • limit the size of gatherings to no more than ten people and mandates the cancellation of all such gatherings with ten or more persons until further notice.

The city is mandating that all gatherings of more than ten people—not concerning businesses or places where activities and shopping are necessary—be stopped immediately.  If residents and businesses do not adhere to the city’s request and guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the declaration gives the Mayor authority to close them or take further action.

Tate in a release said the city is “working around the clock to stay abreast of the information released regarding COVID-19”.  He said the city has not seen the true implications of this virus yet, but knows the only way to stop the spread is to “stop gathering and distance ourselves”.  He asked that all Brenham residents take this seriously and practice social distancing.

(Social distancing involves “remaining out of congregate settings, avoiding mass gatherings, and maintaining distance” whenever possible to limit the ability of the virus to spread. Social distancing is not the same as self-quarantine or isolation, two other practices being utilized to minimize the coronavirus spread. The key difference is that a quarantine or isolation restricts the movement of people within a certain area or zone to limit transferring and spreading an infection. Social distancing places no such locational constraints, rather it is a behavioral practice to lower the risk in most circumstances.)

The city continues to work alongside public health and emergency management officials throughout the state and region to ensure the community is prepared with a proactive approach to mitigate the spread of the virus.

There have been no confirmed COVID-19 cases in Brenham and Washington County at this time.  Should the Washington County Office of Emergency Management receive notification of a confirmed case locally, residents will be notified via the city’s normal communication methods.  The city will continue to coordinate with local officials to provide residents with up to date information.

The city encourages residents to stay informed on the latest developments through trusted sources such as the Texas Department of State Health Services, at www.dshs.texas.gov/coronavirus, or the CDC at www.cdc.gov/coronavirus.

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Josh Blaschke Send an email March 19, 2020
22 767

22 Comments

  1. Please don’t think it’s one positive person. We are a small town. If this person was at Walmart, H-E-B, Brookshire bro’s or a dollar store before showing signs… He was still a carrier. How many people unknowingly came in contact with him or the virus? Then how many people have been in contact with those, still not knowing they are a carrier? So they are still going about life not know they are a carrier? Please don’t wait for Marshal Law to do the right things here. Even if more people are dying from lighten strikes or whatever…. those are not passed from one person to another! Gods spend and love to all!

  2. FYI- if it were to be declared, it would be MARTIAL law, not MARSHAL law. Festus Haigen won’t be involved.

  3. They are not saying that they are doing all of the things listed it’s saying that they CAN if need arises… if you listen to Abbot they are not forcing anyone to close… business pretty much as usual just avoid crowds and restaurants will be closed but are encouraged to offer takeout or drive thru… This is not shelter in place just be safe make smart choices

  5. Thank you Mayor Tate for enforcing this. It’s only a matter of time till this virus reaches these
    small towns. School needs to be out a few months to. Kansas ISD is shut down till the end of May.

  6. Does this mean that there will not be a softball tournament at Hohlt Park like the one last weekend. I

    1. I was very surprised to see all the people and kids at the park playing ball! Not to speak of all those people from out of town bombarding the Dollar General Store buying up all the toilet paper and other supplies! Totally ridiculous! I go to that park everyday to walk but it was so packed you couldn’t even find a parking place. I love softball but now is not the time for it. Stay safe.

  8. So Marshal Law, whats next? when the flu hits are you gonna call Brenham a disaster area? Not to mention stepping on constitutional rights, you know the right to liberty of movement? The right to assemble? I guess they go out the window and the goverment has the right to destroy commerce and small businesses also. WASH YOUR HANDS, AND STAY HOME if you are that worried about it.

    1. This is the point of government, to protect public health. I think its obvious that people can’t be responsible enough to follow guidelines on their own.

    2. COVID19 is much more lethal than the flu. From a physician colleague of mine: “it is important to remember that how many people die of an INFECTIOUS DISEASE is related to both how lethal the disease is and how many people get infected. People of all ages can become infected, and all can spread the illness throughout the communities in which they live”.
      This virus was transmitted from an animal to a human, meaning our human bodies have no antibodies to fight this. There is no treatment for COVID. There is no cure. There has been such limited access to test kits, communities have to assume the virus is here and spreading.
      These measures are put in to place to protect you. Protect our families and children and elderly and our future! One person can spread this virus exponentially.
      Short term sacrifices for the survival of our communities. This is not easy for anyone.

    3. It is people like you that put others in jeopardy. Governor Abbott is shutting down the bars and restaurants (except for takeout) for the whole state effective midnight tomorrow. It did not make since to have some counties open and others not. By keeping our facilities open, it would draw in people from other areas that have confirmed cases and are closed. Our community has a lot of elderly and people with underlying health issues. Look what has happened to our grocery stores. Lots of shelves are bare. I still don’t understand the toilet paper though …. The best thing we can do is support our locals by ordering take out, practicing social distancing, washing our hands more frequently for a longer period of time and avoid gatherings of 10 or more. If we are all doing it, hopefully our county will be spared the loss of lives.

      1. If you have kids home from school and you are working from home, guess what you need?

  9. I don’t think he has authority without implementation of marshal law. You cannot tell private business how to run their businesses. I would say this would be very challengeable in court of law. This is a huge overreach

    2. When the president declares a national emergency, officials can follow emergency guidelines and make those decisions as needed Come on people. This is a global pandemic. 3500 cases and 154 deaths last 24 hours. When people don’t follow the guidelines that the government and CDC recommend, I am glad they are going to enforce what’s needed. If everybody does their part we can help get rid of this quicker, but we have those that think this is nothing, or it’s not gonna happen here. Well wake up. It’s coming. It’s going to get worse. Think about your elderly family members, well now it doesn’t matter what the age is. Many kids are infected as well and are suffering. Be smart and observant and do what they ask. The quicker we get rid of this, the quicker life gets back to normal. But if you and others that don’t think this is anything and want to go and do as you wish, then we will be like this a while

      1. 3500 cases out of 350,000,000, more peopledie each day choking on chicken bones. Come on people. We don’t need government to tell us how to care for ourselves. At least some of us don’t

        1. Obviously some people do, because they can’t follow the guidelines to help get rid of this. You obviously have not looked at the statistics of this virus. Per case to death ratio, it is 10 times deadlier than the flu, and as long as we have people do what they wanna do, as you seem to do, we will lose more lives because of this epidemic. I have kids and elderly in my family, and I have seen the pictures of what it does to a persons lungs. Not good at all! Be considerate of other and not just worry about yourself. This is going to take everybody to get rid of this, but as long as people keep doing as they want, the government is only going to come
          Down harder and make more restrictions because of people doing as they wish. Just do as they ask so we can all get back to normal hopefully in the near future. People need to quit thinking about themselves all the time, that’s why the world is where it is today. Follow the guidelines laid out by CDC and government

        2. Your information is outdated. There were more than 4500 new cases identified yesterday alone. Over 14,000 infected now, and the number is doubling every 2 days. How many have to be infected for you to believe the problem is real? At the current rate we will have 1 million people infected in 2 weeks.

        3. The problem isn’t the current number which belies the actual threat. The problem is the rate of contagion and the mortality rate which are both far higher than the flu or any virus we’ve seen in over 100 years. This is on par with the 1918 Spanish flu and there is no immunity, they don’t believe even those who get it gain much long-term immunity (more than a few weeks to a month), and there won’t be a vaccine for 12-18 months. It’s an exponential spread and will reach at least half or more of us by the time it is over. Millions could die within 6 months. THAT is why they are taking this action. We would all know people who die if we allow this to happen unabated.

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