A low-flying U.S. Army helicopter that hovered over parts of Galveston County was just testing equipment, officials said Friday. The helicopter also tested the nerves of residents who worried something dangerous was afoot.
The twin-rotor Chinook was testing equipment used for search-and-rescue operations, Texas City Homeland Security Coordinator Bruce Clawson said. Army officials wanted to test the equipment in an urban environment, Clawson said.
The helicopter mostly stuck with a path along state highways 3 and 146 and hovered over the industrial sector of Texas City.
It also hovered over Lois Patterson’s west Texas City neighborhood.
“It was pretty scary; I had no idea what was going on,” Patterson said. “They should have at least let us know beforehand what was going on.”
Patterson said she called the Texas City police, but dispatchers either were unaware of what was going on or denied there was a problem.
“The city is usually pretty good of letting us know when they are going to conduct a drill,” she said. “Why not warn us about this?”
Clawson said the Army notified emergency management officials in the region about a month ago of plans to conduct the tests and issued another alert a week ago.
But John Simsen, the emergency management coordinator for Galveston County, apparently was left out of the Army’s information loop.
“We’re sorry if it caused any concern or an inconvenience,” Clawson said. “It’s just not something we were prepared to speak about.”
Clawson said had there been a threat to the community, his office would have issued an alert via its phone and e-mail system as well as through the media.
Attempts to reach an Army spokesperson were unsuccessful.
