As many pools open for Memorial Day weekend water safety is a timely topic
Katy, TX, May 24, 2019 – On May 5, 2019, the Katy area lost a five year old child in an active community pool within the King Crossing subdivision. Waller-Harris Emergency Services District 200 as well as Waller County EMS responded to the scene but efforts to resuscitate the child were not successful.
Memorial Day weekend is here and many neighborhood pools either open for the summer or expand their schedules over the next few days. With this tragedy fresh in the minds of Katy-area residents, Harris County Emergency Services District 48 is launching the first of a series of drowning prevention PSAs.
Lt. Jason Tharp, who lives in the neighborhood, was told about the incident by his son who was at the pool and watched as the first responders arrived and initiated advanced life saving measures. When Lt. Tharp and his Community Risk Reduction team looked to the internet for drowning prevention material they found very few programs in the Houston area and across Texas. This discovery prompted them to reach out to those present during the incident and see if they or their children would be open to helping with a video project to address pool safety and drowning prevention.
“I saw how this impacted my son and wanted to take the opportunity to raise awareness about drowning prevention as well as give any of the children who witnessed the incident a chance to take part is helping to prevent this kind of tragedy from happening again.” Tharp said.
Video Link: https://esd48firenews.org/2019/05/23/drowning-can-happen-to-anyone-video/
This effort would not have been possible without the participation of the King Crossing residents and HOA, Waller-Harris ESD 200, Katy Aquatics and Bella Media. This initial video will be followed by a water safety skills video that is already in production. If there are residents, businesses or nonprofits in the Katy area who would like to be part of this effort they are invited to reach out to our team at CommunityTeam@hcesd48.org.