Stephen F. Austin State University

NACOGDOCHES, Texas - Stephen F. Austin State University’s Columbia Regional Geospatial Service Center has become the national model for a growing network of centers using state-of-the-art satellite mapping technology to aid authorities during disasters, U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison said at the center’s dedication Thursday.

“Certainly, this center and what’s being done here has already shown itself to be worthy,” the senator said, adding that the Columbia Center played an important role in the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Humberto, as well as the Space Shuttle Columbia tragedy.

“I have wanted to focus on building up areas where SFA has already made a mark because if we can enhance our centers of excellence, then we are going to build and attract more of the greatest minds of our country,” the senator said. “I am very excited to be able to cut the ribbon today.”

As a member of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, Hutchison has secured a total of $10.1 million in funding for the Columbia Center network, which also includes regional centers at the University of Texas at El Paso and Texas Tech University in Lubbock. A new center at Lamar University in Beaumont will be added in 2008.

Hutchison gave her remarks to a standing-room-only crowd at the Columbia Center located in downtown Nacogdoches. On hand for the dedication ceremony were representatives from each of the other centers in Texas, along with SFA officials and emergency managers and planners from Nacogdoches and surrounding counties.

Established by Congress in 2005, the Columbia Center is designed to provide the most up-to-date geospatial information and tools for regional support in the areas of emergency planning and response, economic development, and natural resource management. The Columbia Center also provides backup services, data storage and redundancy to other regional centers and serves as a conduit between local, state and federal entities.

After the hurricanes, the Columbia Center provided emergency maps identifying evacuation routes and locations of shelters and other critical services, as well as probability maps for damage to the electrical grid. The center provided invaluable mapping information to federal authorities following the 2003 Space Shuttle Columbia tragedy and was later renamed in honor of the astronaut heroes who perished in that event.

“The tremendous outpouring by the people of Nacogdoches after the Columbia disaster was remarked on all over Washington,” Hutchison said. “It was because (Congress) saw how valuable what we had in place already was in the ability to track that wreckage that we were able to come in and say, ‘We need to expand this.’

For more information, contact the SFA Office of Public Affairs at (936) 468-2605.