AUTIN, Texas -- The Texas State Guard is training this weekend, preparing for a natural disaster like Hurricane Harvey.
Guardsmen are practicing rescue operations, emergency radio communications, and engineer structural assessments.
"See the area that was impacted, helping people clear out houses. It's been such a longtime since we've had an event like that," said Capt. Wheeler Sexton with the Texas State Guard.
Sexton remembers vividly the devastation Hurricane Harvey caused and the continued cleanup efforts eight months after the storm.
"They care about their loved ones. We want to be there to take care of the logistics, getting them to point A to point B," said Sexton.
Sexton, along with more than 1,000 members of the Texas State Guard responded quickly to areas affected by Harvey's destruction, coordinating with other officials to conduct search and rescue missions, set up emergency shelters, and deliver much needed supplies.
"That's one of the things we are very proud of is our ability to be able to respond and assist local authorities during any type of emergency, you name it," said Brig. Gen. John Kinsey.
As part of the annual training, guardsmen across the state are working all weekend to prepare for the quickly approaching Hurricane Season. Many of them are brushing up on how to use the Emergency Tracking Network, which was instrumental in finding family members during Harvey.
The ETN wristband is registered to a person by name and address. The barcode is scanned at the shelter and can be used later on when family members need to be reunited.
"You could see requests coming in that there were family members looking for other family members and we were able to successfully find them by looking them up in the ETN software," said Sexton.
Training sessions are also being held in Galveston, at Camp Maxey, and Fort Wolters.