Bastrop County’s emergency shelter in Smithville is ready to take in displaced residents should anyone need to evacuate their homes due to Hurricane Harvey over the weekend, according to county and city officials.

The Smithville Recreation Center at 106 Gazely St., which serves as a shelter during emergencies, can hold between 125 and 150 residents, Smithville City Manager Robert Tamble said. The shelter has not been activated but will be opened if evacuations are ordered.

Bastrop County Judge Paul Pape said he’s been in communication with local churches to determine if they are willing to open as emergency shelters in case of emergency.

"Our shelters will be for local people evacuating from flooding in Bastrop County should it be needed," Office of Emergency Management Assistant Coordinator James Gabriel said. "We are not positioned or responsible to shelter people from the coast."

The hurricane is expected to make landfall overnight Friday near Corpus Christi, according to the latest computer models. Rainfall could begin in Bastrop County as early as Friday afternoon. The National Weather Service said Thursday that Bastrop County can expect between 8 to 15 inches of rainfall Friday through Monday afternoon and damaging winds up to 50 mph are possible.

"Everybody is hyper sensitive to these radical weather events. We’ve had so many of them and we know what the impacts can be," Pape said. "I feel pretty good about Bastrop County being prepared and citizens knowing what to do and how to stay safe."

Tamble said he has been working closely with the county’s Office of Emergency Management to prepare for the hurricane. Crews have been clearing storm drains and have connected a water suction pump to the detention pond on Seventh Street to pipe water out of the flood-prone downtown street, which persistently flooded during heavy rain events in 2015 and 2016.

Bastrop County was federally declared a disaster area after two floods in 2015 and two in 2016.

Crews in Bastrop have also been busy clearing ditches of debris, sweeping streets and checking for limbs or trees that could fall amid strong winds and block streets or storm drains, Public Works Director Trey Job said. Teams have barricades and cones ready in case they have to close roads, he said.

"All equipment has been fueled up and crews will be on standby to respond to any emergency," Job said.

Residents can pick up sand bags at the public works yard at 1209 Linden Street in Bastrop at no cost. Several hundred are available, and more sand is on hand in case more are needed, Job said.

"We should be prepared ahead of the storm," Pape said. "Get as ready as we can, as early as we can and stay out of the road so those that need to be on the roads can travel safely."

Pape and Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative, a rural power provider in Bastrop County, have warned of heavy traffic along the U.S. 290 and Texas 71 corridors as coastal communities evacuate ahead of the hurricane.

"Because the track of this event, this hurricane, has been so unsure over the last few days, we don’t have a grip on how far inland this is going to come. It is supposed to come inland and stall, the weather folks don’t have a grip exactly on where it is going to stall," Gabriel said. "We know that this is a catastrophic event for the coastal communities?."?

In preparation for the storm, the OEM has requested assistance from the state, including an incident management planning team and help with recovery operations from the Texas Emergency Management Assistance Team (TEMAT), Gabriel said.

"We are working with all our public works and road and bridge partners preparing for response and closings of water crossings and damage assessment post event," he said.

Officials have urged residents to prepare in advance of the storm, stocking up on household items and medicines and bracing for likely power outages amid tropical storm force winds. Residents should stay tuned to local weather forecasts and media, monitor social media and prepare to evacuate if they live in areas that historically flood, Gabriel said.

Emergency officials have urged all residents to register with WarnCentralTexas.org in advance of the storm to receive emergency alerts to their cell phones and email addresses.

"People need to stay really weather wise starting tomorrow for the next four days," Gabriel said.

Tamble said sand bags will be available Thursday night from 5 to 8 p.m. at 1000 MLK Drive in Smithville for free on a first-come, first-served basis. The city will have more sand delivered Friday morning.

More information on the amount of rainfall expected in the region and the time tropical storm conditions should reach Bastrop County will be made available after local officials meet with the National Weather Service and National Hurricane Center Friday at noon.