The Awards Committee cited King's contributions "in leading a one-man crusade" to improve Texas' hurricane preparedness program, which resulted in the enactment of the state's first mandatory evacuation law.

The award was presented at the 28th National Hurricane Conference at the Rosen Centre in Orlando, Fla., on April 13.

Some of the people that nominated King for the award include Kemah City Manager Bill Kerber, League City Mayor Jerry Shults, Galveston County Judge James D. Yarbrough and Eliot Jennings of Galveston County Emergency Manage-ment.

While mayor of Kemah, King was one of the first to urge Bay Area cities and residents to formulate evacuation plans, pointing out that waiting until a hurricane was in the Gulf of Mexico would be too late.

He wrote articles, some of which appeared in The Citizen, constantly warning that a catastrophic storm would claim many lives if officials didn't come up with better plans.

After the evacuation for Hurricane Rita, which resulted in ghastly traffic jams and left many motorists stranded along highways, King was appointed by Gov. Rick Perry to the task force on hurricane preparedness which is suggesting ways to improve future evacuations.

King is also chairman of the Hurricane Evacuation Task Force set up by the Houston-Galveston Area Council.