RESILIENT CITY - PASADENA, TEXAS

1. RESILIENT CITY - PASADENA, TEXAS CITY OF PASADENA by: Daya Dayananda PhD, PE, CFM Assistant Director of Public Works & Environmental Services Manager Silver Jackets Workshop August 20 – 25, 2012 Harrisburg, PA

2. City of Pasadena, TX Location in Harris County: Southeast of Houston, TX Location in the U. S: right on the Gulf of Mexico.

3. City of Pasadena Jurisdiction

4. General Overview PASADENA - Suburb of Houston City Population ~ 150,000 (2011 Census) Residential/Commercial Area ~ 44.5 sq. miles Industrial Area ~ 15 sq. miles Land miles of streets maintained by City ~ 360 miles Water mainlines ~ 400 miles Sanitary Lines ~400 miles Water/Sewer Accounts ~ 34,000 Waterways (Bayous) ~ 121 miles CRS Community with a rating of 7 and continuing to improve…. Phenomenal growth in the Southeastern portion of the City over the decade.

5. Challenges • Geographic – Coastal City with imminent dangers of hurricanes, tropical storms and strom surges; • Topographic – Flat land with potential for flooding; • Social – Cultural diversity with population demographics making up of 62% hispanic, 32% white and 6% others; • Economical – More than 70% of population is low to moderate income level; • Budget Constraints – City’s economical situation hinders budget and human resources.

6. Natural Disasters in the Region 2001 Tropical Storm Allison – Flooding inundated several homes 2006 Hurricane Rita – Mass Evacuation causing gridlock on roadways 2008 Hurricane Ike – Wind Forces damaging several buildings Frequent isolated rainfalls – Localized flooding in the city

7. Mitigation Strategies Measured high water level marks after Tropical Storm Alison; Development of flood prevention and damage reduction ordinance and regulating the development of structures in the City; Several regional detention ponds were constructed; Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD) prepared detailed floodplain maps for the entire county, funded by FEMA; Several buyouts of properties prone to flooding and have repeated claims; Adopted All-Hazard Mitigation Plan that was developed by Harris County and included several projects within the City to be implemented if funding is available; Developed aggressive Public Education and Outreach program to spread the knowledge of various environmental issues to residents and businesses; Capital Improvement Program was adopted to construct infrastructure projects and plan annually to update the plan.

8. Mitigation Successes Stories • Hurricane Rita Evacuation problems has been corrected by TXDOT and Harris County by delineating the hurricane evacuation routes by means of contra flow traffic movement; • Hurricane Ike Recovery Grant Program funded by TDRA and GLO provided approximately $35 Million to repair infrastructure damaged by Hurricane Ike; • Department of energy allocated approx. $1.36 Million to retrofit city facilities with energy efficiency products to lower the energy cost. • The Homeland Security grant of $180,000 was used to assess critical facilities in the city and provide recommendations to harden the structures to future disasters. • The Harris County prepared an All Hazard Mitigation Plan that involved all municipalities to include potential projects that could be funded after a disaster. • The City successfully implemented and maintaining one of the best public education and outreach program in t he state by educating the public at various events, meetings, schools, etc. on various environmental issues.

9. Public Education & Outreach Activities • Events/fairs: As organizers or booth attendees • Presentations: schools, summer camps, clubs, scouts, schools, churches, businesses, etc. • Meetings: as members or attendees • Conferences: as presenters or attendees • Letters to: residents and businesses • Website: Info on before, during and after storm, weather alerts, etc. • TV local channel 16: Skits, messages round the clock. • Facebook: Weather and flood information. • City Newsletter: flood Programs information. • Public Participation: Volunteer programs to adopt a street, waterway, park, trails etc. • Marking Stormwater Buttons: on Storm drains, inlets.

10. Formation of PPI • City staff alone cannot plan all activities; • Need input from leaders in the community; • Formation of Program for Public Information (PPI); • PPI Team includes stakeholders from different • social and economical backgrounds; • Examples of Team members: • NPBA: North Pasadena Business Assn. • Pasadena Chamber of Commerce • PCACs: Pasadena Citizen Advisory Council • HBA: Hispanic Business Association • ABNC: Armand Bayou Nature Center • PISD: Pasadena ISD • TDECU: Credit Union

11. Resilient City • City of Pasadena, even though faced with imminent dangers from mother nature, like hurricanes, tropical storms, storm surges, etc. bounced back from these disasters with mitigation strategies – Resilient City. • City representative has been selected as one of seven (7) communities in the country to represent in the Resilient Neighbors Network (RNN) Committee – a peer-to-peer collaboration linking communities to offer ideas to strengthen and expand hazard-mitigation programs. • The first kickoff meeting of this RNN committee was held on July 19th at Broomfield, CO. The goal of the Federal Insurance and Mitigation Administration (FIMA), a division of FEMA is to increase community resilience to natural hazards by establishing mechanisms and incentives to facilitate and enable local risk reduction actions. • The network will provide feedback, communications, strategic recommendations related to the goal and set up processes and mechanisms to deliver the vision in the long term.

12. Resilient Neighbors Network (RNN) • National Hazards Mitigation Association (NHMA) launched a special program named Resilient Neighbors Network (RNN) to link together grassroot communities working to become safer, disaster-resilient, and sustainable. • NHMA selected ten (10) charter RNN communities as pilot team to develop a framework plan of creating resilient and sustainable communities and will be submitted to FEMA. • The plan will define potential activities over the course of two years, which includes adding additional communities to the network. • The RNN plan to communicate periodically and work on developing the framework plan for FEMA.

13. Questions ???