City of Houston Office of Emergency Management houstonoem.org Houston’s Hurricane Preparedness and Response Michael Walter Public Information Officer

Who is OEM? Emergency Management Responding Agencies City Leadership Strategic Coordination Operational Mayor Annise Parker Emergency Management Director Office of Homeland Security & Public Safety Office of Emergency Management Houston Emergency Center (911)

Emergency Operations Center (EOC)

Hurricane Response & Recovery Plan Dictates the City’s response in three periods: – Pre-Landfall – Landfall – Post-Landfall

Hurricane Evacuation Evacuation Decision – Coordinated process with local jurisdictions and the State of Texas. – Decision rests with the local elected executive (Mayor or County Judge) – Based on H- Hours (Tropical Storm Force Winds impacting Texas Gulf Coast) – Coastal Counties Evacuate First – Called by Zip Zones

Hurricane Evacuation - Zones

Hurricane Evacuation Contraflow – Two Points: Fulshear(I-10), Conroe (I-45), and FM1960 (US-290) – Activated by TxDOT – Takes 4 hours to fully implement (on I-10) – Resource intensive locally and at the State level. Evaculanes – Formalized after Hurricane Rita to allow for added traffic lane during evacuation – First action taken to increase vehicle flow count

Hurricane Evacuation Assisted Evacuation – Local Jurisdictions establish “Hubs” – City of Houston/Harris County at George R. Brown – Registrants in STEAR (211 or texasstear.org) receive phone call to arrange for transportation. – Hub transports to reception centers in Dallas and San Antonio

Resources AlertHouston (alerts.houstonoem.org) City of Houston Social Media – facebook.com/houstonoem houstontx.gov/emergency Houston Hide From The Wind (houstonhidefromthewind.org) Houston Storm Risk Calcualtor (houstonstormrisk.org)

Planning Considerations Know Your Employees’ Zones. If you expect them to be available to work – how will you provide for them and their families? Do you have a tiered personnel system, and has it been effectively communicated to staff? Houston/Harris County is not a sheltering jurisdiction – all individuals will be passed via evacuation programs to neighboring metro areas.

Questions? Michael Walter Public Information Officer City of Houston Office of Emergency Management Phone: 311 or Website: houstonoem.org Social facebook.com/houstonoem