Good morning and welcome to the resilience committee meeting.

It is 10 o'clock, so we'll go ahead and get started.

I want to uh call the meeting to order and welcome.

We have staff from Councilmember Castillo, Alcorn, Peck, Castex Tatum, Thomas, and Kamen's office, and then we have staff from Councilmember Flickinger, Brad Buckinger's online, and as well as somebody else's online.

Oh, IT.

We need IT.

Stay on the line, IT.

Um we need IT.

Always need IT.

Uh so today um we're very grateful to have our friends from uh the Houston area down in Chambers County and around and we um Pam and Phoenix.

Come on up.

So we've got uh Pamurker, Naruker, and Phoenix Rogers with the Texas AM AgriLife Extension.

Um we're glad to have you all.

Do you all have chairs there?

You can have a seat.

We'll get ready.

Um thank you all for being here.

We look forward to uh to learning the work of work that you're doing and making some connections along the way because I think you're doing really good work.

So thank you all for being here.

Well, thank you for having us.

Thanks for having us.

Um I'll get started.

Um, as you can see from the image, this is a neighborhood in MyReland, Houston, and these houses were built uh when they were not in a flood zone.

And it's the same neighborhood, same storm, but very different results.

So, what led to those results?

Well, it wasn't chance, it was planning, infrastructure, and having the right information at the right time.

And so that's what we do here at Texas AM AgriLife Extension.

So we provide communities uh we help them make better decisions even before disaster strikes.

Next slide, please.

So hi, my name is Pam Naruker, and this is my colleague, Phoenix Rogers, and we are with Disaster Assessment and Recovery, DAR.

Um, and we're here to talk about how we support communities through data technology workshops and education, and how that connects to resilience at the local level.

Next slide.

So Houston faces a unique set of problems.

There's rapid growth, there's higher risk of floods, and there's infrastructure challenges.

And one of the biggest gaps we see is the data needed for planning decisions are fragmented or they're very difficult to access.

Um, so that makes planning really hard.

Next slide, please.

And so this graph shows the rapid growth we see in Harris County, but Houston as well is growing very rapidly.

Um in 2025, the Houston metropolitan area had 6.9 million people, and in Harris County, it was five million.

Um so that really puts pressure on infrastructure and makes planning really important.

Next slide.

And on top of the rapid growth, um the disaster events are becoming more rap uh frequent and are more costly.

So uh Houston is one of the most flood-prone cities in all of U.S.

And Harris County has floods every two years.

As you can see from the graph, um, in Texas in 2024, disaster events cost 200 billion dollars.

So that makes um you know planning really critical.

Next slide, please.

And so that's where DAR comes in, disaster assessment and recovery.

And uh we were formed in 2020 after all the great work the agency did um with a lot of disaster events, including uh Hurricane Harvey.

And we are led by Dr.

Monty Dozier, he's here today.

Um, and we have about 60 personnel.

Um we cover the entire disaster resilience lifecycle.

So that involves mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery.

So I'll go over mitigation and planning, and Phoenix is going to cover preparedness, response, and recovery.

Next slide, please.

So part of the mitigation branch is CHARM, which stands for community hazards and resource management.

So we have tools, workshops, and education to provide support for hazard mitigation, land use planning, and long-term growth.

Next slide, please.

In terms of our tool sets, we help visualize different planning scenarios, and that helps them communities make better decisions in terms of planning and mitigation.

So currently we're developing Charm Studio, which is a mapping tool designed for the everyday citizen and local officials to help them create planning scenarios.

But the tool is not just about mapping, it's about collaboration, it's about conversation between stakeholders.

We also have the data grid, which integrates data sets from multiple sources, including at the local, state, and federal level, and that really empowers communities to make informed decisions around land use and mitigation as well.

Community Viz is an award-winning plugin that is used by GIS analysts and planners, and they generate custom analytics.

Next slide, please.

So this is an example of an output from C Viz.

And this is the Manville and Pearland area, and it helps really showcase what are the homes in high-risk flood zones.

So this is just one example of how Charm and C Viz can support in terms of planning decisions.

Next slide, please.

A large part of what we do are workshops, and it's about bringing stakeholders together, aligning on priorities, as well as you know, discovering any new opportunities in working together concerning mitigation and planning.

So we have different types of workshops.

We have the resiliency workshops, which are all about risk awareness and disaster resilience, and we have Pi, which is to help identify project opportunities.

And then we have CTAP, which is more technical, and it's too like a scoping exercise to identify achievable technical assistance in planning.

Next slide.

And the education part of Charm is Texas Citizen Planner, and that equips local officials as well as community leaders with practical knowledge around planning, zoning, and hazard mitigation.

We have online courses as well as in-person classes that are usually short-term, about six weeks long.

Next slide, please.

We've worked with over 150 communities with thousands of attendees.

We've worked in across the different states as well.

And so it's really about helping communities supporting them with any of their resilience needs.

Next slide.

And they also have education workshops and technical assistance with providing planning guidance, project development, and research all around nature-based solutions.

So it's about supporting communities in managing water and land use.

Next slide.

So the gift approach is to start small, so building on what communities are already doing and scaling up from there.

So at the site scale level, and that would be properties and streets, it's about helping communities with green infrastructure practices and containing water and storing water where it falls.

At the next level, which is mid-scale, it's more neighborhood-sized sites, and that's where multiple sites come together in controlling runoff across the community.

And then the larger scale projects are wetlands and parks, and that's really to uh absorb, store and control stormwater and at a much larger scale.

So next slide.

In terms of gift and action, they provide education on the ground projects as well as applied research.

So in terms of education, there's online courses again as well as workshops, and they can be for community leaders as well as high school students.

In terms of on on-the-ground projects, they have rain gardens as well as stormwater management.

One example is Exploration Green, which is a 200-acre green infrastructure project, again to manage stormwater.

And it also serves as a great nature space and park.

And then applied research is all about managing ongoing projects and really making sure that green infrastructure practices are at its best.

So next slide, please.

Alright, so I will take over now for the preparedness response and recovery.

So while GIFT and charm work on mitigation and preparedness to an extent at the larger kind of community level, my section of the unit focuses on preparedness at a community but also an individual level.

So whether we're talking about preparing Houstonians for building emergency kits, protecting their homes, making a communication or evacuation plan, or staying informed, I can travel, like I said, I service Harris County and Chambers.

I can go anywhere in the county or city, groups large, small, old, young, and provide them with outreach education that meets their individual needs because disasters start local and end local, and that includes the home, right?

During an event when our first responders are inundated, if people within their homes have the means to weather 72 hours, etc.

just a little bit longer, you know, everyone will be better off.

This specifically aligns with Resilient Houston document target number one, which is providing 500,000 Houstonians with disaster literacy education.

We have lots of other outreach education opportunities.

One of them is called MyPi.

It is a youth program that provides them with a community emergency response team certification.

And that aligns with, along with gift intern programs, the resilient Houston goal of career development and scoping for youth in our disaster field.

Next slide, please.

In addition to the kind of individual preparedness or community preparedness, we support a lot of other opportunities that are preparedness.

I have three listed here small businesses, mental health, and goal number 19 from Resilient Houston, and that's one I'm actually going to focus on, which is near and dear to me.

I was a local county extension agent in Gavson County for 17 years in agriculture and natural resources.

So I'm very familiar with the scope and the challenges of agriculture here in Harris County.

And even in the city of Houston, which I'm sure people go, we have agriculture?

Yes, you do.

It's backyard agriculture, right?

That also includes food deserts, et cetera.

So between myself and your local county extension agents who work in agriculture or horticulture, our goal is to provide outreach education and technical expertise to support those individuals for profitable and sustainable farming practices.

They also work really hard to look into ways to address food deserts and work in community settings to help bridge that gap for food insecurity.

Next slide, please.

When it comes to response, our agency is actually the statewide lead agency for agriculture and natural resources or emergency support function 11.

So we will be the ones who come in and help support animal supplies, animal sheltering, animal health.

And when I say animal, I mean pets and livestock, okay.

We also can help facilitate soil testing campaigns, water testing campaigns to ensure that after a flood event that the soil is safe for people to grow fruit out of and that the water is safe for people to drink.

An example of this, we have so many, it's we could spend an hour here.

But an example would be Hurricane Harvey.

We had about 30 of these animal supply points running concurrently across the state where we are collecting hay feed medical supplies for livestock and pets and redistributing them out to impacted individuals.

Another really recent one would be the wildfires in the panhandle of Texas in 2024.

We had about four of these sites going concurrently to address the needs of those producers affected by those fires.

Next slide.

So we are going to work hand in hand with producers to document and help them address agricultural losses.

So that's kind of that small business component, as well as that sustainable farming and food production component that's really important to us here.

We're going to help them with some educational support and with some expertise about land and water remediation.

In both response and recovery, our unit is actually also a deployable asset via STAR request to help support a myriad of other support activities during a disaster response or disaster recovery.

Pam?

Next next slide.

Yeah, so these are all the ways we partner with different communities.

We provide planning, data, and mapping, as well as facilitate workshops and have education initiatives.

So we would welcome the opportunity to partner with Houston.

Anywhere you guys need resilience support, you know, we are happy to help.

I know you know there's some cities that have a lot of internal resources, but we really help support whatever you already are doing.

We can accelerate that and uh really kind of enhance the work that you're already doing.

Next slide, please.

And we just wanted to end with some positive feedback from a city manager who attended a charm workshop.

And one of the biggest takeaways was that the workshop really helped showcase the risks that they were already considering, and it really helped them communicate more effectively about it.

Next slide.

So thank you so much for uh having us here.

And again, we'd love to continue the conversation and see where we could collaborate.

Thank you.

You guys are doing wonderful work and many great resources.

Uh hopefully um all the offices represented here today will reach out, but certainly uh we'll uh look at at uh doing some strategic workshops around the community.

As mentioned, um the mayor's round table uh certainly will get you connected with that because I think you guys have really a great resource to work um with those who are currently doing the work.

Wanted to ask you what uh how did the recent um flood map, you know, the updated flood maps, how did that impact um you all and uh shift in the work that you're doing?

Was there a substantial change?

Yeah, that's uh well we use the latest updated maps, so because we integrate so many data sources, you know, it all comes together uh and we kind of enhance on what's there already.

So um, yeah, I mean we just continue to update with what whatever is released.

Yeah, I think uh it was pretty broad, it seemed to be uh a little bigger than certainly used to be.

You know, if if uh either groups were already engaged in conversations with a community or a project, it it could have shifted you know the priorities or the well, hey, we thought this was a kind of flood-free zone or low-risk zone would be a better way to say it.

No, nobody's flood-free.

Um, and so shifting flood maps can shift that conversation to where we have to dial down, dig in just a little bit more.

Well, I think certainly your your maps um, especially as relates to Harris County being the most flood prone, to really take a look at some of the maps and some of the the districts around the city, and uh we'll take a look at that and and target those communities as as priority um to maybe take some preparedness and education uh to some of the community centers.

So thank you.

I don't see anybody in the queue, and we don't have any uh speakers, uh public speakers lined up for questions.

So this is a record presentation and meeting.

So um no questions online.

Wow.

Well, thank you.

Thank you and thank you so much.

Yeah, thank you.

Thank you.

Um I just want to note we have been joined uh in uh chambers by council uh staff from council member Martinez, Jackson, and Selinas' office.

So just make a note of that.

Thank you all for being here.

Appreciate your presentation.

Um, and no further questions, no further comments.

With that, the our next resilience meeting will be May the 7th at 10 a.m.

Thank you all for coming, and we'll have a conversation offline.

Appreciate you.

The meeting is now adjourned.