Public works professionals from Florida, North Carolina, and Texas will describe the challenges faced in the preparation, response, and recovery efforts for three recent hurricanes.

• In 2016, Hurricane Matthew’s path stretched from Haiti and Cuba to Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. The City of Fayetteville, North Carolina, received nearly 15 inches of rainfall. They will share the impacts of the storm and the actions they took to perform emergency, temporary, and permanent infrastructure repair.

• Hurricane Harvey arrived on the coast of Texas on August 25, 2017. It moved inland and then stalled and began pumping moisture from the Gulf of Mexico. The City of Houston experienced the brunt of the storm’s intensity and resulting flooding. Hear from one local engineering firm that provided support to emergency responders in the form of predictive tools for flood inundation, data collection, and information that could be distributed to the public through various agencies.

• Hurricane Irma hit southwest Florida on September 10, 2017. It eventually made two landfalls and triggered evacuation orders for 5.6 million people. Representatives from The Villages, Florida, will review the lessons-learned post-Hurricane regarding contracting for services, debris pick-up, Emergency Operations Center (EOC) support and shelter set-up.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this session, you will be better able to:

Identify and address the misinformation that can surround a catastrophic emergency.
Evaluate the impacts that a disaster may have on municipal engineering operations and infrastructure and plan for the type of professional services the engineering community can provide in response.
Prepare for disaster response and collect the maximum return from FEMA.

Giselle Rodriguez PE, CFM

City Engineer, City of Fayetteville

Appearances