This session will feature a panel discussion including field bosses and emergency operation command personnel as they talk about improvements made after the 2011 Groundhog Day Blizzard that prepared them for the 2021 Winter Storm Uri that iced over the entire state of Texas. The 2011 Groundhog Day Blizzard iced over the entire Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) metroplex days before the Super Bowl was to be held in Arlington, Texas, and one year after the “Swstorm of the Century” had overwhelmed the same area. According to most meteorologists, both storms were once-in-a-lifetime events. After experiencing back-to-back extreme weather seasons, the rth Texas Tollway Authority Maintenance Department decided to make some adjustments to be better prepared for the next extreme winter weather season. Ten years later, Winter Storm Uri blanketed the entire state of Texas with ice, and the interim years of preparation paid off. The panel will share their experiences and the differences in their responses from the field and in the emergency operations center between the two events. This session will cover equipment, material, training, and operational changes that made the response to Uri more successful than the response 10 years prior.

At the conclusion of this session, participants will be better able to:

• Discuss the difficulties with predicting weather changes in rth Texas.
• Discuss the importance of building trust between the emergency operations center (EOC) and field bosses.
• Identify gaps in operations and steps that can be taken over time to fill the gaps.

Contributor/Source

Amanda Lehde

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