On 25 May 2015, for several days, Texas was hit hard by severe storms, flooding, and tornado warnings. Governor Greg Abbott declared a state of disaster in 24 counties in addition to 13 counties that were mobilized earlier.
Based on forecasts, the weather was only expected to worsen throughout the week, which may cause the Governor to add more counties to the disaster list.
Unfortunately, many of these counties do not have the infrastructure in place to deal with an excess of water, forcing locals to sandbag and evacuate in some cases.
NBCDFW reports:
“The State of Texas has taken brisk action in dispatching all available resources to aid those affected by this severe weather system, and I strongly urge all Texans to exercise every possible precaution to ensure their safety and the safety of their families and neighbors,” Abbott said in a prepared statement released Monday morning. “My thoughts and prayers are with all the communities that are suffering as a result of this weather disaster, and I am grateful for the first responders who have worked tirelessly to provide shelter, care, and resources to all impacted areas.”
How can Texas be better prepared for this level of disaster in the future?
Is there another way of managing the resiliency of their infrastructure that could limit the damage done by storms of this magnitude?
Inframanage.com notes that with large weather or other natural events there is always a tradeoff of risk versus cost.
These trade-offs can be analyzed in the risk and lifecycle asset management sections of an infrastructure asset management plan, but the question is – just how big an event do we plan for?
At some stage there will always be a bigger natural event than planned – that is inevitable, but this is where resilience and contingency planning assist.
The key take away is that structured risk analysis, infrastructure resilience and emergency contingency planning are really beneficial when major natural events occur.
How is your organization placed with infrastructure asset management planning?
Inframanage.com has infrastructure management planning resources that you can get for free.
PHOTO CREDIT: Image grabbed from “Flooding in Austin Texas 5/25/2015” Youtube video by DLR Productions
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