CITY OF PASADENA
by:
Daya Dayananda PhD, PE, CFM
Assistant Director of Public Works &
Environmental Services Manager
Silver Jackets Workshop
August 20 – 25, 2012
Harrisburg, PA
City of Pasadena, TX
Location in Harris County:
Southeast of Houston, TX
Location in the U. S:
right on the Gulf of Mexico.
City of Pasadena
Jurisdiction
General Overview
PASADENA - Suburb of Houston City
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Population ~ 150,000 (2011 Census)
Residential/Commercial Area ~ 44.5 sq. miles
Industrial Area ~ 15 sq. miles
Land miles of streets maintained by City ~ 360 miles
Water mainlines ~ 400 miles
Sanitary Lines ~400 miles
Water/Sewer Accounts ~ 34,000
Waterways (Bayous) ~ 121 miles
CRS Community with a rating of 7 and continuing to improve….
Phenomenal growth in the Southeastern portion of the City over the decade.
Challenges
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Geographic – Coastal City with
imminent dangers of hurricanes,
tropical storms and strom surges;
Topographic – Flat land with
potential for flooding;
Social – Cultural diversity with
population demographics making
up of 62% hispanic, 32% white
and 6% others;
Economical – More than 70% of
population is low to moderate
income level;
Budget Constraints – City’s
economical situation hinders
budget and human resources.
Natural Disasters in the Region
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2001 Tropical Storm Allison – Flooding inundated several homes
2006 Hurricane Rita – Mass Evacuation causing gridlock on roadways
2008 Hurricane Ike – Wind Forces damaging several buildings
Frequent isolated rainfalls – Localized flooding in the city
Mitigation Strategies
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Measured high water level marks after Tropical Storm Alison;
Development of flood prevention and damage reduction ordinance and
regulating the development of structures in the City;
Several regional detention ponds were constructed;
Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD) prepared detailed floodplain
maps for the entire county, funded by FEMA;
Several buyouts of properties prone to flooding and have repeated claims;
Adopted All-Hazard Mitigation Plan that was developed by Harris County
and included several projects within the City to be implemented if funding
is available;
Developed aggressive Public Education and Outreach program to spread
the knowledge of various environmental issues to residents and businesses;
Capital Improvement Program was adopted to construct infrastructure
projects and plan annually to update the plan.
Mitigation Successes Stories
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Hurricane Rita Evacuation problems has been corrected by TXDOT and Harris
County by delineating the hurricane evacuation routes by means of contra flow
traffic movement;
Hurricane Ike Recovery Grant Program funded by TDRA and GLO provided
approximately $35 Million to repair infrastructure damaged by Hurricane Ike;
Department of energy allocated approx. $1.36 Million to retrofit city facilities
with energy efficiency products to lower the energy cost.
The Homeland Security grant of $180,000 was used to assess critical facilities in
the city and provide recommendations to harden the structures to future
disasters.
The Harris County prepared an All Hazard Mitigation Plan that involved all
municipalities to include potential projects that could be funded after a disaster.
The City successfully implemented and maintaining one of the best public
education and outreach program in t he state by educating the public at various
events, meetings, schools, etc. on various environmental issues.
Public Education & Outreach Activities
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Events/fairs: As organizers or booth attendees
Presentations: schools, summer camps, clubs, scouts,
schools, churches, businesses, etc.
Meetings: as members or attendees
Conferences: as presenters or attendees
Letters to: residents and businesses
Website: Info on before, during and after storm,
weather alerts, etc.
TV local channel 16: Skits, messages round the clock.
Facebook: Weather and flood information.
City Newsletter: flood Programs information.
Public Participation: Volunteer programs to adopt a
street, waterway, park, trails etc.
Marking Stormwater Buttons: on Storm drains,
inlets.
Formation of PPI
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City staff alone cannot plan all activities;
Need input from leaders in the community;
Formation of Program for Public Information (PPI);
PPI Team includes stakeholders from different
social and economical backgrounds;
• Examples of Team members:
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NPBA: North Pasadena Business Assn.
Pasadena Chamber of Commerce
PCACs: Pasadena Citizen Advisory Council
HBA: Hispanic Business Association
ABNC: Armand Bayou Nature Center
PISD: Pasadena ISD
TDECU: Credit Union
Resilient City
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City of Pasadena, even though faced with imminent dangers from mother
nature, like hurricanes, tropical storms, storm surges, etc. bounced back
from these disasters with mitigation strategies – Resilient City.
City representative has been selected as one of seven (7) communities in
the country to represent in the Resilient Neighbors Network (RNN)
Committee – a peer-to-peer collaboration linking communities to offer
ideas to strengthen and expand hazard-mitigation programs.
The first kickoff meeting of this RNN committee was held on July 19th at
Broomfield, CO. The goal of the Federal Insurance and Mitigation
Administration (FIMA), a division of FEMA is to increase community
resilience to natural hazards by establishing mechanisms and incentives to
facilitate and enable local risk reduction actions.
The network will provide feedback, communications, strategic
recommendations related to the goal and set up processes and
mechanisms to deliver the vision in the long term.
Resilient Neighbors Network (RNN)
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National Hazards Mitigation Association
(NHMA) launched a special program
named Resilient Neighbors Network
(RNN) to link together grassroot
communities working to become safer,
disaster-resilient, and sustainable.
NHMA selected ten (10) charter RNN
communities as pilot team to develop a
framework plan of creating resilient and
sustainable communities and will be
submitted to FEMA.
The plan will define potential activities
over the course of two years, which
includes adding additional communities
to the network.
The RNN plan to communicate
periodically and work on developing the
framework plan for FEMA.
Questions ???