3. Sugar Land
■ The City of Sugar Land is located in eastern
Fort Bend County, southwest of Houston.
■ Incorporated in 1959
■ By race, the city's breakdown is:
■ 44.4%White
– 35.1% Asian
– 10.6% Hispanic or Latino
– 7.3% Black or African American
– 2.6% Other
■ Population: 88,000
(“City History | Sugar Land,TX - OfficialWebsite,” n.d.)
4. Sugar Land History
■ Founded as a sugar plantation, and Imperial
Sugar company town in the mid-1800s
■ Incorporated in 1959
■ 1981: Home Rule government established
as a mayor-council government
■ 1987:Charter amendment creates council-
manager governance structure
(“City History | Sugar Land,TX - OfficialWebsite,” n.d.)
5. Sugar Land’s Geography
■ Adjacent to the Brazos River and Oyster
Creek
■ 1913 – major flood
■ 1922 – first levee project, Oyster Creek
dredge and deepened.
■ City is at elevation 60 ft. above sea level.
(CharlestonWV is 250 ft. above sea level)
■ Drainage is King !
■ City experienced exponential growth and
today the City encompasses 35 square
miles.
(“City History | Sugar Land,TX - OfficialWebsite,” n.d.)
7. Hurricane Harvey Preparation
■ August 23 & 24 – City Staff began preparing for Hurricane Harvey
■ Activated EOC
■ Monitoring weather conditions
■ PublicWorks – Clearing drainage infrastructure, exercising storm water pumps,
exercising generators, and topping off fuel supplies
■ PD & Fire – Fuel vehicles and personnel prepare home / family
■ IT – System checks and back-ups made
■ Staff transitioned to 12 hour operational periods
8. Hurricane Harvey Response
■Major roads and highways flooded – limited access / egress
■Local hospitalsClosed
■400 high-water rescues (PD MRAPS, DPW and BD4 dump trucks)
■High-water transport of doctors/nurses to hospitals and shelters
■1,000 served at RecreationCenter & baseball stadium temporary shelters
■1,000 year flooding event. Lack of hurricane force winds limited service interruptions
■City offices reopened by noonThursday, August 31
■Computer, telephone, and radio systems performed without interruption
■95%+ of community retained power or had limited interruptions
■Water and wastewater remain functional
9. DamageAssessment
■ Wastewater plants & City facilities quickly returned to service
■ Debris removal began September 6th
■ Increased PD visibility in damaged areas
■ Working on public assistance through FEMA
■ City Employee relief efforts in progress – 40 employees affected
■ 300+ homes flooded
■ Working on damage assessment to residential homes
10. Lessons Learned
Complexity
– Balance priorities
– Plan ahead (ops periods)
– Shelter (staff, citizens, transients)
– Ingress / egress blocked
– Food logistics
– Public safety (looting, shelters, etc.)
– Evacuation / curfew?
Areas of Improvement
– Better communications w/ partners
(hospitals, levee dist. And county)
– Plan for long term feeding & shelter of
employees
– Plan to minimize future flooding
damage
11. Keys to Success
Right People Right Place
– Know staff competencies
– Knowledge of flood issues
– Rain forecasts
– Flooding predictions
– Planning for unknown consequences
(historic rainfall)
Preparedness Pays Off
– Incident management education
– Annual training drills
– All hazards incident management team
– ICS structure used all year for small events
– Previous experience (upgrade generator,
designated all employees essential, better
communications with employees via Skype)
12.
13. References
City History | Sugar Land,TX - OfficialWebsite. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2017, from
https://www.sugarlandtx.gov/204/City-History
