#205: From Hurricane Harvey to Beryl: Houston's "One Family" Emergency Response [2024 Houston Live Podcast Tour]

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Featuring:

Summer Xiao, Deputy CIO - EAS/PMO, City of Houston

Jane Wu, Deputy Director - Data Privacy & Business Operations Management, City of Houston

Bert Quarfordt, Deputy Chief Information Officer (DCIO) - IT Infrastructure, City of Houston

What You’ll Learn:

How Houston's IT team evolved emergency response protocols through nine federally declared disasters, building bench strength after losing key expertise

Why pre-positioned contracts and vendor partnerships are critical for rapid emergency deployment without compromising standards or security

How Hurricane Beryl knocked out power to 350+ city locations serving 2.6 million residents and the specific recovery strategies used

The "one family approach" that transforms team culture through initiatives like Summer's snack cart and cross-departmental collaboration

Why cloud-first infrastructure strategies provide essential resilience when local data centers fail during natural disasters

Timestamps

(03:00 ) 9 Federal Disasters: Building Emergency Response Bench Strength

(08:00 ) Hurricane Beryl: 350+ Locations Lost Power, 2.6M Residents Affected

(12:00 ) Tier One Response: From Prep to Recovery Operations

(17:00 ) 311 Crisis: Data Center Meltdown During Emergency Response

(25:00 ) Keeping 911 Systems Operational When Infrastructure Fails

(31:00 ) The "One Family Approach": Crisis Collaboration That Actually Works

(34:00 ) Summer Snacks: Building Team Culture Through Food and Connection

(40:00 ) AI and Cloud-First: Future-Proofing Against Climate Disasters

(45:00 ) Crisis Leadership Lessons for Public Sector CXOs

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