University of Houston System Executive Summary – Hurricane Harvey After Action Review November 16, 2017 Internal Audit 11/16/17 1 of 9 Overview • Each University has conducted a thorough assessment of the response to Hurricane Harvey focusing on: • Strengths • Areas of Improvement • Executive Summary shows key areas provided by each University • Common Strength across UHS: • Communication to their respective campus communities (students, faculty & staff) • Internal communication & coordination between various levels of each University • Common Area of Improvement across UHS: • Need for enhancements to various emergency plans & procedures • Next steps for each University: • Determine solutions & implement corrective actions to enhance preparedness and build upon Lessons Learned during Hurricane Harvey. Internal Audit 11/16/17 2 of 9 Bayou Oaks Residence Hall and Brays Bayou Elgin St. & Spur 5 UH Emergency Operations Center (EOC) Internal Audit 11/16/17 3 of 9 Hurricane Harvey After Action Review Executive Summary Overview Hurricane Harvey impacted the Texas Gulf Coast from August 25 to August 30 leaving widespread devastation in its path due to a Category 4 landfall near Rockport, Texas and unprecedented heavy rainfall and flooding over southeast Texas. Each university within the University of Houston System was impacted and most were closed at least a week, with UHV resuming classes after two weeks. Each University is conducting a thorough assessment of the response to Hurricane Harvey in order to capture Lessons Learned to prepare for the next storm or emergency. Each University is cataloguing what went well during the storm as well as any areas needing improvement. This Executive Summary highlights the preliminary assessments conducted by each University. Overall, each University noted various strengths in the area of communications (internal and external) and coordination between the various levels of the University. Common areas of improvement across the Universities include the need for enhancements to various aspects the University’s emergency plans. In coming weeks and months, each University will be working to find solutions as well as determining and implementing corrective actions for the areas identified as needing improvement. University of Houston Strengths • Overall Coordination between all Ride Out Teams, University Leadership, President, first responders, and the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) through various daily conference calls, and Situation Reports. • Communication with Campus Community, especially implementation of Frequently Asked Questions website, daily Harvey Update and General Questions feedback email harvey2017@uh.edu • Activation of the UH Emergency Operations Center to serve as a hub for information gathering and sharing, coordinate with local City/County Emergency Management, and the National Weather Service as well as provide support for any emergency responses or life safety issues. • Ride Out Team Program and identification of essential functions and team members in advance of each hurricane season worked well to quickly implement the program. Requirement of team 1 Internal Audit 11/16/17 4 of 9 members to complete National Incident Management System (NIMS) and Incident Command System (ICS) training helped promote efficient and effective responses to any incidents. • Coordination and teamwork of Ride-Out Teams during the evacuation of Bayou Oaks Residence Hall during height of the storm. • Student Housing and Residential Life prepared in advance to make Bates Hall and Law Hall available for both UH Victoria and UH campus residents. When the time came that the facilities were needed, they were already ready to receive the students. • Dining Services continued without interruption for approximately 2,000 residential students who remained on campus during the storm. • Houston Public Media (HPM) began housing the local Channel 11 News, KHOU, during the height of the storm. The HPM team quickly setup and established the Lucille and LeRoy and Lucile Melcher Center for Public Broadcasting building into the KHOU studios and production without affecting their on air productions. • Rapid damage assessment of campus buildings and large amount of recovery personnel who came back to work in order to help get campus buildings open and operational. • Harvey Relief fund established for students impacted by Hurricane Harvey Areas of Improvement • Ride Out Team Staffing including need for a back-up/deputy Team Lead on each team, and assessing the use of shifts to allow staff members to rest. • Enhanced planning for evacuation of campus residence halls • Additional High Water Vehicles for the campus property inventory as they were needed for the evacuation of Bayou Oaks Residence Hall • Review/Refine protocol for electronic access control during the Ride Out period • Post-storm approval process for personnel requests to be on campus to check on research projects, etc. • Development of a university-wide listing/inventory of campus response resources • Improvements to department-level continuity planning for research areas to ensure continuity of operations for critical research projects. • Enhanced intelligence on the functional status of students, faculty, and staff to better inform assistance efforts, public messaging and decision-making strategy for campus re-opening. 2 Internal Audit 11/16/17 5 of 9 University of Houston - Downtown Strengths • Campus-based decision-making process including activation of UHD Emergency Management Board (EMB), adherence to UHD Emergency Plan/Severe Weather Annex, and advance preparation by Emergency Communication team • Internal Communication between Leadership and Recovery Teams through the use of reliable technologies (Emergency Phone Bridge, Telegram group texting, Zoom video conferencing) • External Communication to Students/Faculty and Staff/Media leading up to, during and following the storm through various channels (Wordpress News Site, Facebook, Twitter, Constant Contact, and text messaging) as managed by University Relations team. In addition, a Harvey Resources Website was developed to serve as a central repository of communications and recovery resources and a ‘Gator Family Check-in’ website on Facebook was developed to serve as a hub for UHD students, faculty, staff and community. • Police Department (PD) performance during ride-out and recovery including their ability to provide real-time information on Harvey’s impact on campus and their actions during the event to mitigate damage to UHD resources • Prompt responses from Facilities Management and IT to assess damage, secure needed resources and conduct repairs as well as the use of a well-qualified disaster recovery contractor and previously-procured service partners for electrical, mechanical, custodial, elevator work • Collaboration/coordination with UH/UHS leadership including communication with Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) and Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) regarding revised class seat time requirements for the Fall 2017 semester, sharing of best practices regarding changes to the academic calendar, coordination of major storm-related communication (closing/re-opening), and UHD’s ability to obtain diesel fuel from UH for emergency generators while CenterPoint power was down. • Quick assessment of student circumstances/needs through UHD Student Needs survey where over 5,000 student completed the survey. This survey enabled UHD to get a sense of the impact on its student body to identify specific needs, and develop support programs to help meet those needs • Validation of aspects of UHD Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP) including a contingency plan was implemented for UHD faculty teaching at the heavily damaged Lone Star CollegeKingwood location to convert face-to-face classes to online. UHD Library, IT, and Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence (CTLE) staff were on call to assist faculty in making this transition 3 Internal Audit 11/16/17 6 of 9 • Student-centered response to include adjustments to the academic calendar, including extended registration, drop/add, and payment dates as well as the establishment of a Harvey relief fund for students • Beating the Odds - UHD was able to safely re-open for classes on Tuesday, September 5th despite the extensive flood damage to the 1st floor of the One Main Building Areas of Improvement • Location of the UHD Police Dispatch Center - Almost 3 feet of floodwater entered the Dispatch Center, rendering this mission-critical function inoperable during the height of the event • Vulnerability of the One Main Building (OMB) 1st Floor to flooding and assessing ways to better protect UHD critical infrastructure • Dependability of UHD’s Redundant Data Center; UHD was the only UHS component to lose regular electrical service (CenterPoint) to its primary Data Center during this event. When UHD switched over to its secondary/redundant Data Center at Shea (which had not lost electrical service), critical components failed, resulting in UHD’s website and e-mail services being down for a period of time • Expand the UHD Ride-out Team to include personnel from Facilities Management and IT • Ability to fully operationalize UHD’s Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP) and ensuring that all faculty (including adjunct faculty) have the basic knowledge and skills for using Blackboard as a contingency platform for conducting coursework University of Houston – Clear Lake Strengths • Notifications through the new Everbridge Mass Notification system to the campus community and to internal groups was a great improvement over past systems. • Coordination during the incident including Command’s ability to hold conference calls and mobilize a Core Crisis team early on during the crisis. The team consisted of 40+ members from the University as well as the Alvin Community College leadership who were assembled to discuss recovery efforts that would need to be put in place. • Redesign of the University webpage prior to the crisis. One of the updates included a red notification bar at the top of the homepage which provided important information regarding the status of campus to students, staff and visitors. • Very little damage to the main UHCL campus and quick response to minor issues identified by ride-out crew personnel. 4 Internal Audit 11/16/17 7 of 9 • Quick response for restoration at the Pearland campus which resulted in no mold identified by a professional mold inspection contractor, and allowed the campus to reopen on September 5, 2017. • Development of a relief fund that helped students with their needs to continue their education. Areas of Improvement • Familiarity and Training with the Incident Command System (ICS) at the department level and below. • Familiarity and Access to the University Emergency Management Plan and/or Business Continuity Plans • Annual Updates and Exercising of department specific plans and procedures • Lack of pre-event communication, preparation and identification of essential functions/personnel • Use of Telework or procedures for essential personnel to work remotely from campus • Outline clear orders of succession in all department emergency plans or Business Continuity Plans. • “Return to work” process should be enhanced to allow staff and faculty to return to work at least one day before students return to campus in order to allow staff to prepare for the many questions received from students and to assess damages of their own workspace. Significant impacts to the Pearland campus which was flooded with 4 inches of water throughout the building as crews were unable to get to the campus to assess the damage until August 30, 2017 due to high water in the area. University of Houston - Victoria Strengths • Effective use of Everbridge, the University’s Emergency Alert System • Decisions to evacuate vs. ride out the storm • Transportation of students using UHV buses • Communication to employees to return to work • Message accuracy to students and staff regarding Hurricane Harvey • Lessons learned about City utilities during and after the storm. • o Water supply restoration was delayed o Knowing the priorities for restoration of power and where UHV is ranked Decision to continue to cancel extracurricular events when hazards were identified. 5 Internal Audit 11/16/17 8 of 9 • Maintaining Emergency Management communications with President and others via text messages, Emails, and phone calls. • Human Resources were available to complete time sheets and submit pay requirements for staff • Ride Out Team for Technology Services was successful Areas of Improvement • Adding evacuation shelter resources for students • Evacuation challenges for international students • Ensuring drivers are available for buses and evacuation • MOUs for outside housing for students. • Effectively identify essential personnel for storm ride out teams and immediate response once the storm passes (including Facility Services and IT) • Establish ways to monitor social media resources: Facebook, Twitter, etc. in order to keep information accurate • Create agreements for food, shelter and living supplies in order to ride out the storm, when applicable • Clarify personnel and tasks required for post incident response including who should have been back on campus after the storm passed Victoria and conditions were safe. • Consider ideas for establishing an Emergency Management center • Find ways for HR to establish payroll access and benefits from outside the office (mobile access) • Enhancements to Ride Out Team for Technology Services including the potential for increased staffing and establishing proper accommodations/facilities that are protected for riding out the storm. 6 Internal Audit 11/16/17 9 of 9