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(soft resonating music)
(logo whooshes)

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- [Narrator] Together,
the individual ports

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along the Texas coast move more
cargo than any other state.

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They provide direct and
indirect employment,

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supplying 450 billion dollars
in state economic activity.

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So, when hurricanes and
other extreme weather events

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hit the state, our port system,
and, therefore our economy,

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can be adversely affected.

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Is our port system resilient?

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Can the measures that are
in place now be improved?

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- TXDOT really wanted to know,

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how can we improve operations?

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What do we need to do
better to help a port

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get back into operations sooner?

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And, obviously, hurricane
impacts not just the port,

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but large areas around
and TXDOT must come in

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and move all the debris,
get roads open back up,

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enable emergency workers
to access the port,

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if necessary, or surrounding areas,

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block off areas where
they've got damaged roadways

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or flooding and make sure that
no one goes down that route.

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And so, TXDOT does a
lot of different things,

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the maintenance aspect,
the emergency response.

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- We believe this is a time
we have to seriously look into

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the resilience of our post systems.

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And, in addition to the ports themselves

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and also we have to look into
the supporting infrastructure.

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For example, highways,
railroads, pipelines,

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and even, to a degree,
the electric power grid,

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because they are all
connected with each other.

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- Part of what we were
doing was obtaining data,

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conducting interviews, workshops, surveys

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to gather this information

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and then to help develop a
tool that could help ports

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and TXDOT measured the resilience

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and the economic impact of an event.

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- So they can use the tool
to assess the resilience

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of the system and to identify
areas for improvement

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and so that they can make
better investment decisions.

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- What this tool does is
evaluates how resourceful are you

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as a port in handling
these kinds of conditions.

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And it eventually will give them

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a score in terms of

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their robustness, redundancy,

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their rapidity, and their resourcefulness.

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- Personal research findings,

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we develop 33 recommendations

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and for the legislature,

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and for the port authorities,

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and also for Texas Department
of Transportation, to act on.

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- TXDOT has a lot of functions it performs

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in keeping the public safe
and the more it understands

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about what the port itself is doing

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and what the port needs, the
better it can do its job.

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- [Narrator] For more information,

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and to find the publications
for this project,

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please visit the TXDOT Research Library

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at the link shown below.