In October of 2015, representatives from state and federal agencies representing broad areas of water, public safety, infrastructure and other management participated in a workshop on Texas-Oklahoma Climate Extremes: Learning from the Recent Four-Year Drought and Spring Flooding Events. The workshop was a Southern Plains Drought Early Warning System (DEWS) activity with the goal of improving disaster reduction and building capacity for better decision-making related to drought planning and mitigation. The workshop focused on the successes, challenges, lessons learned, and opportunities for future collaboration related to the recent 2010-2015 drought and spring 2015 flood events. The workshop included presentations and discussions about the shift from extreme drought to floods in 2015 and tactics the participants’ agencies used to manage the impacts of those events. Discussions specifically focused on monitoring tools, agency coordination, unexpected impacts, successes, and public outreach.
Report can be found here.