Dozens of Tulsa government and community leaders meet to plan the city’s path to resiliency.
The city is part of the Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities program. Mayor Dewey Bartlett said that means planning for a vast array of contingencies.
"The normal disasters, but also things that probably aren't normal, like financial downfalls, ... immigration issues," Bartlett said. "It could be immunization problems, disease problems, lack of adequate supplies of energy, for example, or even food."
The city will use grant money to hire a chief resiliency officer, whose job will sort of be planning for the worst.
"We must have a series of templates in order to at least have the knowledge of who to call, or what to do, or where to go," Bartlett said. "And then we can relay that to our citizens."
The CRO won’t be on his or her own, however, because 100 Resilient Cities is an international program and there’s a summit later this year in Mexico City.
Program COO Andrew Salkin said it’s an international program because cities around the world face similar challenges.
"And the story that Tulsa tells about itself — about the challenges of living around and in fear of a river, but also the river being its lifeblood in economics — is also the story that Bangkok tells, is the same stories that you hear from other port cities," Salkin said.
