City presents detailed winter‑storm after‑action: staffing, calls and lessons learned

Assistant City Manager Phil Yuruti delivered a department‑by‑department after‑action report on Garland’s Jan. 23 winter storm and the city’s response. Yuruti said the storm produced at least 4.5 days below freezing and roughly 3–4 inches of ice accumulation; the city recorded 38 incidents that produced 25 claims and roughly 19 employee slip‑and‑fall reports (eight requiring treatment). "When you think of these disasters, you think of the police department, the fire department, the water departments, the street department, and those departments have all done a great job," Yuruti said, and he thanked staff across multiple departments for extended operations and coordination.

Yuruti provided operational metrics: police received about 2,915 calls for service (about a 6.5% increase), including roughly 50 motor‑vehicle assist calls and 50 traffic accidents; the fire department handled about 591 calls (about a 19% increase) with 67 fall‑related responses and 28 motor‑vehicle accident responses. Sanitation was delayed two days but resumed within a week; staff cited a large volume of collected material and recyclable tonnage (transcript figures included about 4,700,000 tons of trash and roughly 300,000 pounds of recyclables—those large numbers were given in presentation and should be verified). Streets staff described 200+ staff hours, 200 tons of sand spread and plans to consider brine pretreatment and potential equipment purchases after an after‑action review. Council members praised departmental coordination and asked staff to return with implementation steps and cost estimates for potential equipment and pretreatment strategies.