Welcome to Natural Disasters Expo Houston! For its fifth year, Natural Disasters Expo USA comes back to Houston on October 14–15, 2026, at the George R. Brown Convention Center. And there’s no better place for it. This city knows what it takes to prepare for disasters, respond, and rebuild afterward.
For two days, industry leaders, government agencies, first responders, and resilience professionals will come together with one shared goal: helping communities weather the next storm stronger than the last. Explore new solutions and technology, learn from experts who have been on the front lines, and meet the partners who will help you turn preparedness into action. Whether you’re here to learn, share, or collaborate, you’re part of the effort to build a more resilient nation.
In this speaker series, Tom Fox interviews Dalton Rice, City Manager of Kerrville, ahead of the Natural Disaster Expo 2026, where Rice will speak on “Leading Through a Disaster: Hill Country Floods 2025.”
Rice previews a leadership-focused talk on how individuals and organizations navigate disasters, emphasizing immediate mental health support, burnout prevention, and adapting operations while continuing to run cities and departments. He plans to incorporate lessons from Kerrville’s July 4, 2025, flood and a second major flood on July 16, 2026, noting differences between fatality events and devastation-only disasters and how politics, resources, and pace of response affect outcomes. Rice says he values the conference for networking and building a “Rolodex” of peers, and he explains his goal of creating practical guidance for city managers, including challenges such as legislative dynamics, IT issues, hate mail, death threats, and separating disaster response from organizational operations.
Key highlights:
- Dalton Rice Role and Background
- Talk Preview: Leading Disaster
- Back-to-Back Flood Lessons
- Resilience Mindset and Burnout
- Conference Goals: Networking
- Why Share Lessons Learned
Resources: