In recent years, severe weather has challenged the Texas grid, resulting in significant challenges for critical infrastructure and businesses who rely on uninterrupted power. Houston, Texas, the fourth most populous city in the US, is situated less than 50 miles from the Gulf of Mexico along a path known as "Hurricane Alley," making nearly every hurricane season an active exercise in emergency preparedness.  By examining performance during three Houston severe weather events—Winter Storm Uri, the May 2024 derecho, and Hurricane Beryl— this session will explain how dual-purpose microgrids powered by natural gas are foundational to successful emergency response and outage mitigation. Microgrids provide reliable backup power for critical infrastructure and services, thereby reducing the number of communities and businesses relying on county or city emergency response resources. They also reduce load on the grid during periods of grid stress, reducing the risk of supply-related outages.  This panel will explore how microgrids support critical needs during an emergency, using storm response as a case study of their performance when the grid goes down. Panelists will discuss the challenges of resiliency planning as weather becomes increasingly disruptive for aging grid infrastructure and the specific pain points that arose during these disasters. Attendees will leave with a better understanding of resiliency and the mission-critical reason for microgrids.