At the same time that parts of New England are threatening to float away from record-breaking floods, Congress allowed the National Flood Insurance Program to expire for the second time this year. As legislators won’t be reconvening until April 12th, the program looks likely to sit in limbo for a couple of weeks (at least). […]
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How Does Coastal Louisiana's Risk Compare to Our Neighbors?
Posted on March 29, 2010
Great interactive map from the NOAA Coastal Services Center quickly tells you for any state: Population growth of the Coastal Flood Hazard Area (CFA) Percentage of people living in the CFA who are: Living below the poverty line Over 65 years old What percentage of the state’s total land area is within the Coastal Flood […]
New FIRMs Tested in Massachusetts
Posted on March 22, 2010
The Boston Globe has an interesting article on how the updated National Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs) did in last week’s floods there. In a word: well. This wasn’t good news to many who were sure the the updates, which had designated their properties as high flood risk, were wrong. Some were even fighting to […]
Florida is now StormSmart!
Posted on March 15, 2010
Thanks to loads of help from folks in the Florida Departments of Environmental Protection, Community Affairs, Emergency Management, and others, late last week we unveiled the brand-new Florida StormSmart Coasts site. Welcome, Florida! You can access the new Florida StormSmart Coasts at http://fl.stormsmart.org/
Region Forms Group & Plan to Address Threats to Critical Infrastructure
Posted on March 15, 2010
Emergency Management has written a case study on one region’s efforts to assess and identify its critical infrastructure and how to address the risks posed to it. Not surprisingly, the article reports that the project was not easy: along with the standard challenges of who should be involved and who should be in charge, they […]
National Flood Insurance Program Expires [UPDATED]
Posted on March 11, 2010
[ORIGINAL MARCH 1 POST]: Nothing to panic about (we don’t think), but the US Senate failed to pass a reauthorization of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). As a result, the NFIP officially expired last night. FEMA, meanwhile, released an announcement last Friday expressing its confidence that the program will be reauthorized when the Senate […]
Hindsight: Video of Galveston After the 1900 Hurricane
Posted on March 10, 2010
The Caffeinated Politics blog has chased down some fascinating old video footage of the famous 1900 Galveston Hurricane. This storm made landfall as a Category 4 Hurricane and caused somewhere between 6,000 and 12,000 deaths (the current population was 42,000), making it the deadliest natural disaster ever to strike the United States. The footage below […]
Feds Release "Roadmap for Restoring Ecosystem Resiliency and Sustainability in the Louisiana and Mississippi Coasts"
Posted on March 8, 2010
Something new from The White House: In October 2009, President Obama formed the Louisiana‐Mississippi Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Working Group, co‐led by the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and comprising senior‐level officials from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and […]
Deadline for Post-Katrina and Rita Elevation, Mitigation Funding: March 10
Posted on March 8, 2010
Press release from Louisiana Recovery Authority: State Reminds Homeowners of March 10 Deadline for Declaring Interest in Post-Katrina and Rita Elevation, Mitigation Funding More than 40,000 homeowners have expressed interest in HMGP program Homeowners affected by hurricanes Katrina and Rita who wish to participate in the state-run elevation and Individual Mitigation Measures program have until […]
National Hurricane Center Announces Changes
Posted on March 4, 2010
Straight from the National Hurricane Center press-release: Product Changes for the 2010 Hurricane Season’s Effective May 15, the National Hurricane Center will implement important changes in some of its text and graphical products. It will also make some additions to its Web site and experimental products. This is part of a continuing effort at the […]