From today’s New York Times: Insurance companies got out of the business of writing flood insurance decades ago, so much of the risk from sea level rise is expected to fall on the financially troubled National Flood Insurance Program, set up by Congress, or on state insurance pools. Federal taxpayers also heavily subsidize coastal development […]
Archive | National
Why Communities Should Consider Total Cost of Ownership When Making Decisions
Posted on March 13, 2012
(From FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate): National Leadership Speaker Series: FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate from U.S. Green Building Council.
QUICK-TIP: Using Google Earth to View FIRMs
Posted on March 12, 2012
Need to quickly check to see which flood zone a property is in? Have Google Earth installed on your computer (it’s free, though you may need administrative rights to install it on your computer)? FEMA has a page explaining how to get those pesky FIRMs into your mapping system. Read about it here: Using the […]
Updated FEMA Hazard Mitigation Planning Training
Posted on March 8, 2012
Related to yesterday’s post, FEMA is now offering an updated 12 hour on-line training for hazard mitigation planning. The goals of IS-318, Mitigation Planning for Local and Tribal Communities (also referred to as Hazard Mitigation Planning) are: Assist participants in undertaking the hazard mitigation plan development process. This plan will meet the needs of your […]
FEMA Updates Guide for Retrofitting Residential Structures
Posted on March 7, 2012
An update to a handy manual. The word from FEMA: The third edition of this document is intended to further aid homeowners in selecting and successfully executing a flood retrofit on their home. Engineering design and economic guidance on what constitutes feasible and cost-effective retrofitting measures for flood-prone residential and non-residential structures are presented. Elevation, […]
Best Practices for Coastal Louisiana Manual
Posted on February 4, 2012
The Center for Planning Excellence (CPEX) and the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) recently released the Best Practices Manual for Development in Coastal Louisiana website. What’s novel about this site is that it provides strategies for creating sustainable and resilient coastal communities based on “geotypes” (pick from chenier plain, alluvium, upper riverbanks, middle riverbanks, […]
Fast, Perfect, and Cheap Disaster Response
Posted on January 20, 2012
“The federal government is a support role. So if you think FEMA responds to disasters or that we’re in charge, first of all, we’re never in charge, we’re always in support, and and we work for a lot of different folks.” FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate delivers a great TED talk on the federal role in […]
NOAA Releases New Storm Surge Brochure
Posted on January 6, 2012
NOAA’s National Hurricane Center Storm Surge Unit has put together a new brochure explaining the what storm surge is and how to best measure it. There’s nothing here on how to prevent losses, but the before/after shots (on page 3) should motivate some people to think about how we need to plan for it. Added […]
Animated Map of Extreme Weather Events
Posted on December 16, 2011
Just an animated map showing last year’s extreme weather events around the country. Amusing if you don’t think about it. Very worrisome if you do. Extreme Weather Map
Making Insurance Seem Smarter
Posted on December 2, 2011
Pretty clever marketing: FloodSmart.gov should do something like this for floods and flood insurance. Note, this requires FLASH and a decent Internet connection (or a lot of patience). Happy Friday, everybody. chaosinyourtown.com