Archive | National

What Do People Know About Flood Risk and How Do They Want to Learn More?

Most of the general public (69%) doesn’t believe that they are at risk of flooding, though most (68%) local official know many are wrong to feel so safe. The public wants to hear about flood risk from municipal/county officials (47% want the mayor, 32% the floodplain manager)—unfortunately, nearly half (45%) report that they “never” do. […]

FEMA Releases First Edition of the National Preparedness Goal

From a FEMA press-release: We are pleased to announce the release of the first edition of the National Preparedness Goal, which is available for download at http://www.fema.gov/PPD8. The National Preparedness Goal is the first deliverable called for by Presidential Policy Directive (PPD) 8 and was signed by the Secretary of Homeland Security on September 23, […]

The Dutch, Showing the World Up Again

Leave it to the Dutch to come up with a huge plan for dealing with flooding and to implement it AND to make a pretty flashy video about it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roGzkCMyR0g&eurl You can read about the project in English on the Dutch Room for the River Programme’s site.

Recording of Legal Webinar on Regulatory Takings and Climate Change Now Available for Streaming

Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant and partners have kindly shared a link to a video recording of their latest webinar “Legal Implications of Climate Change – Regulatory Takings.” You can watch the whole presentation (vide and audio) here. Among other things, Stephanie Showalter Otts provides a good overview of the case history that guides decisions today, and […]

Social Media as a Two-Way Street

It’s interesting watching savvy municipal employees of all stripes shift from viewing social media as another means of talking to the public, to viewing it as a new way to communicate with the public (two-way communication vs one-way bullhorn). The change is forcing professionals to view themselves as a node in the network of information, […]

Check out the New and Improved Coastal Community Resilience Index

We at StormSmart are big fans of the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium’s Coastal Community Resilience Index. For those not familiar with it, the Coastal Community Resilience Index (CRI) is a simple tool that provides a snapshot of a community’s resilience, and can help identify opportunities to improve. Designed to take as little as two hours […]

Will the Next Hurricane Put You Underwater? New Site Shows How Deep

Have a look at the new Miami-Dade County Storm Surge Simulator which lets you click on a map to show where you live and then select the severity of the storm before it shows you just how deep that water will be when that next hurricane hits. You can even select whether you want to […]

No Budget? No Problem. Group Makes Hurricane Safety PSAs on a Shoestring Budget

With no funding (and a little help from the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium), Mississippi’s C-HOST (Coastal Hazard Outreach Strategy Team) group has created some great quick public service announcements. Below is one example, see the C-HOST videos page for more. (Does your group or community want its own StormSmart.org site? Let us know.)

New, Non-Technical Sea Level Rise Primer for Southeastern US

Finding information on sea level rise that isn’t so vague as to be useless or too technical to understand can be tricky. Gary Mitchum (University of South Florida) has taken a stab at doing so in Sea Level Changes in the Southeastern United States—Past, Present, and Future. You can download a PDF of the report […]

Need an Example? Check Out this Climate Change Adaptation Plan

Not sure how to get started on a climate change adaptation plan? Have a look at what the San Francisco Bay area has drafted with their new “Climate Change Hits Home” report. The plan includes: Anticipated regional impacts Vulnerable areas and adaptation strategies (includes public safety and health, transportation, ecosystems and biodiversity, energy, water management, […]