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LACPR Final Technical Report Available for Comment

The Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration (LACPR) team has released their final technical report for public comment. The report, available on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’s site, discusses different possible plans for each of fine planning units, and describes the trade offs that each plan requires to achieve a specific level of risk reduction. […]

Interagency Study Concludes Structural Protection Can't Solve All Problems [REPORT]

The Interagency Performance Evaluation Task Force (IPET: a group organized by the U.S. Corps of Engineers in the wake of Hurricane Katrina) has released a draft of a report evaluating the performance of the New Orleans hurricane protection system during Hurricane Katrina and to assess the risks posed to the New Orleans region by future […]

National Hurricane Center Urged to Update Warning System

The Miami Herald reports that U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (FL) told forecasters and federal, state, local and Red Cross emergency managers on Friday that the nation’s emergency warning system needs to join the wired and increasingly wireless 21st century. During a House subcommittee hearing on national and state hurricane preparedness held in Miami, he argued […]

New book: How to Maximize FEMA Funding After a Natural Disaster

While it doesn’t yet appear to have appeared on bookstore shelves (Amazon has it listed as “temporarily unavailable”), the $35, 80-page How to Maximize FEMA Funding After a Natural Disaster is already gathering attention, including an article in the Times Picayune and many “reviews” on Amazon (though few, if any, of the reviewers appear to […]

Report Calls For Federal Assistance For Local Planning for Climate Change

Last week the National Academies released a report calling for new federal efforts to identify local officials who need assistance in planning for climate change impacts. According to a press release by the National Academies, “The report recommends six principles that all agencies should follow in supporting decision makers who are facing the effects of […]

New Publication Guides Climate Change Outreach and Communications

Trying to figure out how to build support among your citizens for preparing for climate change? ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability’s new “Climate Change Outreach and Communications Guide” (39 pp.) claims to be a tool to help local governments effectively communicate climate information to their constituencies. The guide contains an array of steps and methodologies for […]

FUNDING/ASSISTANCE: Smart Growth Implementation Assistance

EPA’s Smart Growth Implementation Assistance 2009 program is seeking applications for technical assistance from communities that want to incorporate smart growth in their future development to meet environmental and other community goals. Eligible entities are tribal, local, regional, and state governments, and nonprofit organizations that have a demonstrated partnership with a governmental entity. Applications are […]

FUNDING/ASSISTANCE: NOAA Seeking "Shovel-Ready" Habitat Restoration Proposals

NOAA is seeking proposals for coastal habitat restoration projects under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 in an unprecedented effort to jumpstart the economy. The effort is designed to create resilient and healthy communities by generating and saving jobs, employing several thousand people, and restoring valuable coastal and marine habitat.  NOAA is formally […]

Trim Your Trees, Protect Your Utilities?

A report commissioned by the Public Utility Commission of Texas recommends a relatively inexpensive means of protecting the city’s utility lines: trim back dead and diseased trees — even those on private property. The article in the Houston Chronicle notes that the report argues that 96% of all damage to the city’s utility company’s infrastructure […]