StormSmart National Blog

Fast, Perfect, and Cheap Disaster Response

Wesley Shaw — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 18:03:47 +0000

“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 disasters, what we’re doing wrong when we respond to them (most of the problem being how we think about disasters and the people caught up in them), and how we might/must use social media to meet our goals, even if our goals are to get a little more sleep. Check out the video below.

Florida Takes Hard Look at its Future Climate

Wesley Shaw — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 18:05:47 +0000

The State University System of Florida has released Climate Scenarios: A Florida-Centric View, a serious look at what future climate conditions might mean for the sunshine state. From the intro:

The purpose of this document is to provide an informed opinion on future climate scenarios relevant to Florida. It offers a primer on Florida’s vulnerabilities to climate variability and change. The document is an excellent compilation of diverse viewpoints on future climate projection. It implores the readers to be cognizant of the associated uncertainty but not to use that as an excuse for inaction in climate adaptation and mitigation.

Experts in diverse fields employed in institutions across Florida have contributed to this document and provided candid and informed assessments of future climate variation and change. The uniqueness of this document is that it broadens the discussion of a rather restrictive sounding title like “climate scenarios” to involve experts in sociology, environmental law, and economics, in addition to oceanography and meteorology.

You can download Climate Scenarios: A Florida-Centric View here.

Thanks Heidi, for sharing.

NOAA Releases New Storm Surge Brochure

Wesley Shaw — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 21:54:46 +0000

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.

Download “Introduction to Storm Surge” from the National Hurricane Center (PDF).

Welcome, New Hampshire StormSmart Coasts!

Wesley Shaw — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 16:55:41 +0000

We at StormSmart Coasts are thrilled to announce that, thanks to a lot of work by our Granite State partners, the New Hampshire StormSmart Coasts site is now live: our eighth StormSmart state!

You can check out New Hampshire StormSmart Coasts here. Also, be sure to have a look at the accompanying New Hampshire Coastal Adaptation Workgroup blog.

Thanks again to all the work by all of our partners. We’re thrilled to have you with us!

Animated Map of Extreme Weather Events

Wesley Shaw — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 19:39:34 +0000

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

Mississippi to be Dropped from the National Flood Insurance Program?

Wesley Shaw — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 20:11:09 +0000

A troubling article from the Bolivar Commercial spells out why Mississippi may be removed from the National Flood Insurance Program as early as this spring.

The issue is over a state law prohibiting counties and cities from enforcing building codes, including local floodplain management ordinances, against qualified hunting and fishing camps. The NFIP requires that participating communities regulate development in floodplains.

To be clear: this isn’t about a couple of rural areas. It’s about the entire state of Mississippi. From that article:

“This is not simply a matter of residences in Bolivar County or the Delta Region,” said Bill Quinton, director of the Bolivar County Emergency Management Agency in August. “Everyone across the state, including the Gulf Coast, could lose federal funding needed to help rebuild after flooding disasters.”

Ouch.

Read all about it over on the Bolivar Commercial.

Homeowner Survey (With Prizes?)

Wesley Shaw — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 19:08:18 +0000

This just in from our friends at Rhode Island Sea Grant:

Ready for big weather, floods & wind damage? Click here to take our 30-minute survey and enter to win a $500, $75, or $25 gift card to Home Depot. Survey limited to 400 participants.

We are inviting 400 Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Massachusetts homeowners ages 18 and older to participate in a survey to develop a better understanding of progress towards taking action to reduce your risk from increased storminess to help develop an Internet-based program.

This online survey will ask about your demographic information, history of impact from climate events, awareness of increased storminess, and attitudes toward adapting to increased storminess.

Questions? Contact Pamela Rubinoff of the University of Rhode Island Coastal Resources Center and Rhode Island Sea Grant at (401) 874-6135 or email: climatesurvey@crc.uri.edu.

Making Insurance Seem Smarter

Wesley Shaw — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 22:11:34 +0000

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

New Reality: Innocous High Tide Floods Street [video]

Wesley Shaw — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 18:49:38 +0000

Delaware Sea Grant has released a great short video showing how a little (offshore) storm plus a high tide can affect a seemingly safe street. Take a short break and watch. Expect a lot more like this as we see more sea level rise.

New Webinar: The Front Lines of Climate Change

Wesley Shaw — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 17:29:05 +0000

Next Wednesday (November 30th) at 2PM CST the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium will be hosting what sounds like an interesting webinar on how climate change is impacting Bangladesh (for those who don’t know, that nation is often cited as one of the countries most susceptible to negative climate change impacts). The talk will be given by Taibur Rahman, a Community Solutions Program Fellow from the Ministry of Planning in Bangladesh. He’s spent the last few months in Mississippi working with Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant on local climate issues, so should be able to bring a worldly perspective to our nation’s coastal climate change challenges.

For details (including the link to visit the webinar), see the event’s page on StormSmart Connect.