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 when the government pays to rebuild infrastructure destroyed in storm surges and picks up much of the bill for private losses not covered by insurance. For decades, coastal scientists have argued that these policies are foolhardy, and that the nation must begin planning an orderly retreat from large portions of its coasts, but few politicians have been willing to embrace that message or to warn the public of the rising risks. Organizations like Mr. Ebell’s, [the Competitive Enterprise Institute] even as they express skepticism about climate science, have sided with the coastal researchers on one issue. They argue that Congress should stop subsidizing coastal development, regarding it as a waste of taxpayers’ money regardless of what the ocean might do in the future. “If people want to build an expensive beach house on the Florida or Carolina coast, they should take their own risk and pay for their own insurance,” Mr. Ebell said.

That’s big: when people from all political stripes agree that something should change, it just might.

http://vimeo.com/37815679

National Leadership Speaker Series: FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate from U.S. Green Building Council.

Using the National Flood Hazard Layer Web Map Service (WMS) in Google Earth

(More on how to find and interpret FIRMs on our Interpreting FIRMs and FIS Reports page)

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 community and fulfill the requirements for local plans.
• Help federal and state plan reviewers interpret the regulations to inform the review of local or Tribal hazard mitigation plans.

You can access info on the training on FEMA’s Emergency Management Institute site.

Too busy for that? Have a look at their 90-minute webinar and slide presentation in the FEMA library.

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, relocation, dry floodproofing, wet floodproofing, and the use of levees and floodwalls to mitigate flood hazards are discussed. This edition was updated to be more user-friendly and concise, the overall length of the publication has been shortened.

You can download it from FEMA here.

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, lower riverbanks, or coastal delta: map for where these are in Louisiana here).

While the geotypes aren’t found everywhere, many of the recommendations on the site are relevant not only for other parts of the Gulf of Mexico, but for coastal areas around the country. Definitely worth a look.

Best Practices Manual for Development in Coastal Louisiana website.

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.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXDkzCwstaw

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 to our Sources for Outreach Materials page.

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

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!