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WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Floods are a year-round hazard and do not end when cold weather begins. Although this winter has not yet proven to be as severe as in past years, the coming months can bring about a range of conditions across the country that could affect your community. Areas that receive less snow and rain this winter season may later experience drought-like conditions that, when it does rain, can lead to flash flooding. The onset of seasonal rains and snowmelt can also lead to flooding. FEMA encourages citizens to understand the unique flood risks associated with winter weather, and prepare now with an emergency plan, which may include purchasing flood insurance to protect property and possessions from flood damage.

Winter rainy season in the Pacific Northwest consistently delivers intense winter storms and the majority of annual precipitation to that region. Residents may also face an increased risk of flooding and mudslides because of recent wildfires that leave the ground charred and unable to absorb excess water generated by rain and snow. Across the country, particularly in the Midwest and Northeast, heavy snowfall, ice jams, rapid snowmelt, and intense rainstorms caused by fluctuating temperatures can all increase the likelihood and the severity of localized flooding.

The good news is that there are simple steps that citizens can take to address these risks. These include having an emergency supply kit with items such as non-perishable food, water, and a flashlight with batteries, and a family emergency plan that considers your insurance coverage, especially flood insurance. Anyone can visit ready.gov for helpful tips on how to prepare for the risks associated with flooding.

“When it comes to reducing the vulnerability to natural disasters, the whole community has a role to play, and that includes individual citizens,” said David Miller, associate administrator for FEMA’s Federal Insurance and Mitigation Administration. “One of the most critical ways residents can protect their homes and businesses from the severe weather that may cause flooding is to obtain flood insurance.”

Many people mistakenly believe that their homeowners insurance covers flood damage. Only flood insurance financially protects properties from flooding, which is the nation’s most common and costly natural disaster. However, it typically takes 30 days for a new flood insurance policy to take effect, so residents should not wait for a storm to strike before purchasing coverage. It only takes a few inches of water in a home or business to cause thousands of dollars of damage. The time to get protected is now.

Between 2006 and 2010, the average flood claim was nearly $34,000. That’s more than many survivors can afford to pay out of pocket for damages due to flooding. While no one wants a flood to impact them, with federally backed flood insurance, citizens have an important financial safety net to help cover costs to repair or rebuild if a flood should strike. Individuals can learn more about flood risk and their options for insurance coverage by visiting FloodSmart.gov or by calling 1-800-427-2419.

FEMA’s mission is to support our citizens and first responders to ensure that as a nation we work together to build, sustain, and improve our capability to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate all hazards.

John L. "Jack" Hayes is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration assistant administrator for weather services and National Weather Service (NWS) director. He is responsible for an integrated weather services program; supporting the delivery of a variety of weather, water and climate services to government, industry and the general public, including the preparation and delivery of weather warnings and predictions; and the exchange of data products and forecasts with international organizations. He responded to a set of questions posed by Emergency Management magazine.

Weather-related disasters seem to be on the rise. How do you explain this?

In 2011, more than 1,100 people died in weather events and more than 8,000 were injured. The year also included at least 14 individual events — a record — that caused economic damages of $1 billion or more and carry a collective price tag of more than $55 billion. There is both a scientific and a societal explanation for these increased impacts. Scientifically speaking, we saw a range of short-term, cyclical climate factors in play, such as La Niña, which altered storm patterns. Events such as the southern drought contrasting the floods across the northern U.S., represent the extreme temperature and precipitation swings that climate scientists project will become more common in the future amid a warming climate. Society is also changing. The U.S. population has almost doubled since 1954, which corresponds with higher property and infrastructure values. Trends such as urban sprawl and conversion of rural land to suburban landscapes increase the likelihood that a tornado will impact densely populated areas. The wild weather of 2011 reminds us all of our increasing vulnerability and prompted an initiative to build a Weather-Ready Nation.

The 21st century is the digital age. What types of major improvements are being made today or are on the drawing board to modernize the national weather system?

Weather forecasts have improved dramatically in recent decades through investment in research and technology. An example of how research is coming to fruition, the NWS is in the process of upgrading its national network of Doppler radars to have dual-polarization technology. When this upgrade is completed in 2013, all radars will be more sophisticated with the ability to distinguish precipitation type [rain, snow, ice] and in many cases detect precisely where a tornado is on the ground by detecting debris being tossed by the vortex. This additional information will arm forecasters with the knowledge and confidence to issue more detailed alerts to save lives and protect property. We are also improving our satellite observation system with the [NASA-launched NPOESS Preparatory Project] polar-orbiting satellite. And this year we will begin construction on a National Water Center in Tuscaloosa, Ala., which will provide integrated and expansive water resources information to expand and improve river and flood forecasting, enhance water resource management, and accelerate the application of research to real world uses.

Weather warnings are critical to protecting people and property. What is the average time for severe weather warnings to be distributed once weather systems are detected?

Nationally, the average lead time for tornadoes is 12 to 14 minutes, but during the various outbreaks of severe weather in 2011, tornado warnings were issued with an average lead time of approximately 25 minutes and some exceeded 30 minutes. Not long ago, the average lead was half as long. Warnings for flash flooding, another leading cause of weather-related fatalities, have also improved greatly with the nationwide average lead time of one hour or more. We’ve made great strides in improving the reliability and lead times of “short-fuse” warnings for events such as tornadoes, flash floods and severe thunderstorms when every minute counts. And there’s great potential for further enhancements.

An effective warning requires that the threat be detected, a warning communicated and the people in the impacted area must take action to protect themselves. What is the NWS doing to get people to take action once they have been warned?

Last year, while the NWS issued accurate outlooks days in advance of severe weather events, issued watches hours in advance, and sounded warnings longer than the national average, there was still a tragic loss of life. The improvements we’ve made in predicting weather have enabled us to refocus our attention on the public’s response to warnings and alerts. Social science is part of the solution. By helping atmospheric scientists and the emergency management community better understand how weather information is received and what triggers people to take action, we can communicate the threat more effectively and save more lives.

What role, if any, is social media playing in how the NWS disseminates weather information and warnings?

Social media is steadily becoming an important tool in which the NWS communicates critical forecast information and provides a direct linkage between our local forecast offices and national centers to all audiences, especially the general public. Facebook has been adopted by our 122 local offices and our national page has more than 86,000 fans. We are currently prototyping Twitter for adoption. As a science and risk communication agency we must be methodical in evaluating new technologies to make sure they are both robust and help us accomplish our mission of saving lives and livelihoods.

What type of partnership would you like to foster with the broader emergency management community? What recommendations do you have for state and local emergency managers as it pertains to their local and regional weather forecast offices?

The emergency management community has always been a critical partner in saving lives and livelihoods. We know a weather-ready nation isn't possible without them, which is why we now have a NWS liaison position at FEMA’s national headquarters. We have also defined a new type of weather and water forecaster called an emergency response specialist. We’re testing this concept in select offices around the country to determine if it’s viable for broader deployment in other communities. Compliant with the National Incident Management System, the emergency response specialist will deploy with short notice to provide in-person, on-scene decision support during high-impact events. Our partnership with the emergency management community is based on an ongoing open dialog between local emergency managers and the local NWS warning coordination meteorologist, our primary contact for local emergency managers. The NWS StormReady program fosters this relationship. StormReady provides jurisdictions a standard of preparedness for hazardous weather and recognizes their hard work. Emergency managers work with their NWS local office to ensure they meet the guidelines necessary to become recognized as a StormReady site.

What worries you most about our federal national weather system?

These are challenging fiscal times for the nation and we cannot afford another full-scale modernization that transformed the National Weather Service in the 1980s and 1990s, nor is one necessary. But we need to continue to sustain and evolve critical infrastructure and staff readiness and do so methodically and responsibly. We’re doing just that through our Weather-Ready Nation initiative that will be cultivating and testing scientific advances in pilot projects that will allow us to build a little, test a little and field a little.

Problems can’t be addressed until they are recognized. Call it global warming or climate change, when do you think the scientific community will universally agree that global temperatures are rising and there will be negative impacts as a result?

Climate scientists agree on the facts. There are several trends over the past 50 to 100 years indicative of a warming atmosphere: average temperatures are rising, polar ice coverage is shrinking, and sea level is rising — just to name a few. In the U.S., 2011 was yet another warmer-than-average year, and severe weather and associated societal impacts increased.

In my 40 years of tracking the weather, I have never seen extreme weather like we had in 2011. With our changing climate, we can no longer think about severe weather as an inconvenience. We have seen the devastation with our own eyes and hope it doesn’t happen again. Let’s make 2012 the year that we all came together to build a Weather-Ready Nation.

For more about the Weather-Ready Nation initiative, please visit www.noaa.gov/wrn.

• APPLICATION PERIOD: Monday, January 30, 2012 - Friday, February 24, 2012 at 5:00 P.M. EST
• FY 2011 SAFER Program Guidance to be Posted on AFG Website on Wednesday, January 25, 2012
• Important Special Instructions for Completing the FY 2011 SAFER Grant Applicatio n
• New SAFER Self-Evaluation Tools Provide Insight into the Peer Review Evaluation Process

The FY 2011 Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) Grants application period will open on Monday, January 30, 2012 and run until Friday, February 24, 2012 at 5:00 P.M. EST.

The goal of the SAFER Grants is to assist local fire departments with staffing and deployment capabilities in order to respond to emergencies, assuring communities have adequate protection from fire and fire-related hazards.

undefined undefinedThe FY 2011 SAFER Grant Program Guidance and Application Kit will be posted on the AFG Website starting Wednesday, January 25, 2012.
All SAFER applicants should read the new FY 2011 SAFER Grants Program Guidance to fully understand the FY 2011 award criteria, funding priorities, and important special application instructions for completing the application.

Highlights of the FY 2011 SAFER Grant Program

The grant program conditions described below are in effect ONLY for the FY 2011 SAFER Grants; they are not retroactive to previous fiscal years and do not apply beyond the FY 2011 SAFER Grants Program.

• Salary limits : There are no annual salary limits
• Grantee cost share : There is no prescribed cost-share
• No retention commitmen t: Grantees that are hiring firefighters—whether they be rehires, new hires, or retained firefighters—do not have to commit to retaining the SAFER-funded firefighters beyond the period of performance. However, no firefighter layoffs are permitted—of either SAFER-funded on non-SAFER firefighters—during the grant's period of performance
• Period of performance : For the Hiring of Firefighters Category grants, the period of performance has been reduced to 2 years.
• Attrition of firefighters : FY 2011 grantees who are unable to back-fill firefighting positions that are vacated due to documentable economic hardship may petition FEMA for a waiver of staffing maintenance requirements. To qualify for this waiver, the economic hardship must affect the entire public safety sector in the jurisdiction and not only the fire department.
• Hiring of Firefighters Category : The priorities for funding will be as follows:

1.      First priority : Rehiring laid-off firefighters

2.      Second priority : Retention of firefighters who face imminent layoff and/or filling positions vacated through attrition but not filled due to economic circumstances

3.      Third priority : Hiring new firefighters

Important Special Instructions for Completing the FY 2011 SAFER Hiring Grant Application

A technical issue with the SAFER e-grant application will require that applicants requesting funds for the Hiring of Firefighters Category enter data for 4 budget years even though only 2 years of funding can be awarded for this Category. Unfortunately, the application format cannot be changed, and therefore Hiring of Firefighters applicants should follow these special instructions on how to complete the application:

• For budget years one (1) and two (2), input the requested salary and benefits for each line item;
• For budget years three (3) and four (4) insert $1.00 for both the salary and benefits
  NOTE: The system will not allow an input of $0 value. If an applicant submits a budget request for year three (3) and year four (4), the budget will be reduced prior to the grant award.  

If you need additional information or instructions, the SAFER Help Desk and Fire Program Specialists will be available throughout the application period to answer questions about the SAFER Program Guidance and the online grant application. The Help Desk can be contacted at 1-866-274-0960 or via e-mail at firegrants@dhs.gov. The Help Desk hours of operation during the application period are from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. All times listed are eastern daylight times.

New SAFER Grant Self-Evaluation Tools Provide Insight into the Peer Review Evaluation Process

On Thursday, January 19, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), in partnership with the White House, honored seventeen local leaders for spearheading creative and effective initiatives to better prepare their communities for disaster events. In the process, each has helped to build a more resilient and secure homeland. The honorees, selected as recipients of this year’s Individual and Community Preparedness Awards, were recognized as White House Champions of Change.

Among these honorees was Michael J. Smith, fire chief for the San Manual Band of Serrano Mission Indians.  His story:

Join the NEHRP community at the 2012 National Earthquake Conference (NEC) on April 10-14, 2012 at the Peabody Hotel in Memphis, TN to:

·          Understand the research: Develop a shared understanding of the scientific, engineering, and social research that underlies our ability to assess, mitigate, and respond to earthquakes across the U.S. (California, Pacific NW, New Madrid, Northeast, Southeast).

·          Exchange ideas about tools for earthquake hazard and risk reduction: Exchange key information on the needs and state of the art in technological and informational products meant to facilitate earthquake hazard mitigation and response.

·          Showcase successful programs: Present and discuss successful earthquake and other hazard mitigation and response programs in the public and private sectors.

·          Learn from past disasters: Relate the lessons learned from large-scale disasters to probable future earthquakes.

·          Build resiliency:  Discover and build on new approaches and solutions to achieving resiliency to earthquakes.

This conference is also being held in conjunction with the 2012 Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) Annual Meeting and the National Earthquake Program Managers (NEPM) Annual Meeting.  The 2012 NEC also serves as the anchoring event for the New Madrid Bicentennial .

To register and view the full 2012 NEC Program:

Visit:   https://www.eeri.org/registration/am.php.  Get discounted rate for early registration only available through Jan. 31!

To sign up for exhibits and sponsorship support:

Visit:  http://2012am.eeri.org/exhibitors-co-sponsors

For hotel Information:

Visit:   http://2012am.eeri.org/hotel

For more information:

Visit:  http://earthquakeconference.org/

FY 2012 CTAS is now OPEN.
Federally recognized tribes may apply until 9:00 PM ET on Wednesday, April 18, 2012.

Community Partnerships Grants Management System (CPGMS) will begin accepting electronic applications on Monday, Jan. 23, 2012.

Fiscal Year (FY) 2012 Coordinated Tribal Assistance Solicitation (CTAS) is now open to federally recognized tribes or tribal consortium. You can submit a single application and select from 10 competitive grant programs. This year $101.5 million is available grant programs administered by the Office of Justice Programs (OJP), the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) and the Office on Violence Against Women (OVW). The funding can be used to conduct comprehensive planning, enhance law enforcement, bolster justice systems, support and enhance tribal efforts to prevent and control delinquency and strengthen the juvenile justice system, prevent youth substance abuse, serve sexual assault and elder victims, and support other efforts to combat crimes and assist law enforcement. This FY 2012 CTAS solicitation reflects improvements and refinements from earlier versions based on your feedback during tribal consultations and listening sessions, from a specially developed assessment tool about the application experience, and from written comments from applicants and grantees.

FY 2012 CTAS enhancements include:

• A new strategic planning pilot program;
• A question and answer template option;
• Adjustment to purpose areas to allow for greater flexibility in funding requests; and
• A request for data on tribe demographics to better capture and describe the unique characteristics of each tribe.

Read the solicitation to learn all the specifics of this open program. The CTAS 2012 fact sheet further describes the programs available.

This year all applications should go through the DOJ's Community Partnerships Grants Management System (CPGMS). The CPGMS will begin accepting electronic applications on January 23, 2012.

This website however, houses samples all of the documents necessary to apply to the solicitation. Here you can peruse and study the solicitation and all forms to be completed during the application process.

Important Warning! Each Tribe or Tribal consortium will be allowed only one application submission. An application can be revised in CPGMS up until the application deadline, April 18, 2012. Please note that only the final version of an application submitted in CPGMS will be considered. If a Tribe submits more than one application, only one application will be considered in the review process.

On February 7, 2012, at 10:15 a.m.* CST, more than one million people across nine states will participate in the 2012 Great Central U.S. ShakeOut!   http://www.shakeout.org/centralus/

Over 3 million people in eleven states practiced "Drop, Cover, and Hold On" in April 2011 as part of the first Central U.S. ShakeOut.

For those of you who haven’t heard yet, the Obama Administration and the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) is supporting changes to the Stafford Act to give federally recognized tribal governments the authority to make disaster declaration requests directly to the President of the United States, NCAI has learned that H.R. 1953 containing this language and sponsored by Rep. Nick Rahall (D-WV) has a possibility of moving out of committee and to the House floor. NCAI urges tribal leaders to voice support for the bill to members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management.

 H.R. 1953 provides for tribes to seek disaster declaration under the Stafford Act including a cost share waiver for non-federal contributions less than $200,000 and possible adjustment for non-federal contributions over $200,000. Tribal officials and NCAI have provided testimony and letters to congressional committees for additional provisions including a lower threshold formula of damages assessment to qualify for federal assistance. While not including the additional Stafford Act changes tribes and NCAI seek, the likelihood of passage due to the current economic and political climate is viewed as progress.  

The Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act currently allows only states, through a governor, to make these requests to the President. As harsh winters descend upon North America, tribal officials are concerned that inaction by congress will leave both tribes and states without the proper tools and mechanisms to respond to major disaster events.
 

NCAI Contact Information: Robert Holden, Deputy Director - rholden@ncai.org