Natural Disaster Reduction Efforts at the Local Government Level in the United States Russell C. Coile, Ph.D., CEM Emergency Program Manager, Pacific Grove Fire Department 600 Pine Avenue, Pacific Grove, California 93950-3317 USA Tel: 831 648-3110, Fax: 831 648-3107, e-mail: russell@coile.com Keywords: natural disasters, reduction, mitigation, prevention, preparedness, United States, local government Abstract Hurricanes, floods, earthquakes and other disasters seem to be occurring in the United States with increasing frequency. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is now encouraging local governments to assume more responsibility for disaster reduction activities rather than just waiting for the federal government to provide assistance for recovery after a disaster. FEMA announced a new program called "Project Impact: Building a Disaster Resistant Community in 1997. The objective of this initiative is to provide technical advice on disaster mitigation in an effort to encourage local communities to undertake actions that will protect families, businesses and the community. Congress has been willing to fund demonstration projects for disaster mitigation but feels that local communities and local businesses must form partnerships to cope with their own local hazards. The Department of Energy has developed another approach consistent with its responsibilities. The Department of Energy's Center of Excellence for Sustainable Development has been working with a number of communities to develop and evaluate quantifiable and relevant indicators of sustainability and quality of life indicators. This approach includes a number of natural hazard reduction efforts to improve safety in communities in the United States. A separate but related approach has been developed by the insurance industry. The Institute of Business and Home Safety in Boston has a Showcase Community program sponsored by the insurance industry which has many of FEMA's goals. For example, the Showcase Community program builds demonstration homes incorporating new disaster resistant features to educate both the public and home builders. 1. Introduction The United States seems to have experienced an increasing number of hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, tornadoes, severe winter storms and fires in recent years. The cost of recovery actions has similarly increased. Economic damage in the United States cost more than 10 billion dollars in 1996 as a result of weather disasters. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) now believes that local communities should assume more responsibility for preparing for disasters in order to attempt to reduce damage and to reduce the subsequent recovery costs. James Lee Witt, FEMA's Director announced a new program called "Project Impact: Building a Disaster Resistant Community" on November 6, 1997. The objective of this initiative is to encourage local communities to undertake actions that will protect families, businesses and the community by reducing the harmful effects of natural disasters. FEMA believes that the emphasis of emergency management should change from emphasizing responding to disasters to taking actions in advance of disaster that will reduce the potential damage. James Lee Witt went to Deerfield Beach, a small city in Florida, to launch this new initiative. He said, "We have got to change the way we deal with disasters. We have to break the damage-repair, damage-repair cycle." "We need to have communities and businesses come together to reduce the costs and consequences of disasters." Deerfield Beach was the first city to sign an agreement with FEMA to become a "disaster resistant" community. FEMA provided $1 million in seed money for disaster resistant actions. Hurricanes are a major problem for the city and have caused tremendous damage in the past when roofs had been blown off, windows had been broken and then the driving rain ruined everything inside. For example, the city will now invest $150,000 of FEMA's money in putting hurricane straps on the auditorium and cafeteria of the local high school and installing extra strong wind shutters on all high school windows. These shutters are designed to withstand the severe hurricane winds which have in the past exceeded the wind speeds listed in the building codes. The high school will serve as a shelter for city residents whose homes have been demolished. Local homeowners are being encouraged to protect their homes against hurricane storm damage. Home Depot, a building supply company with emphasis on supplying do-it-yourself folks, established a display of hurricane-resistant structural improvements which homeowners should consider and began giving free training courses for local homeowners to teach them how they can protect their homes. They also sell the building materials and rent some tools, such as nail-guns. 2. FEMA's basic concepts There are three basic concepts in FEMA's new disaster resistant initiative: First - Mitigation is a local issue. There should be a partnership of local government, local businesses and local private citizens. Each community may face different hazards. The local organizations should examine their particular risks for natural disasters. The Federal government in Washington may be thousands of miles away and not understand the local situation. Second - Private sector participation is essential. Disasters threaten the economic well-being of our communities. More than 250 businesses in Chesterfield, Missouri were affected by the mid-west floods of 1993 - only 65 re-opened for business after the floods. Congress has become increasingly concerned that everyone seems to just sit back and wait for federal assistance and federal funding after a disaster. It is certainly in the best interest of the local private businesses to take appropriate cost-effective actions prior to a disaster in order to survive. The local residents need to resume living normal lives as soon as feasible after a disaster Third - Mitigation is a long-term effort that requires long-term investment. All stakeholders must realize that this will be a worthwhile investment. Possible actions to reduce the harmful effects of disasters and to reduce the economic and social costs of recovery should be carefully examined so that appropriate measures can be agreed upon by all the participants. According to FEMA, Arnold, Missouri received more than $2 million in federal disaster assistance after the 1993 Midwest floods. After the 1995 flood, a disaster resistant Arnold incurred damage less than $40,000 as a result of non-structural mitigation. 3. FEMA's Project Impact Guidebook FEMA has taken several actions to get this program established all over the United States. Its first action was to issue a "Project Impact Guidebook" which outlines how communities might start their own local project. FEMA suggests four steps: 1) Building Community Partnerships - forming a "Disaster Resistant Community Planning Committee" with representatives of the local government, state and federal disaster agencies, local business, labor, environmental groups, local citizens and homeowner associations.. 2) Hazard Identification and Hazard Vulnerability - the first tasks of this Planning Committee would be to identify the local community's risks for natural disasters and then to assess the community's vulnerability to these risks. 3) Identifying and Prioritizing Risk Reduction Actions in Your Community - based on the possible particular disasters to this local community and the estimated vulnerabilities, the community should explore possible mitigation and preparedness actions and establish priorities. 4) Communicating Project Impact to your Disaster Resistant Community - the community must be educated to understand the importance of working together in a partnership to support the recommended mitigation actions. The local partnership must somehow decide how to raise local money for the most cost-effective actions and not just sit back and hope for Federal funding. FEMA's next action was to select seven communities in different areas of the United States. Each was asked to develop a plan to become a "disaster resistant" community. These pilot communities were: Oakland, California Seattle, Washington Pascagoula, Mississippi Deerfield Beach, Florida Allegany County, Maryland Tucker and Randolph Counties, West Virginia City of Wilmington/New Hanover County, North Carolina For example, the City of Oakland signed an agreement with FEMA on January 23, 1998 and was designated a "disaster resistant" community. FEMA gave the city $679,000 seed money to undertake its hazard analysis, risk assessment and the planning of home/business strengthening programs. Earthquakes, an urban firestorm, and severe winter storms with flooding have all occurred in Oakland within the past few years. Oakland calls its program Project SAFE -Safety And Future Empowerment. The City of Pacific Grove which received national recognition in 1997 for its earthquake preparedness program when FEMA included "Pacific Grove - A Model for Small City Disaster Preparedness" in FEMA's Compendium of Exemplary Practices, Volume II is currently exploring how it can become more disaster resistant. 4. Community partnerships Who are "community partners"? FEMA suggests partnerships of the local organizations to include government; industry & business; volunteer & community -based organizations; health care; workforce; media and education groups. Some examples (appropriate to my California community) might be as follows: Government: (Government has the responsibility to protect the public health, safety, economic stability and growth of our community. Government representatives must play key roles in preparing our city to become more disaster resistant as well as providing emergency response and assistance, and helping in recovery.) City of Pacific Grove Monterey County Office of Emergency Services State Office of Emergency Services (OES Coastal Region) Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA Region IX) Industry & Business: (Businesses need to survive so that appropriate disaster resistant activities for rapid business resumption and recovery will naturally also help in the recovery efforts of the city's residents who are trying to get back to normal living. Businesses, therefore, have direct economic incentives for participating in disaster preparedness activities which will benefit them as well as helping their customers.) Pacific Grove Chamber of Commerce Employers Business Associations Infrastructure: (The utility lifelines of electricity, natural gas, fresh drinking water, and sewer systems are critical to modern living. Loss or damage to these lifelines might cause critical problems for hospitals, businesses or homeowners. Transportation systems of roads, overpasses, bridges, and bus companies may be severely damaged in a big earthquake. Transportation systems are critical for our Police, Fire and Public Works departments to do their jobs.) Utilities: Pacific Gas & Electric (for electricity and natural gas) California-American Water Company Pacific Bell Telephone Company TCI Television Cable Company Transportation: Monterey-Salinas Bus Company Volunteer & Community-based Organizations: (Volunteerism is alive and well in Pacific Grove. There are approximately 50 community -based organizations in our city and more than 400 in our Monterey county) Pacific Grove Churches (13 different denominations) Red Cross Kiwanis Lions Club Rotary Club Neighborhood Associations Environmental Groups Health Care: (Health care facilities should be in the partnership since it is essential that they be built or retrofitted to survive after disasters in order to provide immediate medical care for injured. After the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, the Watsonville hospital's emergency power system was damaged, the main buildings were moved by the earthquake so that vital water, steam, gas and electrical lines were damaged so that patients had to be evacuated and earthquake victims treated in the parking lot. A new hospital to replace the damaged hospital was recently completed in 1998.) Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula Pacific Grove Convalescent Center Canterbury Woods Retirement Home Forest Hill Manor Retirement Home Blind Center Workforce: (The people who work in a community should appreciate that their jobs and their lives may be changed and affected by disasters. All individual workers may be at risk if there is no electricity, the highways are damaged and transport of supplies in or out of the community is delayed, etc. Education: (Schools often provide facilities for Red Cross temporary shelters for disaster victims so that it is important that they participate in the partnership. Also, if the schools are damaged by the disaster, possible day care problems might be created for parents.) Pacific Grove Unified School District Pacific Grove Adult School Why should these groups be invited to become partners? Large-scale disasters such as earthquakes may pose problems for all of us in California. In a worst case earthquake scenario, there may be no commercial electricity for weeks. Water pipes, sewer lines and natural gas pipes may be broken by the earthquake. There may be no telephone service initially and cellular service may be so overloaded as to be essentially useless.. Overpasses, bridges and highways may be damaged. Workers may not be able to come to work. There may be no supplies of gasoline for automobiles. Customers may not be able to come to downtown shopping areas. Stores without emergency power sources may not be able to use electronic cash registers if there is no electricity. In Deerfield Beach, Florida, the first pilot community, the original members of the partnership included Florida Power & Light, the Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel newspaper, Promus Hotel Corporation, State Farm Insurance and Home Depot. In Pascagoula, Mississippi, the Merchants & Marine Bank, Bell South, Mississippi Power Company, Pascagoula Port Authority, Jackson County Chamber of Commerce, City of Pascagoula and Ingalls Shipbuilding have joined together to help in disaster resistance activities. In Wilmington, North Carolina, the City, New Hanover County Emergency Management, General Electric, Barnes & Noble Books, Lowe's Hardware Store, WGNI-FM radio station are partners. In Oakland, California, the original partners included Chevron, EQE International, Washington Mutual Bank, FEMA Region IX, Oakland Municipal Chamber of Commerce, American Red Cross, Port of Oakland, Lakeshore Avenue Business Association, Sierra West Bank, Pacific Gas & Electric, Pacific Bell, East Bay Municipal Utility District, East Bay Habitat for Humanity, Mills College, Blue Cross of California, Alameda County Volunteer Center, Perralta Community College, U.S. Coast Guard, and Catholic Schools Diocese of Oakland In Seattle, the original partners were the Seattle City Council, Duwamish Peninsula Community Commission, INCA Engineer, Inc., International Conference of Building Officials, Jackson Place Community Council, Johnson Controls, King County Labor Council. KIRO Television. Master Builders Association, Phinney Neighborhood Association, Port of Seattle, Puget Sound Energy, Seafirst Bank, Shannon & Wilson, Inc., University of Washington, U.S. Geological Survey, Washington Mutual Bank, and Washington Volunteer Organizations Active in Disasters. 5. Hazard identification and hazard vulnerability The most frequently occurring natural hazards in the United States are floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes and wild fires. Each local community can look at its history for the past two hundred years or so and determine which hazards have occurred. Then we need to identify which areas had been at the most risk. The situation is complicated because floods can cause mudslides, earthquakes can cause landslides, and wildfires which destroy vegetation can make hilly regions more prone to mudslides or landslides. FEMA suggests asking questions ,such as: Where are floods most likely to occur? How strong are the winds that can affect us? Where are the earthquake fault zones located? Does the composition of the community's soil make it prone to landslides? Oakland was selected to be one of the pilot disaster resistant communities because it has had such a variety of disasters recently. For example, the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, with epicenter more than 60 miles away, dropped a span of the Bay bridge from Oakland to San Francisco, damaged many homes and caused the collapse of the upper level of an expressway in Oakland trapping and crushing 42 cars. There was a fire in October 1991 in Oakland and Berkeley which killed 25 people, injured 150, and destroyed 3,354 homes. This was the worst urban firestorm in the United States. The weather in recent years seems to have been getting worse as far as rainfall and consequent flooding is concerned. Most of the flood risk areas of the United States have now been mapped. There is a National Flood Insurance Program administered by FEMA with about 19,000 communities participating in this flood insurance program. FEMA has developed a new computer program called HAZUS which has an earthquake loss model, flood hazard identification and a geographic information system. This program should be of help to communities in assessing their vulnerability to hazards and developing graphical presentations to support decision making. 6. Identifying and prioritizing risk reduction actions After a historical study of the types of hazards which the local community has experienced and an examination of the areas which might be vulnerable to this type of hazard, it would be desireable to examine a variety of measures which might be used to reduce potential damage in future disasters. One should review existing policies and regulations, including: Land use planning and regulation Housing and building codes Transportation planning Conservation Community growth planning FEMA's Project Impact Guidebook contains some useful checklists of possible mitigation measures. There are a number of suggestions for the hazard of a hurricane, such as: install shutters on windows and doors, install additional hurricane straps and tiedowns to resist wind loads, reinforce existing unreinforced masonry walls, provide emergency backup power to critical facilities, and when reroofing a building, check and refasten the roof sheathing. For earthquakes: provide automatic earthquake-activated shut-off valves for gas lines, retrofit critical bridges and overpasses, check that houses are bolted to their foundations, add shearwalls to buildings, brace equipment such as emergency generators whose failure may disrupt operation of a critical facility such as a hospital, anchor expensive equipment such as computers to desks, brace parapet walls, and brace equipment which might topple over and block building exits. Some communities are considering new approaches to correct ancient problems. For example, there is a wine growing region north of San Francisco in the Napa valley, where the Napa river has caused tremendous flooding damage in past years. There have been 27 floods in the past 150 years despite an elaborate flood control system. The flooding resulting from the 1998 "El Nino" rainstorm when 64 inches of rain fell caused the voters of Napa County to go to the polls and vote to raise their taxes to fix the problem. The new approach will be to rip out the flood control system and allow the river to return to life and run wild for much of its 55 mile length. Under the new plan, some of the old levees built to confine the river in a straight channel (largely without success) would be lowered or removed. Bridges which block the flow of high water would be raised or torn down. People living in areas that regularly flood would be bought out so that they would move. These low-lying acres would be given back to the river as wetlands, so that water will go there when it floods - but nobody will live there. The new "living river" approach will allow the river to widen during floods and fill the old marshlands. It is hoped that these restored wetlands will work as a sponge and reduce overall damage. Since California is earthquake land, the partners of Oakland are exploring what cost-effective actions they should consider. The State Geologist has predicted that, within the next 30 years, there may be a BIG earthquake of the size of the 1906 earthquake which wrecked San Francisco across the Bay. During the first year of the pilot phase, Oakland prepared an inventory of the City's housing/building stock. There are about 150,000 dwellings in Oakland.. There are many older wood frame houses, commercial buildings of unreinforced masonry, or non-ductile concrete, or tilt-up construction. Cost-effective and feasible structural and non-structural activities for strengthening houses and buildings against hazards of earthquake, fire and severe weather are being investigated and developed. Also, the soil conditions are not good with large areas of fill which have "liquification" problems in earthquakes. There are many homes on hill slopes which have potential problems of landslides just in rainy weather, let alone earthquakes. Seattle also is concerned with possible damage from earthquakes. They are implementing a residential housing retrofitting program for builders, contractors and homeowners. They intend to improve the safety of schools by removing overhead hazards and investigating the advantages of installing automatic natural gas shut-off valves activated by the ground shaking of an earthquake. An earthquake mapping project is being conducted to show areas of Seattle where severe ground shaking might be expected or liquification might occur in earthquakes. The harmful effects of too much rain will be considered by developing a set of computer-based hazard maps of possible landslide areas. 7. Communicating Project Impact to your community At this stage, the community has found interested participants to become partners in making the community more disaster resistant. The history of past disasters has identified the particular hazards, the geographical areas where damage occurred, and the types of structures most vulnerable. Studies of feasible and cost-effective approaches to make the community more resistant to disasters have been conducted and possible costs have been estimated in order to assist in making decisions as to prioritiies for carrying out the plan. The stakeholders in this Project Impact enterprise must all agree on the overall scheme and the priorities in order to sort out the questions of raising the necessary funds and making the projects happen. Each partner should realize the advantages that will come with contributing their share and come forward with support. Public education and appropriate cooperation with the media are necessary. Journalists in the community should have been involved in this project from the beginning. They have a dual role, first, to inform the public of newsworthy events and public information before, during and after a disaster, and second, they are members of the business community. Oakland planned to get the media heavily involved in spreading the word about progress on disaster resistant activities. For example, they received help with publicizing their building strengthening education and training classes, and their proposed community "tool lending" program. Also, during the first year of the pilot program in Oakland they completed about 40 single family houses and small business buildings with minor retrofits and non-structural hazard reduction as models for the community to inspect. Oakland staged an event, "Spring Break '98 - Students Outfit Oakland Homes" in April 1998 when 50 student-volunteers made non-structural earthquake retrofits for several hundred elderly or low-income Oakland residents. The students strapped hot water heaters to wall studs, bolted bookcases to walls, and educated residents as to precautions they might observe before and during a quake. The FEMA Guidebook has numerous suggestions as to ways to communicate the potential advantages of disaster resistant communities to the public and the local participants. The media resources include newspapers (daily, weekly, monthly, college, and community), city and regional magazines, local trade and business publications, chamber of commerce newsletters, local radio and television stations, local cable stations, and now the Internet. 8. Sustainable development communities The Department of Energy's Center of Excellence for Sustainable Development is involved in a related type of initiative. The Center of Excellence is assisting in sustainable programs in eleven U.S. communities: Cambridge, Massachusetts; Chattanooga, Tennessee; Jacksonville, Florida; Missoula, Montana; San Francisco, California; San Jose, California; Santa Monica, California; Seattle, Washington; Tucson, Arizona; and Willpa Bay Watershed, Washington. Each community has an individual sustainability program tailored to fit local concerns, but there are many things in common. These programs were not initially started to solve programs associated with disasters, but naturally address them as relevant aspects of dealing with sustainability problems of declining economy, public safety, quality of life, education, natural environment, etc. For example, the Mayor and Council of the City of Tucson decided in 1996 to evaluate City projects and programs in light of three priorities: economic vitality, community stability, and healthy environment. A local ward forum process involving participation of 700 City residents came up with 17 themes which are being examined to identify community priorities which will be used to provide citizen input to the City's budget process and shape future programs and services. These themes are: viable and accessible alternatives to automobile transportation; engaged community and responsive governance; safe neighborhoods; caring, involved healthy families and youth; excellent public education; infill and reinvestment, not urban sprawl; abundant urban green space and recreation areas; protected natural desert environment; better paying jobs; clean air and quality water; people-oriented neighborhoods;respected historic and cultural resources; quality job training; reduced poverty and equality of opportunity; strong local ; efficient use of natural ; and successful downtown business district 9. Institute For Business & Home Safety The Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) in Boston, Massachusetts is sponsoring a different private sector project, but one which has many of the same goals as FEMA's efforts to create disaster resistant communities. The Institute's project is called "Showcase Communities". The purpose of the Showcase Community program is to demonstrate the benefits of taking specific, creative steps within an entire community to reduce deaths, injuries, property damage, economic losses and human suffering caused by natural disasters. There are 67 insurance industry companies which are members of the Institute for Business & Home Safety. The Showcase Communities program has three key objectives: first - help a community to help itself by reducing its vulnerability to hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes, wildfires, floods or whatever natural disasters threaten it; second - generate a "me too" attitude among other communities by showcasing the successful efforts of particular jurisdiction; and third - learn what works and what does not work to reduce the emotional and financial devastation caused by natural disasters The Institute for Business & Home Safety has established 14 areas for participation in the program. These criteria ask that the community: formally commit to participation by adopting a formal resolution to that effect; adopt or agree to adopt the latest version of one of the model building codes as the minimum code and enforce it; participate in the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) if in a floodplain and apply for/participate in the NFIP's Community Rating System; receive a suitable Fire Suppression Rating System grade from the Insurance Services Office; complete a risk assessment or agree to do so; offer mitigation training to building design and construction professionals; support IBHS and its partners in the non-structural retrofit of non-profit child care centers; develop programs to increase the public awareness of natural hazards and ways to reduce or prevent damage; incorporate natural hazard awareness and reduction programs into the school curriculum; complete a land use plan that delineates the relevant hazards and incorporates them as factors in all land use decisions; maintain emergency response and post-disaster recovery plans in place; develop public sector incentives for mitigation to complement private sector financial incentives developed by IHBS and its partners; develop inspection and certification procedures for incorporating mitigation into new construction and retrofit of existing buildings; and develop a Disaster Recovery Business Alliance IBHS is selecting communities from around the country to participate in this program which will vividly demonstrate the benefits of a community-wide disaster reduction effort. Evansville, Indiana was the first pilot Showcase Community. On January 8, 1998, the Institute for Business & Home Safety named Broward County/Deerfield Beach, Florida as the second pilot Showcase Community in its national disaster mitigation program. As a part of the program in Deerfield Beach, the State Farm Insurance company is building a residential-style demonstration home which will incorporate more than 100 construction features designed for better protection and to reduce property loss in the event of a hurricane, water damage, fire or other disasters. Two full-time State Farm Insurance staff will conduct educational seminars and tours for building construction companies and the general public. 10. Conclusions FEMA is now emphasizing the advantages of local communities forming partnerships of government, business and residents to take action to reduce the economic and social upheavals associated with natural hazards such as floods, hurricanes, and earthquakes. Other organizations have developed slightly different approaches but with goals similar to those of FEMA. References Federal Emergency Management Agency, Washington, DC Project Impact Tel: 1-800-480-2520 http://www.fema.gov FEMA's Project Impact Guidebook: Building a Disaster Resistant Community, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Washington, DC, November 1997 http://www.fema.gov/about/impact.htm FEMA's Compendium of Exemplary Practices, Volume II, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Washington, DC, May 1997 http://www.gov/pte/partnr01.htm Project SAFE, Fire Services Agency, OES, 505 14th Street, Suite 510, Oakland, California 94612, Tel: (510) 238-3938 http://www.oaklandnet.gov.com City of Seattle Project Impact Overview Fact Sheet, February 1998 http://www.ci.seattle.wa.us/eoc/overvu~f.htm Project Impact Memorandum of Agreement Seattle Pilot Community, February 5, 1998 http://www.fema.gov/nwz98im_wa03.htm City of Seattle Project Impact Home Retrofit Fact Sheet, February 1998 http://www.ci.seattle.wa.us/eoc/home~f.htm City of Seattle Project Impact School Mitigation Fact Sheet, February 1998 http://www.ci.seattle.wa.us/eoc/skool~f.htm Department of Energy http://www.sustainable.doe.gov Institute for Business & Home Safety http://www.ibhs.org Biography Russell C. Coile is the Disaster Coordinator/Emergency Program Manager at the Pacific Grove Fire Department. He is responsible for the City's emergency preparedness programs, including preparing the Emergency Plan, designing the Emergency Operating Center, writing Emergency Operating Center Standard Operating Procedures, planning and conducting emergency exercises such as the City's participation in the annual statewide earthquake exercise each April, and conducting public education programs. Dr. Coile received S.B., S.M. and E.E. degrees in Electrical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts and a Ph.D. in Information Science, The City University, London, England. He is a Certified Emergency Manager (International Association of Emergency Managers), Fellow, Institute of Civil Defence and Disaster Studies, London, England and an Adjunct Professor at the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California.