“The best disaster response and recovery policy is advance planning, land use, and building codes to prevent a disaster from happening in the first place. Society has the experience and tools at its disposal to prevent many of the devastating impacts disasters have on humans.” In this month’s Natural Hazards Observer (PDF), Edward A. Thomas […]
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State of the Coast Conference June 8-10, Louisiana
Posted on November 9, 2009
From the press release: State of the Coast: Implementing a Sustainable Coast for Louisiana June 8-10, 2010, Baton Rouge, Louisiana The Louisiana Office of Coastal Protection and Restoration, the US Army Corps of Engineers, the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana and many others have partnered together to host the State of the Coast (SOC) Conference. […]
Handy Guide to Coastal Inundation Mapping
Posted on November 9, 2009
NOAA has released a very useful and concise (26-page) guide explaining, step-by-step, how to get the best coastal inundation data for your community, and what you can do with it. From the introduction: Mapping can be a very important part of understanding inundation issues and preparing for the assessment process. Inundation mapping can be viewed […]
New Report on Best Building Practices
Posted on November 5, 2009
Our friends at the Institute of Business Home Safety (IBHS) have released an extremely useful report for people living and working in coastal communities threatened by storms (particularly hurricanes). To research Hurricane Ike: Nature’s Force vs. Structural Strength IBHS sent a crew out to take a hard look at how various buildings did during Hurricane […]
NEW BOOK: Floodplain Management, A New Approach for a New Era
Posted on October 28, 2009
From the publisher’s site: A flooding river is very hard to stop. Many residents of the United States have discovered this the hard way. Right now, over five million Americans hold flood insurance policies from the National Flood Insurance Program, which estimates that flooding causes at least six billion dollars in damages every year. Like […]
Legal Seminar on Post-Katrina Insurance
Posted on October 19, 2009
From our friends at the Gulf of Mexico News: The Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Legal Program will sponsor “Post-Katrina Insurance Developments and Other Legal Issues,” a continuing legal education (CLE) seminar for Mississippi attorneys and other interested people, from 8:30 a.m. until 4:15 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 30, at the Mississippi State University Coastal Research and […]
Gulf Coast Regional Ocean Policy Task Force: New Orleans, Oct. 19
Posted on October 15, 2009
From a White House press release: Obama Administration officials will hold a Gulf Coast Regional Ocean Policy Task Force Public Meeting in New Orleans on Monday, October 19, 2009. The Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force, led by White House Council on Environmental Quality Chair Nancy Sutley, consists of senior-level officials from Administration agencies, departments, and […]
Summary of Changes to NFIP
Posted on October 15, 2009
For those of you involved in flood insurance, here’s a summary from FEMA of the latest changes to the NFIP: On October 1, 2009, important changes to the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) will take effect. There will be an increase in rates, the standard deductibles, and the basic insurance limits. These combined changes will […]
FLOAT House Suggests New Approach to Floodplain Living
Posted on October 14, 2009
No matter what you’re trying to do, it rarely hurts to have Brad Pitt on your team. When Make It Right, a group founded by Pitt after he saw the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans’s Lower Ninth Ward, revealed its new FLOAT House last week, the announcement received a fair amount of media […]
Corps of Engineers Mandates Consideration of Sea Level Rise
Posted on October 13, 2009
In a new public document, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (COE) has announced that it will immediately require all COE Civil Works projects in coastal and estuarine areas to consider sea level rise in all phases of its projects. The short document continues with specific explanations of which rates of sea level rise must […]