B1: CRS: You Can Do It!

Description

1) CRS Next: How CRS is Evolving & Simplifying
Rachel Sears, CFM, FEMA, Rachel.Sears@fema.dhs.gov
Co-presenters: Bill Lesser, bill.lesser@fema.dhs.gov

Abstract: FEMA is currently working to transform the Community Rating System (CRS) in a multi-year effort. FEMA has been working to analyze and review the current program and stakeholder feedback, and is now moving towards evaluating options in transforming the program. This presentation will discuss some of the outcomes of our analysis of the current program and look forward into the directions the program could take. We will present a timeline for when we will be asking for additional public feedback as well as the implementation of the new CRS.

2) CRS: Is your community living up to its full potential?
Christina Groves, CFM, Tetra Tech, christina.groves@tetratech.com
Co-presenters: Melissa Mitchell, CFM, melissa.mitchell@tetratech.com

Abstract: The Community Rating System (CRS) was created by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to encourage communities to reduce losses and avoid flood damage to insurable property, strengthen and support the insurance aspects of the NFIP, and foster more comprehensive floodplain management. Through participation in CRS, a community can become more disaster resilient, and reduce flood insurance premiums. In theory, it could be said that achieving these goals would highlight ‘best practices’ of a local program. Unfortunately, this is not always the case, with scorable activities often left on the table. As two former CRS Specialists, with a combined 19-years of experience working with the program, we have a unique perspective to share to help communities maximize CRS program participation. During our time with the program, we observed many communities were not fully participating, due in part to a deficit in understanding program nuance. In this session, we will discuss some of the reasons why communities might not be realizing their full potential in the CRS program and what can be done to change this! By increasing awareness and simplifying the process, you can help your community take advantage of the program and receive the greatest benefits!

3) Applying Technology Solutions to Evaluate Flood Risk, Grants, and Program Compliance
Patrick Heck, CSM, SP, Guidehouse, pheck@guidehousefederal.com
Co-presenters: Megan Robinson, mrobinson@guidehousefederal.com

Abstract: Guidehouse is leveraging cutting-edge Natural Language Processing (NLP) algorithms, network analyses, and intelligent automation to help users gain predictive insights from vast amounts of documents, open-source text, and image data – as included in emergency action plan, CRS documentation, grant funding applications. Guidehouse Technology Solution experts will share use cases for NLP that will help FEMA and the ASFPM community extra relevant data to improve risk management, application evaluation, documentation review, and program compliance more efficiently. Further, the speakers will demonstrate capabilities that can help communities participating in the CRS to score their efforts across the 19 scorable activities in accordance with the CRS Coordinator’s Manual and help state grant coordinators to pre-score grant applications to improve outcomes. NLP techniques are harnessed to reduce bottlenecks associated with ingesting large semi- and un-structured text datasets and optimize text analysis workflows (e.g., grant applications, CRS scoring). NLP analyses can significantly increase the efficiency of processing text data and consequently increase the ability of human analysts to automatically and rigorously extract information. To facilitate feedback between analysts and a NLP system, our team developed user interfaces (UI) that provide views of NLP data products, such as topic models, document summaries, and document classifier functions. This demonstration will provide ASFPM community members with trends in emerging technology, use cases relevant to FEMA business processes that continue to evolve as a result of new funding, regulations, and program transformations like RR2.0, CRS Next, and BRIC.

Contributors

Rachel Sears

Rachel Sears joined the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in 2004 and currently serves as the Director for the Floodplain Management Division. In this capacity, Ms. Sears provides leadership in the implementation of the floodplain management requirements of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) and oversees FEMA’s work as the lead agency under the Unified National Program for Floodplain Management and as the consultation agency under Executive Order 11988, Floodplain Management. In her previous capacity as the Senior Policy Advisor for the Federal Insurance and Mitigation Administration, Rachel played a lead role in advancing FEMA's work in national climate adaptation and resilience policy, supporting the development and implementation of the Federal Flood Risk Management Standard (EO13690), Presidential Policy Directive 8 - National Preparedness, the President's Climate Action Plan, the Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Strategy, and the Principles and Guidelines to Water Resource Management. Rachel has also been involved in the many reforms of the National Flood Insurance Program. She has worked multiple disasters in the national operations center and has been deployed to disaster field assignments in Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Iowa. Ms. Sears has a B.S. in Environmental Sciences from Shepherd University and a Masters of Public Policy from George Mason University
Christina Groves

Christina Groves is a Senior Community Resilience Planner for Tetra Tech. She has over 20 years of experience working with floodplain management, the Community Rating System, planning and zoning, and local government.
Patrick Heck

Patrick Heck, CSM, is a Director at Guidehouse. advising clients in areas of strategic planning, change management, agile application development, and technology implementation to Federal clients. Mr. Heck is a leader in Guidehouse’s Technology Consulting practice and has spoken at ASFPM on emerging technology trends impacting emergency management, mitigation, and community resilience. Megan Robinson, is an Associate Director in Guidehouse Technology Solutions practice. She currently supports advanced analytics across a portfolio of FEMA components, including Mission Support and Office of the Administrator where she oversees the application of NLP for external audit tracking and resolution.