H7: Disaster Recovery Lessons Learned

Description

1) Lessons in Land-use Planning & Disasters from the Pacific Northwest
Mitch Paine, CFM, FEMA, mitch.paine@fema.dhs.gov
Co-presenters: None

Abstract: In this presentation, I will discuss some success stories and lessons learned from some recent disasters and connect how the integration of floodplain management into traditional land use planning or lack thereof contributed to the recovery of communities. Since 2020, there have been a number of disasters that have affected communities in the Pacific Northwest – wildfires in 2020, flooding in 2020 and 2021, and a typhoon in 2022. Each of the 4 states in FEMA Region 10, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Alaska, have very different land use planning frameworks. A major lesson learned will be the inability to rebuild a destroyed 200-unit manufactured home park out of the floodway due to state planning restraints after the 2020 wildfires, resulting in 200 families purchasing homes back in the floodplain/floodway.

2) Building Holistic Housing Recovery: Learnings from the Hampton Roads Regional Post Disaster Housing Recovery Project
Kelli Reddick, CFM, ICF, kelli.reddick@icf.com
Co-presenters: Rachel Bradley, rachel.bradley@icf.com; David Topczynski, dtopczynski@vbgov.com; Danielle Spach, drspach@vbgov.com

Abstract: The Hampton Roads Regional Post-Disaster Housing Recovery Project will create a housing recovery plan that serves 240,000 residents of Hampton Roads, as well as 7,000 residents with access and functional needs (AFN) that can be activated within 30 days of an incident. The outcome of this project is a Playbook that provides a framework for regional coordination and recovery activities necessary to provide temporary, interim, and long-term housing solutions after a catastrophic incident, such as a Category 3 Hurricane. The innovation of this project brings together extensive community engagement with robust hazard impact analysis to present an actionable plan for a region that requires unique post-disaster housing needs. The Playbook contents are driven by technical analyses and feedback collected from Hampton Roads municipalities and non-profit organizations based on the region’s housing challenges and opportunities to improve housing resilience. In particular, the Playbook provides a guide for identifying resources and funding available to jurisdictions in the Hampton Roads region to assist with helping displaced residents, emergency home repair, and relocation assistance. Participants in this engaging presentation will walk away with an understanding of the regional housing recovery planning process and lessons learned on how to engage diverse stakeholders within a multijurisdictional project.

3) New Orleans' Comprehensive Disaster Recovery Framework
Austin Feldbaum, City of New Orleans, afeldbaum@nola.gov
Co-presenters: None

Abstract: In 2022 the City of New Orleans developed its first ever local disaster recovery framework. The recovery framework addresses a major gap in disaster management practice, in which long-term recovery occurs across sectors and outside of the traditional purview of emergency managers. Disaster recovery can be a pivotal moment to reduce future risk, increase resilience and sustainability, and take steps to address pre-disaster inequities. The Recovery Framework establishes recovery as a distinct phase in the disaster management cycle and will support coordinated disaster recovery processes to achieve better recovery outcomes. The Hazard Mitigation Office worked with a community advisory committee to develop a flexible, scalable operational framework to guide future recovery operations. The framework integrates external partners with city recovery management teams to formalize sharing of information and resources. The framework also identifies desired recovery outcomes and metrics that can be used to track recovery progress, as well as continuous improvement processes to institutionalize lessons learned through recovery from successive disasters. This session will cover the planning process, key framework elements, and how the plan is integrated with existing plans and policies including the National Disaster Recovery Framework.

Contributors

Mitch Paine

Mitch Paine is a Floodplain Management Specialist for FEMA. He works primarily with western Oregon and Alaska communities on their participation in the National Flood Insurance Program, including providing technical assistance on a range of topics from floodplain permitting to flood hazard mitigation planning. Prior to joining FEMA, Mitch was the Community Rating System coordinator for King County, Washington and before that the State Floodplain Manager for Nebraska, where he helped a number of small towns recover from major disasters that affected homes and businesses in their floodplains. Mitch is also a part-time lecturer at the University of Washington, teaching floodplain management graduate classes. He holds a Master of Regional Planning degree from Cornell University. Mitch and his wife have three big dogs and live south of Seattle.
Kelli Reddick

Kelli is a Senior Managing Consultant in Disaster Management and Mitigation practice. She brings eight years of experience in the hazard mitigation and resilience planning field, specializing in risk assessments, economic impact analysis, benefit-cost analysis, public outreach, and implementation of Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) floodplain management and Hazard Mitigation Assistance programs. Early in her career, Kelli worked for an engineering firm to manage a national planning practice focused on FEMA policy, funding, program management, and implementation planning. Kelli is passionate about helping states, local governments, utilities, and special districts develop, fund, and implement resilience and hazard mitigation programs. She uses her expertise in FEMA’s Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities Program, Flood Mitigation Assistance Program, Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, and HUD’s Community Development Block Grant Mitigation programs to develop funding strategies and implementation plans for hazard mitigation and resilience projects to bring those solutions to life. Throughout her career, she has provided economic analysis and risk and resilience planning support to resilience programs in urban areas, including Boston, New York, the District of Columbia, and San Francisco. She has led federal grant application development in Florida, Massachusetts, and California to identify over $225 million in eligible projects that address natural hazards, and she also managed grants and state programs to implement projects that range from property-based solutions to community flood protection projects.
Austin Feldbaum

Austin Feldbaum is an ecologist and floodplain manager with expertise in watershed planning, stream and wetland restoration, and flood risk mitigation. He has managed planning, design and execution of flood risk reduction and ecological restoration projects ranging in scale from urban residential parcels to large coastal landscapes. With the City of New Orleans, Mr. Feldbaum coordinates the implementation of an all-hazards mitigation strategy to lessen the impacts of future disasters by taking action now to reduce risk.