See this article titled: Homeowners in Flood Zones Opt to Rebuild, Not Move

A proposal to buy the damaged homes of New Yorkers who want to relocate after Hurricane Sandy is finding few takers, as most residents opt to rebuild, state officials said on Friday.

“It’s up to the homeowner, and the vast bulk of homeowners are deciding to stay right where they are and rebuild,” Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said at a news conference in Albany.

The state has allocated an initial sum of $171 million to buy homes in low-lying areas, part of an ambitious effort by Mr. Cuomo to reshape coastal land in the face of more frequent extreme weather. The governor has repeatedly warned about the threat of climate change.

“We can never make up for the hardship that people went through,” he said, “but we can use this as a learning and an improving opportunity.”

About 10,000 homes in the state were substantially damaged or destroyed by Hurricane Sandy, according to Cuomo administration officials. They estimate that the owners of perhaps 10 percent to 15 percent of them will pursue buyouts; that is the same share they projected when Mr. Cuomo was developing the plan in February.

“The only place where more than just a small handful want to relocate is a couple of communities on Staten Island,” Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, said at the same news conference. “Otherwise, just about everybody — you take Nassau, Suffolk, Queens — they all want to rebuild and come back, and I think that’s great. That shows the spirit of New York.”

NOTE: I asked Samantha Medlock of the Association of State Floodplain Managers what that organization thought about the buyout option and here is what she said ( April 29):

All mitigation options need to be available in the disaster recovery toolbox, from in situ elevation, floodproofing, and building codes, to buyouts, which are preferable wherever possible as the most permanent solution.  Too often, structures are elevated or flood proofed only to face increasing risk as sea-levels rise or riverine flood heights increase.  Buyout and relocation is the most effective long-term solution.

Here are some details about the excellent work of several members of the American Planning Association which recently provided  workshops on recovery planning in NY and NJ.  In particular, I want to acknowledge Barry Hokanson, Laurie Johnson, Jim Schwab, Ken Topping, and Link Walther.

The American Planning Association (APA), in association with its two chapters most affected by Hurricane Sandy—the New York Metro and New Jersey chapters—hosted a series of workshops during the week of April 1-5, 2013.  This endeavor was financially supported by APA and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).  Regional colleges and universities hosted the sessions by providing teaching facilities and logistics support.  The workshops had these themes:

•  Connecting disaster recovery and recovery planning to long-range community planning
• Using an interim Recovery Ordinance to help manage short-term pressures, building and land-use issues
• Understanding recovery funding and meeting state and local requirements
• Adopting mitigation planning for more resilient communities

Four of the workshops were five hours in length and a one-day symposium for urban planners was eight hours. Sessions varied in size from 20 to 50 attendees.  Professional planners and floodplain managers earned continuing education credit from their respective organizations—APA and the Association of State Floodplain Managers (ASFPM).  Other participants included architects, engineers, attorneys, developers and municipal officials from throughout the Hurricane Sandy-affected region, extending from New York City to Atlantic City.

 The workshop presenter team are also members of the author team for the new version of the APA’s 1998 guidebook on post-disaster recovery and reconstruction.  They are: James Schwab, AICP, American Planning Association; Barry Hokanson, Independent Consultant; Laurie Johnson, AICP, Laurie Johnson Consulting | Research; Ken Topping, FAICP, Topping Associates International and California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo; and Lincoln Walther, FAICP, CSA Ocean Sciences Inc. Both the original guidebook and the new research have been substantially supported by FEMA.

From the Poststarnews.com site, this information about recovery plans in NY state:

GOVERNOR CUOMO AND HUD ANNOUNCE APPROVAL OF NEW YORK STATE’S DISASTER RECOVERY ACTION PLAN;
$1.7 billion to help communities in Empire State to rebuild from Superstorm Sandy, Hurricane Irene, and Tropical Storm Lee. Some excerpts:

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan today announced federal approval of New York State’s recovery action plan to help struggling homeowners and businesses following Superstorm Sandy, Hurricane Irene, and Tropical Storm Lee. Funded through HUD’s Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG – DR) program, New York State’s recovery action plan calls for a combined $1.7 billion investment in a variety of housing, infrastructure and business recovery activities.

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo said, “Following the devastation caused by the major storms to hit New York over the past two years, our state worked closely together with our Congressional Delegation and local communities to put together a comprehensive action plan to help our homeowners and businesses recover and rebuild. Today’s announcement is a tremendous boost of support for homeowners, businesses, and local governments that lost so much in Superstorm Sandy but it is not the end of the road for our recovery. Secretary Donovan has been a great partner thus far and I look forward to continuing to work together as we build our state back better, stronger than ever before.”

Secretary Donovan, who also chairs President Obama’s Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force, said today’s approval will allow the State to begin the long-term process of rebuilding damaged housing, restoring infrastructure, and stimulating business activity and job growth. “Today we take another important step toward recovery and healing for hard-hit communities in New York,” said Donovan. “We’ve worked closely with Governor Cuomo, Senators Schumer and Gillibrand and the New York Congressional Delegation throughout the entire process to help design effective programs that will help families get back in their homes, jumpstart local economies and make communities more resilient as quickly as possible. We have also imposed additional internal controls and accountability measures and we will be working with the Inspector General to ensure that all funds are used as intended – to help families, small businesses and communities get back on their feet and rebuild.”

On January 29th, President Obama signed the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act, 2013 into law, providing a total of $16 billion in CDBG Disaster Recovery funding. HUD quickly allocated $5.4 billion to five states (including New York) and New York City. New York State submitted its required action plan describing how the funds will be used on April 3rd and HUD conducted an expedited review to enable New York State to access these funds as quickly as possible.

Details of the NY plan can be found at the NY State Homes and Community Renewal website.

This site, http://appcomm.org/, offers a generous selection of public safety apps for citizens and public safety officials – five pages of offerings. Nice service to put them all in one place.

The Diva has several of these on her phone, including first aid apps as well as one from my county, state, and FEMA.  The National Weather Service seems to know where to find me, even without my signing up, since twice they have pushed out notices re a tornado watch in my immediate area.

A new 36 page document titled National Mass Care Strategy; was just issued.

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Thanks to Jono Anzalone of the American Red Cross for sharing this link with me.

A friend and colleague provided me with this link to an organization that she said did some excellent work in New Orleans after Hurricanes Sandy , Wilma, and Rita: The Unified New Orleans Plan by American Speaks.

NOTE: Be sure to read the additional information provided by Laurie Johnson in the comment section. She actually participated in the planning process.

I want to call your attention to the website of the American Planning Association, which is working on a recovery handbook to replace the excellent edition done in 1998. Recently, the APA held some planning workshops in NY and NJ, to help those recovering from Superstorm Sandy. I suggest you browse their website for more information.

One product that will go in the new handbook is a Model Pre-Disaster Recovery Ordinance.  A draft version, open for comments, is now on the APA website. This 24 page model ordinance is the work of Ken Topping and others; April 2013.

NOTE:  If anyone who participated in the APA planning workshops would like to describe the agenda and summarize the session, I would welcome that information.  I was not able to get much detail from the APA website.

Since I now know that many of the readers are working on mitigation and recovery planning efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, I will try to supply some new information resources on components of the recovery support functions (housing, economic, infrastructure etc.).

Today I have two new items related to Infrastructure, both gleaned from Fierce Homeland Security blog:

(1)  Market pressures weigh against private sector critical infrastructure resilience. This is a formal journal article, available in full text for a fee from ScienceDirect.com. But some of you may need to dig into the details. Some details from the article:

Private sector operators of critical infrastructure are not in fact naturally motivated toward resilience, say two academics in a paper noting systemic difficulties with public-private collaboration on critical infrastructure protection.

The paper, by Nathan Busch of the Christopher Newport University and Austen Givens of Utica College and published in the International Journal of Critical Infrastructure Protection, says arguments that resilience investments are cost-effective because they remove the possibility of a complete shutdown in the event of a large disaster overlook dynamics of the marketplace.

While it might be reasonable to think that a business would want to invest in resilience to keep itself going amid wider disruptions, “a business can only fully understand the need to spend money on emergency preparedness measures when it is in the midst of an emergency.”

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(2)  GAO calls for independent review of DHS Infrastructure Assessment

The Homeland Security Department will commission an independent review of how it identifies and prioritizes critical infrastructure under its National Infrastructure Protection Plan, following recommendations in a new Government Accountability Office report.

Congress asked GAO to review DHS management of the National Critical Infrastructure Prioritization Program following Hurricane Sandy, which prompted questions about changes DHS made in 2009 in creating and compiling the list. The new criteria were entirely consequence-based, assessing the effect an adverse event would have on public health and safety, the economy, government missions and public psychology.

NOTE: This posting has some technical difficulties with fonts and format that I cannot resolve. Sorry for the messy look.

A new publication devoted to the topic of resilience has appeared on the scene this week. here are some more details re the release of a new online journal titled Resilience: International Policies, Practices, and Discourses; Taylor and Francis is the publisher.

It appears to have mostly British and Commonwealth country authors.  I did not see any US or Canadian names or affiliations.