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The fastest way to
help the survivors of the hurricanes and wildfires, whether through
financial donation or personal volunteerism, is through a trusted organization.
Donations: Cash is best.
The National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (NVOAD) lists trusted
organizations receiving donations. The NVOAD website has information on
non-profit organizations accepting or registering individual in-kind donations here. For
corporate donations, connect here. You may
also make financial donations to a National
VOAD member organization to help voluntary or charitable
organizations continue to provide services to hurricane survivors.
NVOAD is coordinating
closely with the governor’s offices on offers of assistance. FEMA does
not transport donations collected by local, tribal, territorial, or state
government or collected by private sector, non-governmental organizations, or
NVOAD from point of collection to impacted areas. Those who want to help should
visit www.nvoad.org. To
provide assistance directly to the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, visit www.prfaa.pr.gov/unitedforpuertorico and to
the U.S. Virgin Islands, visit www.usvirecovery.org.
Volunteering: Anyone
seeking an opportunity to get involved in response and recovery operations is
encouraged to volunteer with local and nationally known organizations. A list
of volunteer websites is available at www.nvoad.org. Those
who wish to register to volunteer to support response efforts for Hurricane
Maria can go here for
Puerto Rico (https://prvoad.communityos.org/cms/irma) and here for the
U.S. Virgin Islands (https://usvivoad.communityos.org/cms/irma). To
register as an affiliated volunteer with a voluntary or charitable
organization, visit the National
VOAD for a list of partners active in disaster. Alternatively, you
may register your interest to volunteer here for
partner organizations to reach out to you.
For more information, go
to www.fema.gov/hurricane-maria, www.fema.gov/hurricane-irma, and https://www.fema.gov/disaster/4332 for
Hurricane Harvey.
With a large percentage of
the FEMA workforce in the field supporting 30 disasters, the agency continues
to grow its workforce to bolster recovery activities underway in the states and
U.S. territories affected by Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria and the California wildfires. FEMA is
hiring dedicated people to join our recovery team, comprised of locally hired
workers. Through its hiring of temporary local employees and Cadre of On-Call
Response/Recovery Employees (CORE), FEMA diversifies its workforce while
affording opportunities for survivors to help fellow survivors. Fluency in
English and Spanish, for some positions, is preferred.
The types of jobs that are available may include (but are not limited to):
applicant services specialist, administrative support assistant, analysts,
civil engineer, construction cost estimator, courier, crisis counselor,
customer service specialist, digital communications specialist, emergency
management specialist, environmental specialist, equal rights advisor,
floodplain management specialist, graphics specialist, geospatial information,
systems specialist, hazard mitigation, outreach specialist, historic
preservation specialist, housing coordinator and reports writer, insurance
specialist, intergovernmental affairs, mass care specialist, media relations
specialist, program liaisons, resource manager, travel
specialist, voluntary agency liaison, and writers.
Temporary Local Hires
FEMA hires local residents, who are often disaster survivors themselves, to
help their fellow citizens in the recovery process. Local hiring allows
disaster survivors to get back to work while adding to the long-term recovery
of the local community and bringing a special understanding of the problems
faced by fellow disaster survivors.
Most temporary local hires are employed following a streamlined, rather than a
competitive, process. A local hire’s term of employment is 120 days, though it
may be extended in 120-day increments up to one year. Temporary local
hires do not earn career tenure or
competitive status in the federal government. This means that they
must compete with the public for future federal jobs rather than receive
preference.
If interested in joining FEMA as a Temporary
Local Hire, applicants can search positions on FEMA’s Hurricane
Workforce page. For additional information on temporary local hire
positions, contact FEMA Region II,
IV, or VI Office.
- Florida: To
apply for open positions, create an account at employflorida.com
and use the keyword: FEMA. More information for job-seekers and employers can
be found on the Hurricane Irma
Recovery Jobs Portal.
- Puerto Rico:
Those who wish to apply should email their resume to fema-workforce-caribbean@fema.dhs.gov and
include the words “Puerto Rico” in the subject line. For those applicants
without internet access, they should submit resumes in a sealed envelope at any
post office in Puerto Rico marked “FEMA Jobs.” The U.S. Post Service will
deliver resumes to the FEMA recovery team in Puerto Rico.
-Texas:
Job-seekers should register at WorkinTexas.com,
the Texas Workforce Commission’s website, where application instructions are
posted. In partnership with the Texas Workforce Commission, the National Labor
Exchange identifies positions here
to assist Texan employers with recruitment needs related to Hurricane Harvey.
FEMA released refreshed guidance for the National
Incident Management System (NIMS). NIMS provides a common, nationwide approach to enable
the whole community
to work together to manage all incidents, regardless of cause, size,
location, or complexity.
FEMA led a whole
community effort to review and refresh the document. FEMA held a 30-day
national engagement period from April to May 2016, during which stakeholders
submitted 2,862 comments. Multiple interdisciplinary adjudication panels, focus
groups, and targeted reviews helped FEMA review and adjudicate the comments,
and the resulting changes were incorporated into NIMS.
The refreshed NIMS:
- Retains key concepts and principles of the 2004 and
2008 versions of NIMS;
- Reflects and
incorporates policy updates from lessons learned from exercises and real-world incidents and disasters;
- Clarifies the processes and terminology for
qualifying, certifying, and credentialing incident personnel, building a
foundation for the development of a national qualification system;
- Reinforces and clarifies that NIMS is more than just
the Incident Command System (ICS), and that it applies to all incident personnel, from the
incident command post to the National Response Coordination Center;
- Describes common functions and terminology for staff
in Emergency Operations Centers (EOC), while remaining flexible to allow for
differing missions, authorities, and resources of EOCs across the nation; and
- Explains the relationship among ICS, EOCs, and senior
leaders and policy groups.
FEMA will host a series
of 60-minute webinars to discuss the updates in the refreshed NIMS and answer
questions related to NIMS. The webinars will be open to the whole
community.
To review the refreshed NIMS document and for additional
webinar information, visit: www.fema.gov/national-incident-management-system.
The
National
Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP) is the federal government’s
coordinated approach to addressing earthquake risks. The premise of the program
is that while earthquakes may be inevitable, earthquake disasters are not.
FEMA
is responsible for the majority of the program’s general implementation
activities. Leading the overall efforts is the Federal Insurance and Mitigation
Administration (FIMA) which translates the results of research and technology
development into effective earthquake risk reduction plans and activities. One
of the ways to do this is by operating a grant program to assist states and
territories with their earthquake risk reduction efforts.
The
NEHRP Earthquake
Consortium and State Support (ECSS) program is designed to
increase and enhance the effective implementation of earthquake risk reduction
at the state and local level, by making funding available through annual,
non-competitive cooperative agreements. This year, in addition to providing
support to eligible states and territories through existing Earthquake
Consortia and Partner Support cooperative agreements, FEMA has made federal
funding available to certain states by reintroducing the Direct State
Assistance funding opportunity.
Direct
State Assistance funding is available to all states and territories that have
been determined to be at a “Moderate to Very High Risk” of earthquakes and who
can meet the statutory 50 percent cash match requirement. Funding is being
provided through cooperative agreements managed by the appropriate FEMA
Regional earthquake program management team.
Twelve
states in five FEMA regions elected to participate in the ECSS program by
accepting Direct State Assistance grant awards. Alabama, Arizona, California,
Colorado, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee, Oklahoma,
Oregon, and Utah will utilize the grant funding to plan and implement
earthquake outreach and communications activities.
Those states and territories who did not apply
for the Direct State Assistance funding opportunity will receive earthquake
outreach and communications assistance through FEMA’s regional Earthquake Consortia
and other NEHRP partners.
FEMA urges its partners
and all Americans to participate in the 2017
Great ShakeOut, the largest annual preparedness exercise drill, as a way of
learning how to be prepared in the event of an earthquake.
The Great ShakeOut
is the annual earthquake preparedness drill held on the third Thursday of
October. This year, the Great ShakeOut will be on October 19 at 10:19 a.m
local time. At that time in all local time zones, participants will
"Drop, Cover, and Hold On" to practice for what to do during an
earthquake, which could happen in many states nationwide.
Knowing what to
do before an earthquake, could determine how well you survive and
recover. Learn steps you can take with the Earthquake
Safety Checklist. Learn more about how to register and participate at
www.ShakeOut.org.
FEMA Seeks Input on Fiscal Year 2018-2022 FEMA Strategic Plan
FEMA's Administrator believes in the importance of hearing external partners’ perspectives
to help FEMA improve the way business is done. Throughout the next few months,
FEMA is inviting its stakeholders and partners from across the whole community
to help shape the Fiscal Year 2018-2022 FEMA Strategic Plan. In an
effort to reach as many stakeholders and partners as possible, FEMA is
accepting feedback via IdeaScale – an
interactive, web-based application that allows idea sharing, collaboration and
engagement.
FEMA is looking for input
and engagement on Simplifying Recovery
and Reducing Disaster Costs. How can FEMA simplify
recovery programs and reduce disaster costs while ensuring accountability,
customer service, and fiscal stewardship?
Buying Down Risk
through Preparedness and Mitigation
- How should risk be calculated in awarding grants?
- What type of grants are
best suited for effectively reducing risk?
- How do we incentivize
more investment in preparedness/mitigation prior to a disaster (not only
federal investment)?
- How should the nation,
including but not limited to FEMA, train and credential a surge disaster
workforce ahead of major disasters?
- What are new ways to
think about a true culture of preparedness?
We value the input and diverse perspectives that
you bring to help inform this process, the final product, and our efforts. Our IdeaScale campaigns will be open until October 31, 2017. We look forward to your
ideas and suggestions.
Hazard Mitigation Assistance Grant Applications Open Until November 14
The application
period is open for two competitive Hazard
Mitigation Assistance grant programs. Eligible applicants including
territories, federally recognized tribes, states and local governments may
apply for the Fiscal Year (FY) 2017 Flood Mitigation
Assistance (FMA) and Pre-Disaster
Mitigation (PDM) grants at https://portal.fema.gov
through 3 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) on November 14, 2017.
FMA grants are
available to implement measures to reduce or eliminate risk of flood damage to
structures insured by the National Flood
Insurance Program (NFIP). For FY 2017, $160 million is available,
including $70 million for community flood mitigation activities that address
flooding on a neighborhood level, such as floodwater diversion and localized
flood-control measures as well as advance assistance for mitigation design and
development of community flood mitigation projects.
PDM
grants are awarded for all-hazard mitigation planning and projects, such as the
construction of community and residential safe rooms for tornados, and wind
retrofits, which are enhancements made to strengthen the roof, walls and doors
of structures to minimize damage caused by high winds. This year, $90 million
is available, including $10 million for federally-recognized tribes. States,
tribes, territories and the District of Columbia may apply for the statutory
allocation of up to $575,000 federal share. Visit https://www.fema.gov/hazard-mitigation-grant-program for additional details about the grants.
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