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In an effort to reach more communities at the onset of hurricane season, FEMA launched a dual-language advertising campaign to educate and remind residents of the flood preparedness actions they can take to fit almost any budget.
The ads broadcasts across iHeartMedia’s traditional and digital networks and promotes preparedness tips, aligning with FEMA’s equity goal to tailor disaster solutions that meet the unique needs of different communities. The ads air in several hurricane-prone states, including Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina and Texas.
The ads produce approximately 8,700 radio airings over iHeartMedia’s networks to an estimated reach of 61 million listeners with an additional 24 million listeners over digital networks.
FEMA’s partnership with iHeartMedia will use risk, income, Census and other data to ensure the ads reached underserved communities, providing important messages about flood risk awareness and protection options. Ads will run in English and Spanish through mid-July.
Free and low-budget flood preparedness tips that can protect homes, families and finances include:
- Store documents like passports and birth certificates in a flood-safe place.
- Elevate items that you want to protect.
- Toss out debris from gutters and drains.
For information on flood preparedness, visit:
To help individuals with low and no-cost preparedness tips, visit Ready.gov.
On June 21, FEMA attended the Washington, D.C. Department of Energy and Environment official ribbon cutting ceremony for the newly installed high-water mark on the D.C. Wharf. At the ceremony, Region 3 FEMA Regional Administrator Maryann Tierney spoke more about the project and how to build a resilient community.
The water mark is a public art project which identifies the extent of historic flooding during storm events within the district’s areas at risk of storm-caused flooding. The Wharf’s High Water Mark art sculpture is one of three markers intended to help the public understand the risk of flooding. The goal of the project is to raise awareness of flood risk and encourage residents to become more resilient to future flooding.
The Wharf has implemented multiple flood resilience strategies, including elevating the newly constructed areas above the floodplain, installing cisterns to capture and reuse rainwater and maintaining green infrastructure to capture runoff. Washington, D.C. received two Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities grants as part of the inaugural competitive program to reduce flooding, heat and heat island effect, one for stormwater flood mitigation and one for Saint Elizabeth’s Hospital Campus and D.C. Emergency Communications Microgrid Project.
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June 28 is National Insurance Awareness Day. In observance, FEMA encourages you to use this opportunity to review your flood insurance policies and ensure you are protected against flooding.
Flooding is America’s number one natural disaster, yet many residents think flood damage is included in homeowners' or renters' insurance policies, that flooding is a coastal problem or that their neighborhood will never flood because it hasn’t in the past.
FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) provides flood resources, materials and tools to:
To stay updated on flood insurance resources, visit Floodsmart.gov.
Today, FEMA announced the 2022-2023 Youth Preparedness Council members. The agency is pleased to welcome 15 new members to the council. FEMA leadership selected these individuals based on their dedication to public service, community involvement and potential to increase community resilience throughout the country. They join ten returning members, who will be serving their second and final year on the council.
This year, the agency is celebrating the council’s 10th anniversary. FEMA created the council in 2012 to bring together diverse young leaders interested in strengthening disaster preparedness efforts both nationally and within their communities. During their one-year term, members complete local- and national-level projects, while sharing their opinions and experiences on youth preparedness with each other, FEMA leadership and other preparedness organizations.
Members also attend the annual council summit each summer. This year’s summit will be held virtually in late July and center on the theme “a Decade of Youth Leadership.”
Please join us in welcoming the newest members of the Youth Preparedness Council:
- Sophie Fares of California.
- Lauren Coval of Colorado.
- Taylor Worbington of Florida.
- Vaishnavi Kumbala of Louisiana.
- Navin Ramesh of Massachusetts.
- Theo Illarionov of Massachusetts.
- Janice Saji of Michigan.
- Aarushi Bute of Missouri.
- Meher Harjani of New Jersey.
- Amanda Cisse of New York.
- Kemi Heyward-Rotimi of North Carolina.
- Neha Srinivasan of Oregon.
- Ryan Liu of Texas.
- Layla Ibrahim of Virginia.
- Katie Clark of Washington,
To learn more about FEMA’s Youth Preparedness Council and meet the new members, visit: Fema.gov.
FEMA seeks feedback for the National Continuous Improvement Guidance draft, including edits and suggestions for additional resources and real-world examples. The national engagement period begins on June 28 and closes at midnight ET on July 31.
The guidance provides a consistent and rigorous framework to conduct continuous improvement initiatives before, during and after real-world incidents for the whole community, including state, local, tribal and territorial partners, nongovernmental organizations, private sector and emergency management organizations.
To review the draft guidance and provide feedback, visit FEMA.gov. To submit feedback, email FEMA-CITAP@fema.dhs.gov.
FEMA will also host a series of 60-minute webinar sessions to provide an overview of the draft guidance and to gather feedback from whole community partners. At least one webinar session will be offered every week in July. To register for a webinar, visit https://preptoolkit.fema.gov/web/cip-citap/events.
- Webinar 1: noon - 1 p.m. ET on July 6.
- Webinar 2: 10 - 11 a.m. ET on July 15.
- Webinar 3: 5 - 6 p.m. ET on July 20.
- Webinar 4 – Spanish speaking session: 11 a.m. - noon ET on July 25.
- Webinar 5: 3 - 4 p.m. ET on July 27.
In June, two FEMA National Incident Management Assistance Teams and two regional teams from FEMA Regions 2 and 5 attended Puerto Rico’s Stakeholder and Partner Engagement training. This annual hurricane readiness training is a collaboration between with federal and local governments.
Participants were briefed on a range of readiness training topics including:
- Federal operations integration and federal responder support.
- Debris clearance and management.
- Resource request and signature authority.
- Critical infrastructure.
- Energy and temporary power.
- Search and rescue.
- Healthcare, hospitals and COVID-19 efforts.
- And other disaster ready topics.
Participants were also provided hurricanes Irma and Maria recovery updates and given the opportunity to visit impacted sites.
FEMA representatives networked with participants from US Army Corps of Engineers, Health and Human Services, the United States Army Department of Transportation, Defense Coordinating Element North Region II and the United States Coast Guard along with Puerto Rico representatives, the Salvation Army and other disaster volunteer organizations.
The training also offered a Commonwealth Continuity of Operations Workshop and Commonwealth Recovery Readiness Assessment Tabletop exercise in Mass Care and Public Assistance.
To learn more about FEMA IMATs, visit FEMA.gov.
FEMA, in partnership with Audacy, announced it has completed an important emergency radio broadcast facility modernization project at Audacy’s WWL AM/FM in New Orleans to improve critical alert and warning capabilities when disasters threaten public safety.
The WWL facility serves as a Primary Entry Point station, the only one in Louisiana, for FEMA’s National Public Warning System, maintained under FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System and provides critical information to the public before, during and after incidents and disasters.
About the Primary Entry Point Stations
Under the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System Modernization Act enacted in 2015, Congress required FEMA to upgrade Primary Entry Point stations across the country to ensure continuity of terrestrial broadcast services under all hazards.
These stations are specially designated National Public Warning System broadcast stations that serve as the primary intake source of initial broadcasts for a national alert. FEMA equips these stations, which are operated by local station personnel, with backup communications equipment and power generators that enable them to continue broadcasting information to the public during and after an emergency, including conveying official alerts to communities regionally and nationwide.
These free-standing emergency studios, located at the radio transmitter sites, are specially designed and hardened to withstand various natural disasters and acts of terrorism.
There are 77 Primary Entry Point stations that reach more than 90 percent of the U.S. population, helping ensure that the President can alert and warn the public under all conditions.
 FEMA's National Continuity Program Assistant Administrator Michael George (right) conducted a radio interview on WWL from the new facility.
Last week was the 23rd anniversary of the Olmstead vs L.C. Supreme Court decision. The supreme court decision ruled that unjustified segregation of people with disabilities when integrated, community-based settings are appropriate, desired and can be accommodated, is a form of discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The decision resulted in increased collaboration efforts between FEMA and other organizations, such as Centers for Independent Living, to provide solutions for housing and sheltering issues during disasters.
One example of this is the collaboration between FEMA Region 2 Disability Integration Specialist and the Centers for Independent Living. In 2021, Region 2 used its close working relationship with a New Jersey Center to participate in overnight sheltering exercises and a radiological response exercise. They identified coordination gaps between the Centers, emergency responders and accessibility needs within emergency sheltering.
They also identified knowledge gaps among people with disabilities on what to expect in emergency sheltering. With the increased knowledge on each side within these New Jersey communities, both the Centers and the disability integration specialist are even more prepared to help people with disabilities this hurricane season.
FEMA Region 10 is partnering with the Washington State Independent Living Council, Washington Coalition Inclusive Emergency Planning to include local, tribal, and state agencies in the Cascadia Subduction Zone (CSZ) Exercise that took place on June 22.
As part of the exercise planning, the Centers for Independent Living members participated in a tabletop exercise that examined the ability of the Washington coalition stakeholders to respond effectively to local disasters and catastrophic events, while evaluating their response and continuity of operation plans. This was the first time the state of Washington engaged the centers and people with access and functional needs in a disaster exercise.
To learn more about how FEMA is helping people with disabilities before, during and after disasters, visit FEMA.gov.
On June 24, 2021, tragedy struck the community of Surfside, Florida when a 12-story condominium, Champlain Towers South, had a major structural collapse.
Due to the loss of life and suffering of survivors, President Joseph Biden approved a FEMA declaration for Individual Assistance for survivors and funeral assistance for those who lost a family member in the affected building. Public Assistance funds were also made available to help the community save lives and protect public health and safety.
To support local responders, FEMA deployed five Urban Search & Rescue Teams. These teams provided structural engineering and debris subject matter experts and relieved the state’s initial response teams.
In consideration of the profound and unexpected loss, Individual Assistance staff applied a personal approach to survivors. To ensure survivors received the most sensitive, respectful and individual service, the agency allowed survivors to apply in-person or via telephone.
Along with the personal approach for Individual Assistance, FEMA teams had unique community liaisons connect directly with religious leaders working with the survivors and religious and community leaders. These specially designated agency representatives connected the community with responders to share information on important religious practices and values. This thoughtful delivery of community outreach is an example of FEMA’s commitment to meet the diverse needs of survivors.
The work to clear the rubble presented its own challenges. This unique mission had to consider the rubble as potential evidence, requiring inspection by police detectives and forensic experts once it was removed. The rubble also contained the personal effects of survivors and those who died, and crews took extra care to handle these treasured items with dignity.
To make sure the agency was meeting the needs of the community, FEMA worked closely with local officials and with local faith leaders.
We honor the memory of those who lost their lives that day and thank the FEMA employees who worked tirelessly to support the survivors of this tragic incident.
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 The Surfside Building Collapse Individual Assistance Team.
FEMA Co-Hosts the 11th Annual Building Resilience Conference
FEMA is partnering with the U.S. Chambers of Commerce Foundation to host the 11th Annual Building Resilience Through Private-Public Partnerships Conference in Washington, D.C. from July 28-29.
This year's agenda is designed to inspire action and spark insightful discussions that will drive solutions to some of the greatest challenges. Speakers will address key issues such as ensuring equity in disaster response, supply chain coordination, cross-sector collaboration, climate adaptation, pre-disaster resilience investment and more.
The conference is free to attend. To learn more visit, U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation.
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FEMA Provides Funding for National Standards in Emergency Management
FEMA made $825,000 in funding available for the FY2022 Emergency Management Baseline Assessment Grant program to support investment in national level standards for emergency management that target critical functions necessary to prepare for and manage disasters.
This application period closes at 5 p.m. ET on July 7.
The program provides funding for:
- Supporting Emergency Management Program Accreditation.
- Supporting Emergency Manager Certification.
State, local, tribal and territorial jurisdictions are eligible to apply for an Emergency Management Baseline Assessment Grant. Initial applications must be submitted through Grants.gov. FEMA will notify eligible applicants to proceed with submitting their complete application package in the Non-Disaster (ND) Grants System by the application deadline.
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Save the Date for Extreme Heat Forum
During its June Ideation Hour, the Resilient Nation Partnership Network's topic will cover Extreme Heat Resilience.
The discussion will focus on the impacts of extreme heat across the country. We encourage you to bring your resilience ideas, projects, resources and collaboration opportunities to the conversation.
This event will be on ZOOM at 1 p.m. on June 29. Registration is now open.
To learn more about the Resilient Nation Partnership network, visit FEMA.gov. For additional information on heat awareness, including tips on how to stay prepared, visit Ready.gov.
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