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On the first day of summer, and for the first time in FEMA history, the agency’s Ready Campaign announced its "#SummerReady" public education effort. The goal of the campaign is to help promote preparedness and resilience against extreme heat events throughout the summer. The announcement includes the launch of FEMA’s official #SummerReady website, which provides extreme heat safety tips for individuals as well as helpful information and graphics for media and other stakeholders.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration stated that, in 2022, the United States recorded the third hottest summer ever. This follows the 2021 season, which tied records for the hottest summer in the country and climate models predict that extreme heat will become more frequent and intense in years ahead.
The #SummerReady campaign seeks to help mitigate this risk by reaching targeted populations and boosting awareness of the impacts of extreme heat, while highlighting straightforward steps individuals and families can take to prepare. This campaign will not only offer easy-to-understand messaging and safety tips for the public but will also provide government stakeholders, emergency managers and members of the media with FEMA resources they can use to communicate these risks to residents and mitigate the impacts of extreme heat events in their communities.
“As we enter the summer months, the National Weather Service has already issued more than 100 heat advisories and warnings throughout portions of the country including record temperatures in Puerto Rico and Texas,” said FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell. “We know extreme heat temperatures lead to more heat-related illnesses and deaths, especially among already vulnerable populations. The #SummerReady campaign is another example of FEMA leaning forward to ensure that communities, and the leaders that serve them, have the resources and information needed to protect against extreme heat and other hazards.”
Ahead of the #SummerReady official kick-off, last month, FEMA’s Region 5 offices in Chicago hosted the first annual heat summit, where representatives from all the agency’s 10 regions, along with partners from several federal agencies, discussed the potential impacts of extreme heat and how to reduce them beforehand. The agency will host additional regional events to engage local stakeholders on extreme heat and promote cross-sector, cross-government coordination and message alignment, with a special focus on regions that are not accustomed to warmer weather.
The #SummerReady campaign follows the Biden-Harris Administration’s recent announcement highlighting historic investments to build community climate resilience nationwide. To further promote the administration’s efforts in building resilient infrastructure throughout the nation, FEMA will host webinars during the next several weeks and months to help emergency managers complete successful pre-disaster mitigation grant applications to build resilience against hazards, including extreme heat events. The website will be updated with future webinars as they become available.
Over the past three years, the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program collaborated to produce a strategic plan. The strategic plan, a legislative requirement, is now final after being cleared by the Office of Management and Budget.
The strategic plan provides an executable strategy for the program to support its mission through fiscal year 2029. This includes outlining the program’s vision, mission, strategic goals and objectives.
The plan established four strategic goals. These are:
- Advance the understanding of earthquake processes and their consequences.
- Enhance existing and develop new information, tools and practices for protecting the nation from earthquake consequences.
- Promote the dissemination of knowledge and implementation of tools, practices and policies that enhance strategies to withstand, respond to and recover from earthquakes.
- Learn from post-earthquake investigations to enhance the effectiveness of available information, tools, practices and policies to improve earthquake resilience.
Earthquakes are among the greatest natural hazards faced by the United States, with the potential of significant damage resulting in deaths and injuries, economic losses and debilitating impacts. According to a 2006 National Research Council report 42 states have some degree of seismic risk and 18 of those states have areas of high seismicity.
To continue to address these threats, the NEHRP will use the finalized strategic plan to create a management plan.
For more information, visit NEHRP.gov.
On June 22, FEMA released the funding notice for $6 million in competitive grants as part of the Fiscal Year 2023 Homeland Security National Training Program/Competitive Continuing Training Grants. These grants provide training solutions to address specific national preparedness gaps and increased capacity through training availability.
This year, for the first time, FEMA designed the grant with two distinct focus areas, "Build Tribal Capacities to Improve Readiness and Resilience" and "Rural Preparedness for Equitable Outcomes."
The funding notice is posted at Grants.gov, at DHS-23-NPD-005-00-96. Grants are available to applicants through a competitive process to help improve the nation’s ability to respond to and recover from all-hazards events through training. The application period will close at 5 p.m. ET on Aug. 7.
Extreme heat continues to impact communities across the globe, with more frequent events over the past few years. In support of FEMA's #SummerReady campaign, the agency is exploring the effects of extreme heat and how collaborating among local, state, tribal, federal partners can lead to more educated communities.
Episode 117 of FEMA's Before, During & After podcast is a panel discussion that recaps FEMA’s recent Extreme Heat Summit and discusses how FEMA is addressing extreme heat. This episode is the first of a four-part series. Visit FEMA.gov for more episodes of the podcast.
Application Period Open for the National Dam Safety Program State Assistant Grant
FEMA announced that the Fiscal Year 2023 National Dam Safety Program, State Assistance Grants funding opportunity is published in Grants.gov. The application period will close July 21.
The National Dam Safety Program helpline is available 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. ET, Monday - Friday. For questions, email FEMA-NDSP-HHPDGrants@fema.dhs.gov. For more information, visit FEMA's Dam Safety webpage. For more information about the National Dam Safety Program, visit FEMA.gov.
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$12M Available for Regional Catastrophic Preparedness Grants
FEMA released the funding notice for the Fiscal Year 2023 Regional Catastrophic Preparedness Grant Program. The program provides $12 million to eligible states and local governments to close known preparedness capability gaps, encourage innovative regional solutions to issues related to catastrophic incidents and build on existing regional preparedness efforts.
Awards will be made on a competitive basis to applicants who present an ability to successfully meet the requirements described in the funding notice.
The application period will remain open until 5 p.m. ET on July 24. Submissions must be made through Grants.gov. The Notice of Funding Opportunity is available on Grants.gov as well as on FEMA.gov.
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FEMA Seeks Comments About Increased Funding Access and Reducing Disaster Risk
FEMA published a notice in the Federal Register seeking public comment on how to apply new legislation that will designate areas with communities most at risk and from natural hazards. The comment period is open until July 25.
This notice is for the agency to gain better understanding in key areas that will support an effective implementation of the Community Disaster Resilience Zone Act. FEMA posted the Request for Information to learn the best ways to obtain public feedback that will help shape and inform how the agency uses the act to increase resilience efforts.
Comments can be submitted from 2023-11268 on the Federal eRulemaking Portal, Docket ID: FEMA-2023-0009 or by emailing FEMA-CDRZ-RFI@fema.dhs.gov. Please follow the instructions on the page for submitting comments and contact the Regulations.gov Help Desk if you have technical issues.
Visit FEMA.gov for more information
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