September 2022
 We are now in the historical peak of the Atlantic Hurricane Season, and the tropics are finally starting to get active after a slow start. As of 8am today, September 6th, we have had 5 named storms. Out in the Atlantic right now are Hurricane Danielle (our first hurricane of the season), and Tropical Storm Earl. Neither are expected to impact the United States. The two other "X"s on the screen are areas to watch, but are not named storms.
 The original forecasts for the Atlantic Hurricane season were for an above average outcome. Two of the most reputable forecasters– NOAA and Colorado State University–have updated their forecasts for the season and dropped their projections, but reiterate that they are still expecting an above-average season.
 According to a NOAA press release in early August, “NOAA forecasters have slightly decreased the likelihood of an above-normal Atlantic hurricane season to 60% (lowered from the outlook issued in May, which predicted a 65% chance). The likelihood of near-normal activity has risen to 30% and the chances remain at 10% for a below-normal season.”
We managed to get through the entire month of August without a named storm. This is the first time in 25 years that we haven’t had a named storm (tropical system with >=39mph winds) in the month of August.
As of today, we have had 5 named storms this season– Alex, Bonnie, Colin, Danielle, and Earl–so we have some catching up to do if we will verify the forecast of 14-20 named storms (though remember, hurricane season goes until November 30th).
Based on data from the 1991-2020 Atlantic Hurricane seasons, by September 1st, we typically would have had 6 named storms–2 of them hurricanes, and 1 of them major hurricanes (category 3 or greater). So we aren’t too far off from a “normal” season in the last 30-or-so years--especially with the recent formation of Hurricane Danielle and Tropical Storm Earl.
Even though it’s been a slow start, we won’t be breaking any records. With Danielle likely to become a hurricane in a few days, that will put us late in the season to form our first hurricane–but not the latest on record. The latest date for the first hurricane of the season from 1950-2021 was September 11– 2002 (Gustav) and 2013 (Humberto).
  An update from VDEM's Hurricane Program Manager, Bruce Sterling:
One of the most important preparedness actions anyone can take to ensure your home and personal property are protected is to purchase flood insurance. Chances are if your home has a mortgage and you’re in a flood zone, you probably already have it. But what if you don’t have a mortgage or you live outside of the flood zone, or if you don’t own your home? Well, you still can, and should, strongly consider purchasing flood insurance. As you may already know, your homeowners insurance policy will not cover damages caused by flooding. You do not have to reside in a flood zone to be eligible for flood insurance, but just because you’re outside of the flood zone don’t mean you’re risk-free from flooding. A large percentage of homes that are flooded are actually outside of the flood zone. Flood insurance premiums for lower risk properties have lower premiums. If you don’t own your home, you can still purchase flood insurance on your contents. If your home experiences flood damage and you don’t have flood insurance, your alternative may be a Small Business Administration Disaster Loan, if your community receives an Individual Assistance or SBA declaration. The downside of this is that this is a loan that you must repay, with up to 4% interest, and the maximum amount you can borrow is $200,000 for repairing or replacing your primary residence, and up to $40,000 to replace or repair your personal property. You are much better off having your home and property protected from flood damage with insurance than you are securing a loan if your community is declared a disaster area. A very important note about flood insurance: flood insurance policies have a 30 day wait period before they are active, with a few exceptions, such as policies with a new mortgage.
 It's September and that means it's National Preparedness Month (NPM)! VDEM and FEMA's Ready campaign will share preparedness tips all month long on social media. NPM is an observance each Sept. to raise awareness about the importance of preparing for disasters and emergencies that could happen at any time.
FEMA's theme this year is: The life you’ve built is worth protecting. Prepare for disasters to create a lasting legacy for you and your family.
In the first week, we will introduce NPM and share low and no-cost preparedness tips. VDEM is also partnering with the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation and the National Weather Service on camper safety from September 5-9; much of that messaging is low or no-cost.
The second week will encourage Virginians to tailor their preparedness plan to their family's needs. They should keep in mind certain factors when developing their plan, like medical needs, disabilities or access and functional needs, etc.
In week three, we will share back-to-school preparedness tips. Children and youth are empowered through understanding risks and knowing how to protect themselves. Empowered youth can help involve their families, peers, and communities in disaster preparedness.
The last week will highlight disasters from the past in Virginia. There are not many better ways of encouraging people to prepare than to show them what has already happened in the commonwealth and what disasters are possible in the future.
 VDEM is teaming up with the National Weather Service and The Department of Conservation and Recreation to educate people about Camping Safety. We know that during COVID, there was a rise in people camping nationally, and with a whole crop of new campers, we wanted a whole week tailored specifically to camping and camping safety.
Whether you're tent camping, heading out in your new pop-up or RV, there are many things to know *BEFORE* you head out. Do you know which county you'll be in so that you can get the proper warnings when severe weather approaches? Do you know where the nearest hospital is? What about the closest emergency shelter at the campground?These are the things we want everybody to be armed with before heading out. Look to social media for tips and reminders this week, and please share with your network!
Facebook: @Vaemergency, @VirginiaDCR, @NWSWakefieldVA, @NWSBlacksburg, @NWSBaltWash
Twitter: @VDEM, @VirginiaDCR, @NWSWakefieldVA, NWSBlacksburg, @NWS_BaltWash
VDDHH Zoom Presentation Series: National Disaster Distress Helpline Videophone Service
Event date: September 13, 2022
Time: 5:30pm-6:30pm
Where: Virtual Via Zoom
Join us for a presentation with Olivia Stein who will present on their Disaster Distress Helpline Videophone.
Note: This webinar will be presented in ASL with interpretation, and Remote Conference Captioning (RCC) will be provided.
All attendees should register by September 12. The Zoom link will be given out that day.
If you have questions or need more information please contact info@vddhh.virginia.gov or call (804) 325-1290.
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FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell announced Sherman Gillums, Jr. will serve as the director for the agency’s Office of Disability Integration and Coordination.
The office serves to ensure the agency’s commitment to equity and inclusion of people with disabilities before, during and after disasters.
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In his role, Gillums will provide program and policy guidance to the administrator while leading the workforce in supporting equitable access of programs and services for people with disabilities.
“People with disabilities are disproportionately impacted by natural disasters and FEMA’s people-first approach mandates that we are consistently identifying ways to provide all survivors with resources they can access in ways that meet their needs,” said Administrator Criswell. “We are proud to have Mr. Gillums join the FEMA workforce, leading our disability integration team, to build and expand on our efforts to serve people with disabilities in preparedness, response and recovery.”
Gillums most recently served as chief strategy and operations officer with the National Alliance on Mental Illness. He oversaw the organization’s efforts to provide timely access to mental healthcare for underserved communities and foster an understanding of mental illness. Gillums also served in leadership positions with the Paralyzed Veterans and AMVETS, two of the nation’s largest congressionally chartered veteran’s service organizations.
Gillums attended the University of San Diego School of Business and completed his executive education at Harvard Business School and served as a member of the U.S. Marine Corps for 12 years.
To learn more about how FEMA is helping people with disabilities before, during and after disasters, visit fema.gov.
 Old photographs of your great grandfather, vintage vinyl albums, handmade quilts, beloved books. These are just some family treasures that may be in your home when disaster strikes.
While it may not be possible to completely restore these items, it is often possible to save them. Teaching people how to save family treasures is some of the work being done by FEMA’s Office of Environmental Planning and Historic Preservation and our partner, the Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative (SCRI). This partnership leads the Heritage Emergency National Task Force, which is made up of more than 60 organizations and federal agencies. Together, they work to protect our cultural heritage from the damaging effects of disasters and other emergencies.
Last month, FEMA and SCRI held the first Save Your Family Treasures class at FEMA’s Emergency Management Institute designed to train our specialists on techniques that the public can use to save water-damaged items.
“We are training members from the Environmental and Historic Preservation cadre on how to save family treasures,” said Lori Foley, FEMA Coordinator of the Heritage Emergency National Task Force. She explained that their end goal is to be able to send members of this cadre to Disaster Recovery Centers, where survivors can talk to them about their damaged items. “We’d like this program to enable and empower individuals to save the things that matter the most to them.”
Foley says the training helps people save beloved items like photographs, grandma’s recipes, family bibles, sheet music and more. Often these items contain notes, dates and other important family history.
“That information doesn’t exist anywhere else within the family, so we try to help individuals walk through those steps to save them,” she said.
During the training, students were brought outside to work with wet items. This helped them better understand how heavy and fragile items can be when wet. Students were given the opportunity to pull items from a pool, understand how to separate them (such as taking photos from frames) and practice laying them out individually to dry.
Each pool focused on specific types of damaged items: textiles, photos, books and documents, and a final pool for miscellaneous objects.
After students worked with these items, they were brought inside to learn techniques they could use to save them. This included rinsing photos in distilled water, using a paintbrush to loosen dirt from fragile objects and performing proper drying techniques.
Once students learned techniques for how to salvage items, they practiced how they would use items from their kits to teach survivors how they can do it on their own. Kits included items they can use for demonstration such as clotheslines, books, sweater dryers, gloves, a paint brush and more.
Students in this pilot class will be deployed to Disaster Recovery Centers with these kits, which they will use to help teach disaster survivors. For many, this is not their only training in this field. Several of the students come from archeology backgrounds. Others, like Laura Jordan, have more personal ties to the work being done.
“Getting this Collection Care Specialist class under my belt is very important for me as a Hurricane Harvey survivor,” Jordan said. “Back in 2017, I personally witnessed the destruction firsthand of what happened to my keepsakes, my personal items, my family’s items.”
She said that it was devastating to lose books, photos, clothing and important blankets that her family made.
“When you have to return to that devastation and look at that, you wonder if any piece of you that created who you are today is salvageable,” she said. “When you take these types of courses, it really teaches you and informs you and instructs you on how to be your own hero. Not just for yourself, but for the communities you are trying to help, so they don’t have to go through what you went through and so they know there is hope for piecing yourself together again after the worst strikes you.”
Historic Preservation Specialist Laura Jordan (center) learns how to handle books damaged by water.
Once the students learned techniques for how to salvage items, they were able to practice teaching them to their fellow students.
For Foley, this is the goal of the program.
“You can never have enough people trained to help others save the things that matter to them,” Foley said. “We’d love to have a whole cadre devoted to saving cultural and historic resources that enable us to work not just with individuals and families but also with cultural institutions and arts organizations. We want to make sure what defines us as Americans is saved for future generations.”
For more information, visit the Save Your Family Treasures FEMA page.
(article from FEMA.gov)
 According to the U.S. Federal Reserve, those without a financial cushion may face unique and severe challenges in natural disasters. More than 32% of the adult population cannot afford a $400 expense without going into debt. There is a lot that an individual/family can do to financially prepare for a disaster and understand what programs are out there to assist when needed.
The National Center for Disaster Preparedness (NCDP), through FEMA grants, has developed a series of financial literacy courses on post-disaster economic recovery, to help you, your family, and communities effectively prepare for and bounce back from catastrophic events.
NCDP is looking for hosts for the following virtual and blended instructor-led free trainings:
Economic disaster recovery:
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Improving Business’ Financial Literacy and Management to Support Post-Disaster Economic Recovery: This instructor-led course will provide the learner with information on business financial literacy and the potential financial
effects of disasters. Some of the areas covered in the course
include developing pre-disaster plans for financial literacy,
understanding disaster assistance programs that are available to
businesses, the importance of business continuity planning,
and understanding a business’s vulnerability to disasters.
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Improving Individual and Households’ Financial Literacy and Management to Support Post-Disaster Economic Recovery (This course is available in Español.) This course can be held in-person or virtually and is designed to provide learners with information on individual and household financial literacy
and the potential financial effects of disasters. Some of the areas
covered in the course include developing pre-disaster plans for
financial literacy, understanding disaster assistance programs that are
available to individuals and households, and understanding vulnerability
to disasters.
Email ncdptraining@columbia.edu to set up a free virtual training for yourself, your group, or your business.
 FEMA has provided more than $2.7 billion to over 431,000 people to assist with COVID-19 related funeral costs for deaths occurring on or after Jan. 20, 2020. This assistance helped pay for the funerals of more than 441,000 people who died from COVID-19.
In Virginia so far, $67,748,450.67 has been awarded to help 10,255 families.
Eligibility determinations are based on when the applicant submits all required documentation. The determinations are not driven by state/locations.
“Applications” in the below chart reflect the number of individuals who called to begin the assistance process.
*Funeral assistance data can/will change daily; the information reflects data as of 8 a.m. EDT Tuesday, September 6, 2022.
Applicants may apply by calling 844-684-6333 from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. EDT, Monday through Friday. Multilingual services are available. Please note, phone calls from FEMA may come from an unidentified number. Applicants who use a relay service, such as video relay service (VRS), captioned telephone service or others, should give FEMA the number for that service.
Additional information about COVID-19 funeral assistance, including frequently asked questions, is available on FEMA.gov.
 **FEMA has recently established key deadlines for applying for FEMA Public Assistance for eligible work that your organization may have performed that was required to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
December 31, 2022 marks the deadline to submit a streamline project application(s) in FEMA Grants Portal for eligible COVID-19 work and costs that occurred between January 20, 2020 and July 1, 2022. The streamlined project application must include information and documentation sufficient for FEMA to determine whether the work is eligible, and either the actual or estimated cost of the work.
How to Submit a Streamline Application - FEMA Grants Portal
Individuals looking for Individual Assistance, please visit disasterassistance.gov for assistance.
Businesses looking for assistance should visit the Small Business Administration’s disaster assistance website.
 **Partners in Preparedness was just launched in May, so right now the resources listed below are only available digitally. We are working on getting a quote to get these printed off so that we can have them readily available to hand out when we go to events in the community, and to get copies to the Partners that request them. When physical copies are available, you will be the first to know!**
We have a number of digital preparedness resources available for download and print RIGHT NOW here: Make a Plan | VDEM (vaemergency.gov). Start by encouraging people to print the Emergency Reference Card to fill out and display on their refrigerator. This has basic contact information that is useful and easy to reference in an emergency.
 The next thing you'll want is "My Emergency Plan". It has everything you need before, during, and after a disaster from emergency information, an emergency kit checklist, how to find your hurricane evacuation zone, a place to list where you will go in the event of an evacuation, important contact information, and much more. There are also resources for recovery after a disaster.
REGIONAL NEWS
Region 1:
Region 2: We would like to introduce Victoria Steele, the new Region 2 Recovery and Mitigation Specialist. She is a lifelong resident of Virginia and a graduate of Virginia Wesleyan University in 2021. She earned degrees in Social Work and Religious Studies. Over the past year, she has served in the FEMA Corps program working alongside FEMA in Texas, New Jersey, New York, California, and Puerto Rico. Through this, she gained experience in mitigation, disaster survivor assistance, planning, and public assistance. She is passionate about safe housing, long-term recovery, ceramics, and crossword puzzles.
Region 3:
Region 4:
Region 5: September is National Preparedness Month and Region 5 is fully involved in activities related to preparedness.
*Ms. MaryAnn Tierney, Regional Administrator in FEMA Region III will be visiting the Region to talk with local Emergency Managers about Hurricane Preparedness and visit underserved parts of the Region that are at risk from Hurricane flooding.
*Region 5 continues its monthly COVID updates for local Emergency Managers with its partners from the Virginia Department of Health. The updates now include information on new and potential health threats to the Region such as Monkeypox and the Avian Flu.
*Region 5 has been invited to sit on the Disaster Planning, Readiness, and Recovery panel at the at the International Association of Healthcare Textile Management's International Conference in Virginia Beach, VA.
*The Quarterly Surry Nuclear Power Plant Emergency Manager's meeting will be held this month in Newport News, VA.
Region 6:
Region 7:
 We are proud to announce our latest Partners!
Cheryl Nelson is a local TV Host/ freelance Meteorologist out of Virginia Beach. She has her own website, www.preparewithcher.com, and is very active on several social media platforms. She uses her many platforms to inform people about Natural Disaster Preparedness. She is also a FEMA-Certified Instructor. Follow her on Facebook at Cheryl Nelson | Facebook, on Instagram at @cherylnelsonTV.
Shiloh United Methodist Church in South Hill is now a Partner! Member Lewis Rash is excited about helping reach people in his area who have limited or no internet access.
The Southwest Virginia Medical Reserve Corp is also a new Partner. Kristina Morris, a Unit Coordinator, signed up for the program, and sees a great partnership opportunity. Her team works extensively in the community and will be able to
Ann Woolford is a very proactive member of her community and is the President of the Lake Wilderness Property Owners Association in Spotsylvania County. She has seen first-hand how large snow events can debilitate communities. She is a member of the Partners in Preparedness Program to help her residents prepare before events strike so that people can have what they need for a few days before help arrives or the power comes back on.
We are excited to welcome the Mount Rogers Health District to our network! Michael Whiteaker with the Virginia Department of Health has been an active participant with Partners in Preparedness from the beginning and mentioned the program to his team. We are excited about the strong partnership that we are building in southwest Virginia!
Jacquelyn Veney is a Registered Nurse who plays a very active role in her church, Beulah Baptist, but also in her community. She helps organize events to get her community moving, to inform them about a number of health topics, to offer them free COVID tests, and more. The Partners in Preparedness program looks forward to being able to attend community events to reach Virginians and get them this important life-saving information.
Also welcome:
Jennifer Bragiel, Communications Specialist with Loudoun County Fire and Rescue.
We have had a lot of new registrations in the last few weeks! Look for those introductions next month after we touch base and learn more about how they're currently serving the community!
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