Article by:
Meredith Cohen, Student Volunteer - FEMA Region 2 and MJ Wilson, CAIC Member - FEMA Region 2
On October 18th 2022, FEMA’s Region 2 Preparedness Division hosted their inaugural Higher Education Roundtable in Manhattan. Climate Adaptation and FEMA’s Strategic Plan Goal #2, which calls for FEMA to enhance the nation’s ability to anticipate, prepare for, and adapt to future climate conditions, were the primary focus.
Through close collaboration with federal, state, local, tribal, and territory governments, community-based organizations, and the private sector such as this Roundtable, FEMA is taking a people-first approach to increase climate literacy, develop tools, and allocate resources informed by future risk estimates to target investments to create a more equitable and resilient nation.
The event convened experts from the private sector, federal, local agencies, and academic institutions across New York and New Jersey to discuss climate adaptation and the impacts of climate change in the emergency management community. Specifically, the conversations centered on how FEMA must adapt to meet the challenges of our changing environment.
Keynote Speaker, John Comiskey of Monmouth University, opened the day with a presentation and discussion on the threats posed by climate change. Comiskey explained that as climate change alters existing weather patterns, the average amount of disaster declarations per year is increasing. He highlighted challenges specific to Region 2, including an increase in extreme weather events, the emergence of slow-moving disasters, increasing energy demands, and difficulties inherent to climate change risk communication.
The first of three discussion sessions asked attendees to identify the biggest short- and long-term threats to Region 2 as well as the geographic considerations necessary for vulnerability assessment and planning purposes. Their responses included a spectrum of natural threats such as the combination of ice storms with heavy precipitation or snowfall which increases the demand of energy systems and stress existing built infrastructure, while landslides represent a threat specific to Puerto Rico. Social factors were also identified as major contributors to the vulnerability or resilience of a community.
Several of the social and technical barriers to creating resilient communities discussed included ongoing gentrification disrupting social capital on the community level, weakening a community’s capacity for resilience; small community-based organizations (CBOs) often lack an awareness of funding streams and have a reduced capacity to apply for grants, raising issues of equity as it pertains to the distribution of federal funding; and sentiments of distrust toward Federal intervention are also present, which speaks to the centrality of relationship-building when seeking to increase a community’s capacity for resilience.
To reduce disaster vulnerabilities, attendees discussed
It was agreed that threats, including those mentioned, highlight the importance of fostering a proactive approach to threat and hazard identification and risk assessment (THIRA).
The second discussion session examined how FEMA communicates information on climate change preparedness to state and local emergency management partners, CBOs, and faith-based organizations. Priorities identified include streamlining the process of obtaining Individual Assistance and National Flood Insurance Program claims, providing grant writing technical assistance to CBOs, and increasing access to risk maps to further enable community partners to make informed preparedness decisions. Particularly for communities that are resource deficient, FEMA needs to present climate change information and data in a way that lends itself to local action on the community level. Finally, when speaking with local emergency managers, communication may be most effective when climate change is framed in terms of its ability to produce extreme weather events.
The final discussion considered public-private partnerships that promote climate resilience and explored methods to build equity into these partnerships. This conversation mainly focused on ways to improve this collaboration. Two examples of existing partnerships using disaster funds and private sector monies mentioned were Department of Housing and Urban Development’s use of disaster funds to increase resilience of damaged housing stock and solar energy providers’ expansion of solar power systems to build climate resilience through empowering communities to decrease their reliance on the public energy grid.
These kinds of partnerships may be particularly useful in areas where energy delivery is unstable, such as Puerto Rico. Forming effective public-private partnerships requires a service delivery model that is centered around cultivating trust with the local community in order to address their specific needs. Moreover, traditional approaches that focus solely on knowledge dissemination are not sufficient for building resilient communities. FEMA needs to dedicate its resources to strengthening relationships with CBOs and tailor preparedness initiatives to the community’s unique needs. Finally, there is public perception that addressing climate change is a task reserved for the academically and economically elite. Combatting this perception requires the creation of jobs and trainings at the community level to involve community members in local green and resiliency initiatives.
The Higher-Education Roundtable is a FEMA Region 2 initiative which will continue to evolve. Region 2 plans to host future sessions on a quarterly basis, discussing a broad range of topics and including additional private, faith-based, and community-based partners to increase participants knowledge and awareness as well as build a durable network of relationships within this new community. Through this Newsletter, Region 2 hopes to open lines of communication with interested participants, expand its network of partners (both within and beyond NYC), and establish relationships that will inform the development of future FEMA-led initiatives, tools, and resources.