S98-35
REDUCING DAMAGE FROM COASTAL STORMS

This session focused on the mitigation efforts created by North Carolina's State Office of Emergency Management following the devastation of Hurricane Fran.

The purpose of this "Mitigation Planning Initiative" is designed to encourage homeowners, businesses, and communities to incorporate mitigation into their everyday decisions. It promotes consideration of future development, enforcement of construction standards, and conservation of natural and ecologically sensitive areas.

The goal of this initiative is to break the cycle of damage and reconstruction that occurs when a community is subjected to repeated natural hazards. By advanced planning vulnerability reduction would ensue.

The program consists of demonstration incentives with some funding available to 10 select communities; technical assistance to all communities in the form of training programs, planning manuals, and implementation policy guides; GIS training for 10 select communities; research for state-of-the-art mitigation data, techniques, and methodologies; assistance for the business community's mitigation planning; and working with state agencies to incorporate mitigation strategies into existing policies and procedures.

The panel presented Dewees Island as their example of embodiment of sustainable development characteristics. These characteristics are: holistic in vision, integrated solutions/strategies, long-term time frame, global/local responsibilities, reducing the ecological footprint, and participatory/collaborative.

Although the example of Dewees Island was exemplary in applied interdisciplinary mitigation techniques, the attendees of this session felt that it was not practical or realistic in the postdisaster redevelopment environment.

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September 4, 1998