As the air turns brisk and the leaves begin to change, a young administration’s thoughts turn, apparently, to long-term catastrophic disaster recovery. A flurry of efforts aimed at getting disaster-affected areas back on their feet faster emerged in October, including an opinion-gathering website, stakeholder forums, and a new report on transportation systems recovery.
At least some of the activities are in direct response to President Barack Obama’s September charge to the Departments of Homeland Security and Housing and Urban Development to improve disaster recovery efforts nationwide. That initiative, expected to take about six months, involves reviewing past disaster response for lessons learned, finding opportunities for collaboration with state and local government, and gauging the efficiency of existing programs.
The measure, headed by DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano and HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan, kicked off in October with a planned two months of information gathering. A website, DisasterRecoveryWorkingGroup.gov has been created to allow citizens, officials, volunteer organizations, and businesses to weigh in on the future of long-term recovery planning. At the site, interested parties can fill out a 16-question survey and keep tabs on the progress of the working group, which is made up of more than 20 federal departments.
A series of forums, the first of which was held in New Orleans Tuesday, have been planned as a companion to the online survey. Future forums will be held in New York, Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, and Memphis and are meant to give those interested in recovery a chance to discuss their ideas face-to-face.
“It is vital to our success that disaster recovery professionals and stakeholders provide their input…” Donovan stated in a press release. “These forums aim to give everyone involved in disaster recovery a voice in shaping how we respond, and then rebuild and revitalize communities in the wake of disaster.”
Perhaps serendipitously, the Department of Transportation also launched a recovery website last month, based on its newly released National Transportation Recovery Strategy. Both the site and the report focus on helping communities plan and find funding to restore transportation systems after a disaster. The site features links to research reports, funding sources, and guides for planning and recovery.
Jolie Breeden is the lead editor and science communicator for Natural Hazards Center publications. She writes and edits for Research Counts; the Quick Response, Mitigation Matters, Public Health, and Weather Ready Research Award report series; as well as for special projects and publications. Breeden graduated summa cum laude from the University of Colorado Boulder with a bachelor’s degree in journalism.