Learn about a Safe, Sustainable Recovery
Building Higher is relatively inexpensive, and can
- Help avoid the loss and misery that goes with being flooded
- Protect your property
- Save you tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in flood insurance.
- NHC Quick Response Reports: The Natural Hazards Center hosts a collection of disaster quick response reports, including many about Superstorm Sandy.
- Planning and Building Livable, Safe & Sustainable Communities: The Patchwork Quilt Approach
- Steps to Building Back Smarter [pdf] [Webpage]: The Natural Hazard Mitigation Association recommends that affected residents and communities throughout the Northeast take steps now, while they have the opportunity to build back safer, smarter, and in a manner designed to reduce misery for future generations. We can and should rebuild in a way that will lessen damage from the next disaster.
- Rebuilding Safer and Smarter, a new NHMA website describing the best way to rebuild and leave a community better prepared for the next disaster.
- Recovery Advisories: 5 Recovery Advisories (RAs) specifically for areas affected by Hurricane Sandy produced by FEMA
- The History of Building Elevation in New Orleans : FEMA (URS) produced this document to tell the story of the history of elevating buildings in New Orleans. This an important resource for Sandy-affected areas as well because it highlights that house elevation is 1) not new and 2) not a guaranteed “success”
Homeowners Information – Protecting and Rebuilding:
- Repairing Your Flooded Home – The American Red Cross
- Federal Alliance for Safe Homes
- Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety
- “Elevation 101? Seminar
- Extension Disaster Education Network – Safer, Stronger, Smarter – (Note: much of the building/construction information on this site is specific to the climate and conditions in South Louisiana)
- Homeowner’s Guide to Retrofitting: Six Ways to Protect Your House From Flooding
- For information on Flood Insurance please visit: www.floodsmart.org
- Post Sandy Building Codes IBHS [pdf]
- Using Freeboard to Elevate Structures Above Predicted Flood Waters
Capabilities Tool for Communities
The National Disaster Preparedness Training Center (NDPTC) is delivering a course on Coastal Flood Risk Reduction and as an element of this course has prepared a “Capabilities Tool” to help coastal stakeholders identify the best course of action available for their community.
- CapabilitiesTool: Tools are devices needed to implement the approach such as adopting a zoning ordinance that requires new homes to be elevated above the level of flooding. [pdf]
- NDPTC_CapabilitiesTool_100912_Freitag.xlsx: Coastal Flood Risk Reduction Course, NDPTC (excel)
- Supporting Hurricane Sandy NDPTC120312.pdf: The National Disaster Preparedness Training Center (NDPTC) The Capabilities Tool offers over a hundred measures that have been used to reduce risks from flooding. [pdf]
Jim Schwab, manager of APA’s Hazard Planning Research Center, interviews Edward Thomas, President of the Natural Hazard Mitigation Association, about the effects of Hurricane Sandy on the eastern coast of U.S.
Preparing for Hurricanes
- Coastal Flood Maps Fact Sheet [pdf]
- Emergency Preparedness for Levees [pdf]
- IBHS Rating the States [pdf]
- National Flood Insurance Program
- National Hurricane Center
- National Hydrologic Warning Council
- Storm Smart Coasts (stormsmartcoast.org)
- What to do after a hurricane (ready.gov)
Resources from the American Planning Association:
- Resource Page: http://www.planning.org/sandy/
- Recovery News blog: http://blogs.planning.org/postdisaster/
- Community Planning Assistance Teams: http://www.planning.org/communityassistance/
- Planning for Post-Disaster Recovery: Next Generation (project pages): http://www.planning.org/research/postdisaster/
- Hazards Planning Research Center: http://www.planning.org/nationalcenters/hazards/
Resources from the Association of State Flood Managers
- Hurricane Sandy News, Updates, and Resources
- Hurricane Sandy: Using Mitigation to Rebuild Safer and More Sustainable Communities: Details 23 recommended actions for all levels of government, individuals, and businesses to consider in the post-Sandy recovery.
Resources from FEMA
- Building Science Resource to Assist with Reconstruction
- Building Science Training and Workshops
- Coastal Barrier Resource Act (CBRA) Factsheet
- Fema Flood Brochure
- Final Deliverable PP Changes in the Flood Insurance Program Early Considerations for Rebuilding
- Hurricane Sandy Advisory Base Flood Elevations (ABFE) Fact Sheet
- Hurricane Toolkit (June 2020)
- Snow Load Safety Guidance
- Written testimony of FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate for a Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Subcommittee on Emergency Management, Intergovernmental Relations, and the District of Columbia hearing titled “One Year Later: Examining the Ongoing Recovery from Hurricane Sandy”
High Winds:
Visit DisasterSafety.org for high wind safety and planning information.
STORM CHARACTERISTICS
As of 1100 EDT, 30 August 2017, Tropical Storm Harvey is located approximately 30 miles northeast of Port Arthur, Texas. Maximum sustained wind speed is 45 miles per hour (mph) with higher gusts. Gradual weakening is forecasted as the center of the storm moves further inland.
- HHarvey(1)LSCSF_Advisory_Com_Haney_043014
- HHarvey(2)TropicalStormHarvey-WastewaterSystemsUpdate3(FOUO)
- HHarvey(3)FEMA_E-Brief_July_27_2017
- HHarvey(4)31AUG17 NOAA_MetUpdateBrief
- HHarvey(5)Tropical_Storm_Harvey_OCIA_ExecutiveSummary8-30-17
- HHarvey(6)31_AUG_17_NOAA_Met_Update_Graphic
- HHarvey(7)01SEP17NOAA_ MetUpdateBrief
- HHarvey(8)01SEP17NOAA_MetUpdateGraphic
- HHarvey(9)OCIA-TropicalStormHarveyInfrastructureImpactAssessment-Petroleum
Articles: Hurricane Sandy Damage and Recovery
- APA article by: Darrin Punchard: Hurricane Sandy Elevates the Importance of Mitigation Planning – This article, written by NHMA Board Member Darrin Punchard, was recently published as the lead cover story for “The Commissioner,” a subscription publication of the American Planning Association. APA has granted NHMA permission to make the article available through our website. More information on The Commissioner can be found at: http://www.planning.org/thecommissioner/
- Associated Press- NORC Center for Public Affairs Research: Resilience in the wake of Superstorm Sandy
- Homeland Security News Wire: The contribution of social bonds to resilience in the Wake of Superstorm Sandy
- One Year Later: Examining the Ongoing Recovery From Hurricane Sandy
- Planners Report on Sandy’s Aftermath
Seven years after Hurricane Katrina devastated an area along the Gulf Coast that was the size of the United Kingdom, Hurricane Sandy blasted an area of the East Coast with a population equivalent to Canada’s.
- Red Cross Releases One-Year Superstorm Sandy Report
- Surging Storms: Can the US Adapt In Time to Avert Coastal Damage?: Christian Science Monitor