Community As A Whole: Prepare, Respond & Recover My Favorite Flood – Starring My Community 6 Steps To Success

1. Community As A Whole: Prepare, Respond & RecoverMy Favorite Flood – Starring My Community 6 Steps To Success D. Leslie Miller, P.E. (Les) Flood Preparedness Program Manager Portland District 26 September 2012

2. Begin with the End in Mind…. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Close your eyes, picture the following … Your Family & Friends Home Personal Places Place of Employment Community….

3. 6 Steps to Flood Fight Success Develop and sustain your community’s best flood damage reduction practices using the following 6 steps and your “Whole Community” will experience their “Favorite Flood” because the headlines will proclaim… “We Win Flood Fight” “Starring Our Whole Community”

4. Inclusive Process Includes anyone who wants to contribute, strives to have everyone contributes, even if it is only taxes…. Life Home Culture Economy Community

5. Identify Flood Hazards This is primarily a technical process, utilizing engineering studies and National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) maps. The extent of research in awatershed, below and above ground water table, naturally and from the human environment will be determined by policy. It is local observations, especially those documented, which help confirm the engineer/scientist flood hazard models….

6. Analyze Threats This is a technical process, which includes anecdotal input from citizens, media, businesses and government agencies. Flood Inundation Maps can be misinterpreted, so it is important to have the Whole Community check maps for “their” understanding and accuracy before beginning the following steps.

7. Communicate Risk Risk assessment is frequently updated for economic and insurance purposes. Communicating “Tolerable” risk to the Whole Community, essentially informs everyone, they are needed….

8. Develop Policy This probably is the most important step in the entire process, because signed laws, regulations and policy can cover all flood damage reduction priorities, schedules, funding and processes required to develop and sustain the Whole Community “opening night” performance capability….

9. Culturize This is a process through which flood damage prevention & reduction process are incorporated into the “Whole Community” eventually becoming routine policy and practice….. • Living process • Inclusive – individual to agency • Uses existing community culture – schools to fairs • Rewards healthy competition to reduce risk

10. Prevent-Mitigate Risk The flood hazard section of the community’s Natural Hazard Mitigation Plan should list all known flood risks (individual to economic) and at least one currently available temporary mitigation action which is carried out through emergency operations....

11. Prepare Effectively Effective preparation is stimulated by two expectations: “all emergencies are local” and “failure to prepare does not constitute an emergency by potential resource providers”, especially those outside the local area…. A rigidly-flexible approach is required to sustain rehearsals for an “opening night” performance, with the flexibility to move the performance to another facility…the night before….

12. Respond as Rehearsed Executing planned and rehearsed actions is essential if the “push verses the pull principle” of an “opening night performance” can be used effectively. Response success has 4 critical steps…. Site-By-Site Rehearsals Readiness & Forecast Aligned Advance Measures Triggered by Forecast Choreographed Response Operations & Support

13. Recover as Rehearsed Recovery is integrated into State and Federal recovery programs. Local policy is most important because it addresses local priorities and resources for assistance…. Prepare Clean-up Repair and restore Replace Mitigate

14. Evaluate & Repeat This is extremely important for developing and sustaining “best practices”. Everyone is focused on returning to their routine, so confirm…. Firm policy to complete this effort Inclusive Pre-arranged trusted unbiased agent Rewarding – not penalizing

15. Summary Sustain improvement until every citizen, resident, business, cultural entity and community agency successfully sustains their expected level of flood damage reduction, by: ___ Identifying Hazards ___ Analyzing Threats ___ Communicating Risk ___ Developing Policy for a continuously risk reducing culture ___ Mitigating Risk Permanently ___ Planning and rehearsing an “opening night” performance ___ Responding as Rehearsed ___ Recovering as Rehearsed ___ Evaluating and improving the process

16. Keys To SuccessEach Step • Inclusive – Whole Community • Leadership – Champions with “hand-offs” • Vision – Realistic & Attainable • Strategy – Culture & Patience • Tactics – Specific & Accountable • Proactive – Push, Pull & Persistent • Fun – Award & Reward

17. Feed Back! • Questions • Information • Suggestions • Recommendations • Way forward….

18. Corps of Engineer’s Contacts • Portland District: Les Miller 503-808-4400/4402 D.les.miller@usace.army.mil • Seattle District Cathy Desjardin 206-764-3452/3406 Catherine.a.desjardin@usace.army.mil • Walla Walla District Jeff Stidham 509-527-7145/7146 Jeffery.l.stidham@usace.army.mil