“The federal government is a support role. So if you think FEMA responds to disasters or that we’re in charge, first of all, we’re never in charge, we’re always in support, and and we work for a lot of different folks.”

FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate delivers a great TED talk on the federal role in disasters, what we’re doing wrong when we respond to them (most of the problem being how we think about disasters and the people caught up in them), and how we might/must use social media to meet our goals, even if our goals are to get a little more sleep. Check out the video below.

NOAA’s National Hurricane Center Storm Surge Unit has put together a new brochure explaining the what storm surge is and how to best measure it.

There’s nothing here on how to prevent losses, but the before/after shots (on page 3) should motivate some people to think about how we need to plan for it.

Added to our Sources for Outreach Materials page.

Download “Introduction to Storm Surge” from the National Hurricane Center (PDF). ]]> http://ma.stormsmart.org/2012/01/06/noaa-releases-new-storm-surge-brochure/feed/ 0 http://ma.stormsmart.org/2011/12/20/welcome-new-hampshire-stormsmart-coasts/ http://ma.stormsmart.org/2011/12/20/welcome-new-hampshire-stormsmart-coasts/#comments Tue, 20 Dec 2011 00:21:57 +0000 Wesley Shaw http://ma.stormsmart.org/?p=3067 We at StormSmart Coasts are thrilled to announce that, thanks to a lot of work by our Granite State partners, the New Hampshire StormSmart Coasts site is now live: our eighth StormSmart state!

You can check out New Hampshire StormSmart Coasts here. Also, be sure to have a look at the accompanying New Hampshire Coastal Adaptation Workgroup blog.

Thanks again to all the work by all of our partners. We’re thrilled to have you with us!

Extreme Weather Map

This just in from our friends at Rhode Island Sea Grant:

Ready for big weather, floods & wind damage? Click here to take our 30-minute survey and enter to win a $500, $75, or $25 gift card to Home Depot. Survey limited to 400 participants.

We are inviting 400 Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Massachusetts homeowners ages 18 and older to participate in a survey to develop a better understanding of progress towards taking action to reduce your risk from increased storminess to help develop an Internet-based program.

This online survey will ask about your demographic information, history of impact from climate events, awareness of increased storminess, and attitudes toward adapting to increased storminess.

Questions? Contact Pamela Rubinoff of the University of Rhode Island Coastal Resources Center and Rhode Island Sea Grant at (401) 874-6135 or email: climatesurvey@crc.uri.edu.

Happy Friday, everybody.

chaosinyourtown.com

For details (including the link to visit the webinar), see the event’s page on StormSmart Connect.

If your community has any Corps projects, you’ll definitely want to have a quick skim (it’s shorter than it looks: most of the important stuff is in the first few pages, though you may want to dive into some of the appendices), and even if you don’t, it provides a good example of a methodical way to approach a complex issue.

A collaborative effort between CZM, the town of Scituate, and the National Weather Service (NWS) will set the stage for much better documentation of storm events and improved forecasts. Various spots along the Massachusetts coastline have a reputation for frequent damage from storms and coastal flooding. Scituate has a number of such “hot spots.” To produce a more comprehensive and objective database of coastal inundation (flooding) and erosion events, ten such frequent flooding locations in Scituate were identified to establish reference markers that would help quantify inundation episodes. Tide staff gages were installed at these sites and carefully referenced to a known elevation. During future coastal storm events, local/state employees or volunteers will now be able to document observed water levels, and, in some circumstances, even upload pictures of high water marks. The Reference Marker Project is part of a larger Inundation and Visualization pilot project that seeks to improve forecasts and dissemination of coastal flood information and warnings. Other project partners include the NOAA North Atlantic Regional Team, Northeastern Regional Association of Coastal Ocean Observing Systems (NERACOOS), NOAA Coastal Service Center, UMass Dartmouth, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the NWS Taunton Office, Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA), U.S. Geological Survey, and the town of Saco, Maine. For more project information and a full list of project partners see the NERACOOS and NWS websites.