Last week I visited a subdivision of 54 homes in Wichita, Kansas.

The families were going through the wreckage of their homes...sifting through the muck and stink left when the Arkansas River overflowed its banks on Nov. 1 .

People were pulling out their carpets and putting their water soaked furniture on their curb. It was a terrible scene but one I have witnessed over and over again in the past 5 ½ years. In fact, it was a scene that had been repeated five times in recent years in this very subdivision.

The sad truth is, this scene should never have taken place much less been repeated.

The fact is...we have the opportunity to cut losses...the know-how to reduce risks...and the responsibility to save lives.

But it means we must change the way we think and plan and budget. It means that instead of responding to disasters...we must prevent them...instead of waiting to react, we prepare NOW for the next flood, hurricane, fire or earthquake.

And that’s exactly what we have been doing at FEMA through our Project Impact initiative to build disaster resistant communities. We are working with our State and local partners in 57 communities all across America...and we are changing the face of emergency management in this country...we are shifting to proactive prevention.

And we will be making even more changes. We will be asking Congress to allow us to act even more aggressively to save lives and property — before disaster strikes.

These days, disasters are becoming daily occurrences. Regardless of whether you believe the cause is global warming or natural changes in weather patterns, there is no disagreement that the frequency and severity of what we call "weather events" are on the rise.

Just look at the ‘98 hurricane season that ends officially on Nov. 30. For the first time in 105 years, we had four hurricanes in the Atlantic at the same time. The Federal costs associated with Hurricane Georges are approaching $2 billion and may exceed the total spent on Hurricane Andrew relief. Over 400 people have died in hurricanes and other disasters so far this year, compared to just 168 deaths in all of 1997.

And now there is the horrible destruction caused by Hurricane Mitch in Central America, killing over 10,000 people and leaving almost a million more homeless and without the means to support their families.

Prevention Works

Even though the historic number of storms and record losses of life and property are making news, the most important and largely untold story, of this hurricane season is that disaster prevention is working and is already saving lives and reducing property loss.

In St. Croix in the Virgin Islands, Margaret and Melvin Taylor lost their home in Hurricane Marilyn.

When they rebuilt, they built a "disaster resistant" home designed to survive a category 4 storm like Hurricane Hugo, and this year — when Georges struck with wind gusts up to 150 mph, the Taylors were ready, and their house survived undamaged.

In 1995, Hurricane Marilyn slammed into the Virgin Islands, killed 11 people, cost FEMA $450 million dollars and insurance companies another $750 million. This year, Georges slammed into the Virgin Islands. But this story has a much different ending. No fatalities. Less than $50 million federal disaster aid and repairs and insurance companies had to pay out less than $5 million dollars.

The reason? Because the Virgin Islands implemented and enforced a stringent building code that ensured new buildings were constructed to be stronger and safer.

In 1997, Hurricane Fran knocked down a communications tower and killed all emergency communications in Wilmington, North Carolina. This year, when Hurricane Bonnie hit Wilmington, there was no interruption in emergency communications.

The reason? Because the community of Wilmington did a smart thing — they rebuilt the tower to withstand hurricane force winds.

Clearly, our emphasis and investment in prevention are paying dividends. But there’s more we can do...more we must do— We have a responsibility as a government, as communities, as parents to do all we can to save lives, to protect our families, to cut costs, to keep businesses open, to protect jobs and to protect our environment.

Building stronger, disaster resistant buildings will save lives...not rebuilding them where common sense says we shouldn’t build — will save more lives.

Repetitive Losses

I want to announce steps we will be taking to make people safer and reduce disaster losses.

We have identified 35,000 repetitive flood loss properties across the country that have two or more flood loss claims in the past ten years — costing the national flood insurance program over $200 million a year.

We’re preparing to implement a strategy that will cut annual losses by half in three years and save close to a billion dollars over the next ten years.

We will propose that flood insurance not be available to homeowners who have filed two or more claims that total more than the value of their home and refuse to elevate their home or accept a buyout. People need to accept the responsibility and the consequences of their choice to live in high risk areas. We should charge people who live in high risk areas the fair market rates for insurance — instead of the lower, subsidized federal flood insurance rates.

The costs of rebuilding public facilities have skyrocketed. We will be proposing that all public buildings be insured to 80 percent of their replacement value within the next two years. This will save federal taxpayers millions of dollars in rebuilding costs. That means essential public facilities will be back on line faster after a disaster. In exchange, we will provide incentives for disaster prevention actions.

We need to protect our floodplains and wetlands that act in nature as sponges that soak up excess rain and flood waters, and not fill them in for development. We must all ask ourselves should we be rebuilding roads and infrastructure where we know they will be destroyed again? By rebuilding this infrastructure, are we putting people back in harm’s way?

Truth is we can prevent people from becoming disaster victims AND protect the environment at the same time. Working with the Sierra Club and the National Wildlife Federation, homebuilders and realtors, we hope to find common ground for future growth in areas that naturally provide excellent flood protection.

We will enlist the active participation of local elected officials and flood plain managers and encourage them to take some responsibility in this fight to cut repetitive losses. We will ask them to follow the example of Tulsa Oklahoma.

On Memorial Day weekend, 1984 more than 14 inches of rain fell on Tulsa, flooding over 6,800 homes and businesses and killing 14 people. Tulsa learned from this tragedy and launched a major stormwater management program that is a model for the country and has significantly reduced the flood risks to Tulsa’s citizens. And just last week, Tulsa took another significant step toward becoming more disaster resistant — they became a partner in our Project Impact initiative.

As Tulsa proves, disaster prevention is done best at the local level. That is why we are joining forces with the fire service community, the people who have been doing prevention for over a century. We plan to partner with their extensive public education efforts – so that when communities and households learn how to prevent fires, they will learn how to prevent other disasters, too. We will soon sign a Project Impact Memorandum of Understanding with the major fire service organizations.

Secondly, private sector support for disaster prevention is critical. That is why I am especially pleased that Fannie Mae, our Nation’s leading provider of home mortgage money, and the Association of Builders and Contractors, one of the nation’s largest construction associations representing over 20,000 member firms who employ over 1 million workers, are becoming Project Impact partners.

They fill two of the biggest pieces in the disaster prevention puzzle. The Builders and Contractors bring the science, experience and knowledge to build disaster resistant communities and Fannie Mae provides the accessible and affordable financing that American families need to become disaster resistant.

Fannie Mae and the Builders and Contractors join the over 250 other Project Impact business partners like Dante Grover from Freeport, New York a Project Impact community. Dante owns Grover’s High and Dry Marina and is a community leader helping make Freeport a disaster resistant community. Dante is also the President of the Freeport Board of Education and a member of the Freeport Chamber of Commerce. On his own, Dante elevated his stores so that he could escape the repeated flooding in Freeport and keep his business open.

Dante and other Project Impact business partners have recognized the common sense value of Project Impact – they understand that reducing disaster risks and costs will save lives, reduce losses, and help their employees, businesses and communities.

Disaster Resistant Universities

I am also pleased to announce today a new partnership with our nation’s universities to create Disaster Resistant Universities. The federal government and the private sector have a tremendous investment in America’s universities. The federal government alone funds nearly $15 billion in university research annually. This investment pays off in research breakthroughs that help us find effective treatments for diseases, advance our knowledge of space, build safer buildings and highways, and train students to lead the work force of the next century.

Universities are also critical players in their local economy. For example, the University of California at Berkeley is one of northern California’s largest job centers; the campus injects well over $1 billion into the Bay Area economy annually. If an earthquake were to close the campus for even a short duration, its research capability would be greatly diminished and the economic impact in the surrounding area would be substantial.

We are working with Berkeley to develop a model for universities to use to identify risks and take prevention actions. Also, FEMA will propose the establishment of a National Research Investment Protection fund to help universities leverage additional resources into their disaster prevention programs.

Berkeley Chancellor Robert Berdahl is leading the way on this effort and we thank him for his willingness to take on this responsibility.

Project Impact Summit

Finally, I want to announce that FEMA hosted a Project Impact Summit on December 9-11 here in Washington, DC. We brought in officials from all 57 Project Impact communities to share success stories, to network and to learn from their peers. We will also present the first Project Impact awards to those communities, individuals, corporate and non-profit partners who have helped moved disaster prevention to the forefront of emergency management. We plan to announce a new round of Project Impact communities around the country.

In closing, I think it is safe to say that FEMA has come a long way in the last six years. We have set high goals. Our customers — the American people — are satisfied with FEMA’s streamlined, faster and smarter disaster response and recovery work.

But, at FEMA we know we need to do more. We see too many families suffering from damages that could have been prevented... we mourn the lives lost that could have been saved... and despair at the devastation of communities that could have been protected.

At FEMA, we know two sure things: One — we know there will always be another disaster. Hurricanes, tornadoes, droughts, earthquakes, fires and floods won’t stop coming.

And two — we know that working together before the next disaster strikes communities....corporations...the media…and fire and emergency management personnel — we can save lives, cut property and business losses, protect our environment and make our communities safer and stronger.

So with President Clinton’s support and the support of the new Congress — we are ready to take on more responsibility, we are eager to take emergency management to the next level.

We have no choice. There are lives at stake. And we know how to save them.

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