Hurricane Safety Group Looks at Safety Priorities

The Hurricane Science for Safety Leadership Forum, a gathering of elected officials, insurance industry representatives, leading environmentalists and experts in disaster mitigation, climate change, and meteorology, concluded Thursday with Forum organizers releasing five top priorities believed to be key to making families safer and America a more disaster resistant nation.

The Hurricane Science for Safety Leadership Forum was sponsored by the Federal Alliance for Safe Homes Inc. -- FLASH®, the Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS), WeatherPredict Consulting Inc. and the RenaissanceRe Risk Sciences Foundation.

"Over the past two days leading scientists, environmentalists, insurance industry analysts, academics and public policy experts have pinpointed concrete steps that should be taken to help America become more disaster resistant," said Craig Tillman, president of WeatherPredict Consulting. "Our charge as Forum organizers is to now help turn these powerful ideas into a call for action that leads to real change to better protect families and lead to a safer America."

The key priorities identified by Forum sponsors include funding more scientific research, eliminating incentives for risk-enhancing behavior, re-evaluating land use planning, making strategic environmental restoration a priority and educating and motivating stakeholders to take action to protect their homes and businesses against storm damage.

Featured attendees at the Forum included U.S. Representative Bennie Thompson, chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security; Florida Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink; and several members of the Florida legislature.

The two-day Forum featured a series of panel discussions that examined climate change, building codes and land use, hurricane modeling, and mitigation technologies. One panel addressed mainstreaming mitigation through communication and education and another examined subsidies in the property insurance market and the economic vulnerabilities associated with this practice.

The Forum concluded with an Ask the Policy Makers Panel moderated by Barney Bishop, president and CEO of the Associated Industries of Florida. The panel included Florida Representative Alan Hays, chair of the My Safe Florida Home Advisory Council; Florida Representative Bryan Nelson; and retired Representative Dennis Ross. Discussion topics included the successes and challenges of the State's mitigation programs to date; opportunities and risks confronting Florida and coastal states; prospects and possible alternatives for Florida's Hurricane Catastrophe Fund and Citizens Insurance Company; and other issues.

"As we look at our five top priorities, they begin with our call for increased public and private sector funding for applied research specifically focused on identifying effective methods of improving the resiliency and durability of both existing and new homes and workplaces," said Julie Rochman, president of IBHS. "We will also renew the push to eliminate incentives for dangerous behavior. We need policymakers to reduce and where possible eliminate incentives that increase risk, especially the risk to human life and safety, and also risks to property and to the environment. Instead, the focus should be on efforts promoting personal investments in a family's physical and financial security."

WeatherPredict's Tillman said the need to re-evaluate land use planning will require local, state, and national policymakers to make structural and community resiliency in the face of inevitable natural catastrophes a primary factor in land use planning and building code enactment and enforcement. "We call upon policymakers to recognize the vital role -- and strongly support the preservation and restoration of -- natural environmental features such as floodplains, wetlands, and coastal barriers that greatly mitigate on-shore built environment and structural damage from hurricanes," said Tillman.

Finally, FLASH's CEO and President Leslie Chapman-Henderson underscored the priority of educating and motivating families and communities to take actions that mitigate losses.

"Through our experience with StormStruck: A Tale of Two Homes(TM) 4-Dimensional, interactive experience at INNOVENTIONS at Epcot at Walt Disney World Resort where visitors experience a virtual storm and then learn how to build a wind-resistant home through fast-paced play, we learned that combining education with entertainment is the best way to convey the importance of mitigation. We will continue to heed this lesson as we move forward educating people on the steps they can take to become safer," Chapman-Henderson said.