As Hurricane Florence is about to make landfall on the coast of the Carolinas, IBTS’s team of natural disaster response and recovery experts have prepared the following short list of our most important OnHAND recommendations to help your local government operate effectively immediately before and after a disaster. Pre-Hurricane Florence Communications 1. Share your disaster and emergency… Read more
High-performance infrastructure can not only mitigate the severity and cost of damages incurred from natural disasters, but it also attracts more diverse funding sources such as green bonds, catastrophe bonds, resilience bonds, and social impact bonds. This HUD fact sheet provides governments of all levels with a basic overview of innovative financing mechanisms available to… Read more
The Government of Puerto Rico is taking advantage of the opportunity to build back stronger and more resilient in the wake of Hurricane Maria’s devastating impact. Less than one year after Hurricane Maria made landfall in September 2017, the Government of Puerto Rico published this economic and disaster recovery plan to provide a framework for… Read more
A group of 10 International City/County Management Association (ICMA) and IBTS volunteers conducted service and governance assessments of Puerto Rico’s 78 municipalities after Hurricane Maria. The assessment results were performed as part of the Puerto Rico Municipal Assessment Project and were published in RAND Corporation’s report, “Transformation and Innovation in the Wake of Devastation: An Economic and… Read more
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) recently released its Disaster Recovery Toolkit for Housing Counselors, an online guide to help organizations focused on housing counseling “prepare for and engage with local partners that receive funding following disasters.” The toolkit includes two guides, “Preparing for a Disaster” and “Operating Post Disaster,” that provide… Read more
After a natural disaster hits, finding the disaster recovery experts and specialists to assist your community throughout the response and recovery process can be a time-consuming, challenging task – given the surge in demand, vendors may not honor pre-existing contracts, can be difficult to find, and may not be specialized in disaster recovery. A crucial… Read more
IBTS Economic Development and Disaster Recovery (EDDR) subject matter experts provided a webinar on innovative procurement options as part of the Florida Housing Coalition’s July 2018 Hurricane Member Update webinar. The IBTS portion of the webinar focused on using bid books in procurement, a practice frequently used by IBTS when administering CDBG-DR programs. Bid books… Read more
When Hurricane Katrina ravaged the U.S. Gulf Coast in 2005, it caused unfathomable damage. However, much of the wind damage throughout Louisiana could have been reduced if stronger building codes were in place. This case study summarizes the lessons learned following Hurricane Katrina and the steps taken by IBTS staff to develop and maintain new… Read more
In order to remain healthy, vibrant, safe and economically competitive, America’s counties must be able to anticipate and adapt to a myriad of changing physical, environmental, social and economic conditions. New and emerging technologies can be particularly critical for counties as they develop plans and programs to increase their resilience to unforeseen shocks. In a world increasingly driven by… Read more
What if you knew the weather…up to a year in advance? What would you do differently? Northampton County, Pennsylvania used weathertrends360’s year-ahead forecast to better plan their annual budgets. The forecast indicated the coming winter would be the 2nd warmest in decades, 10F warmer than the prior year with 75% less snowfall forecast. The forecast… Read more
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