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Sea Briefs is a report on the results of the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium.

Editor: Laura Bowie

This newsletter is available in PDF format from:
masgc.org/seabriefs

MASGC supports applied, interdisciplinary marine science research, education and outreach efforts to foster the sustainable development and management of the Mississippi and Alabama coasts and nearshore ecosystems of the Gulf of Mexico

Mississippi-Alabama
Sea Grant Consortium
703 East Beach Drive
Ocean Springs, MS 39564
Phone: 228-818-8838
E-mail: seabriefs@masgc.org
MASGP 09-011-01

10 Questions for the Coastal Storms Program

In the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, an array of hazard resilience studies and management efforts was initiated throughout the Gulf of Mexico. Funded by the National Sea Grant College Programs and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Coastal Storms Program (CSP) is a nationwide effort to help coastal residents reduce the impacts storms have on families, communities, property and environment. The Gulf of Mexico CSP aims to provide communication and awareness of issues surrounding how planning decisions affect impacts from storms, specifically in pilot communities in coastal Alabama, Mississippi and eastern Louisiana. Priority topics in the Gulf region include ecological impacts on aquatic ecosystems, hazards mitigation and community best practices. Coordinated by Tracie Sempier, the Gulf of Mexico CSP recently designed an outreach program that introduces people to storm tools, information and partnerships. In addition, an inventory of land-use models and risk and vulnerability tools are being completed for local communities. Various local coastal program administrators, such as Brian Fortson of St. Tammany Parish, La., have volunteered to test some of the tools being developed by the CSP.

TRACIE SEMPIER is the outreach coordinator of the Gulf of Mexico Coastal Storms Program located at the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium office in Ocean Springs, Miss. Sempier holds a bachelor’s degree in marine science and biology from University of Alabama, a master’s degree in science and mathematics education from Oregon State University and a doctorate in curriculum and instruction from Mississippi State University. She has served as a marine science educator at a variety of renown locations including Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, Jekyll Island Environmental Education Center in Georgia and the Catalina Island Marine Institute in California. As the outreach program coordinator for the Gulf of Mexico CSP, she works closely with communities in Alabama, Mississippi and eastern Louisiana.

1. What is the purpose of the CSP?
The purpose of the CSP is to help coastal communities lessen the impacts of coastal storms. The CSP has a history of providing a broad array of tools and services in the project areas, which have included improved observing systems, forecast models, decision support tools, and outreach and extension activities to enhance community resilience.

2. What services does the CSP provide to communities?
In the Gulf of Mexico, CSP is implementing a small grants program for local and regional partners that will lead to the development of new tools, products and services and build capacity of several coastal storms partners. We are working to complete an inventory of land-use models, risk and vulnerability tools, stormrelated workshops and training, experts, funding opportunities and other resources. This inventory is being compiled in a Web clearinghouse to be utilized by planners, managers and local officials.

3. Describe ways that your program has had (or will have) an impact on local groups or individuals in the northern Gulf of Mexico?
We have begun to build partnerships with local communities, as well as state and federal agencies and nonprofit organizations, to address the needs of coastal communities. An advisory council has been established to assist in identifying and prioritizing needs, reviewing research projects and expanding partnerships. Communities will have access to information (e.g. resource directory, tools, fact sheets) from the Gulf of Mexico CSP Web site, as well as the StormSmart Coasts Network and people will have the opportunity to read or listen to coastal storms information provided through newsletters, newspaper articles or radio/television public service announcements. I hope to serve as a bridge between tools and resources and the people in the communities that need them.

4. What are some of the tools that the CSP is developing for use by local community resource managers?
The Coastal Resilience Index is a tool communities can use to examine how prepared they are for storms and storm recovery. It identifies weaknesses a community may want to address prior to the next hazard event and it guides discussion within a community. StormSmart Coasts Network is a Web resource dedicated to helping decision makers in coastal communities address the challenges of storms, flooding, sea level rise and climate change. This network of state and local sites gives coastal decision makers a definitive place to find and share the best resilience-related resources available and provides tools for collaboration.

5. How can people and/or communities get involved with the CSP?
Some communities have already gotten involved by agreeing to help us pilot test the Resilience Index. Communities can also become involved by creating their own community pages on the StormSmart Coasts Network. Any community that wishes to see how it can become involved can contact me at (228) 818-8829 or tracie.sempier@usm.edu. There will be training meetings held across the project area on tools and products developed through the CSP, and I am excited about working with communities in the development of these resources.

BRIAN FORTSON is an environmental specialist in the engineering department of St. Tammany Parish in Louisiana. St. Tammany Parish is one of a number of local governments assisting the development of a regional coastal storms program.

6. Describe your involvement as a participating community in testing the Coastal Community Resilience Index.
I was invited to participate in the pilot testing of the Coastal Community Resilience Index by Rod Emmer, formerly of Louisiana Sea Grant, who pitched the program to a group of local coastal program administrators. Having been very hard-hit by Hurricane Katrina, it made sense for St. Tammany Parish to offer our insight into the development of a tool to assist communities with the assessment and improvement of their preparedness. Our staff reviewed the document and compared its elements to our own experiences in response and recovery.

7. How did you benefit from the pilot process?
The initial document was well prepared and most of our suggestions amounted to minor alterations in the assessment tool. By assessing how realistically the index addressed the needs of a community, we benefited from the process because we were forced to look at our own response and recovery process from an objective perspective.

8. Have you become involved with any other Coastal Storms Program activities as a result of your initial participation with the index?
Our experience with the index led to other opportunities to improve our capacity to adapt and respond to the coastal storm threat. We have since submitted proposals to improve our storm surge modeling capabilities and offer a public Web-based interface allowing our constituency to access the latest surge threat i nformation, better preparing them to make decisions about their own safety and the risks facing their neighborhoods immediately prior to and during a storm.

9. How will your community's storm preparedness and/or response be different for the next event?
We have learned where debris accumulates and how to remove it. We know our areas of highest risk and can take steps to prepare citizens in those areas earlier. We have developed our in-house surge modeling capabilities (and continue to do so) sufficiently to make our own predictions on inundation and prepare in advance for things like flooded roads, compromised drainage laterals, etc. We also understand the federal response and recovery infrastructure much better than we did a few years ago. Learning how to work within the federal disaster response framework — who to contact, what forms to use, what requirements accompany a particular type of project, etc. — gives a community a head start.

10. How do you think other organizations/communities could benefit from the services of the Coastal Storms Program?
Coastal Storms Program encourages communities to look at their storm preparedness from a fresh perspective and do what they can to improve it. Facilitating the collection of real experiences and identifying less-than-obvious ways to improve a community’s storm resilience, is a vital exercise. Storm-vulnerable parishes, counties and municipalities can only benefit from participation in this program.