We will not take viewers to the bipartisan seminar webinar underway with the impact on Hurricane Evacuation and sheltering. The former fema administrator will begin in just a moment. Oversee, federal funding. Our goal is to harness their collective expertise to inform the instruction around disaster programs. Recent hurricane has been a lot of tension on how do you safely evacuate and shelterinplace during a hurricane and still maintain social distance to prevent further covid spread . These are challenges Emergency Managers are facing day in and day out, especially with Hurricane Season having nine named storms since june. I all indications, there will be more. We are joined by a number of these twoalk about distinct crises. First, we are going to be joined by a democrat from the Virgin Islands. She helped sphere the islands recovery from Hurricane Maria and irma in 2017. She served on the transportation infrastructure committee, where she pushes Critical Infrastructure in the Virgin Islands and other areas, as well as the economically depressed urban areas. Congressman, thank you for joining us. We are anxious to hear your comments and how the islands are handling the recovery from the hurricanes years ago at the covid crisis. I will turn it over to you now. Good morning. Thank you so much for having me. I want to thank the Bipartisan Policy Center for organizing this forum. I also want to thank the panelists for joining. This is an excellent opportunity for all of us to speak about the Current Issues in hurricane and Disaster Preparedness and responses while we are in the midst of a viral pandemic. Some natural disasters like in thenes often result displacement and evacuations of survivals. Today, we examine how preparations for responding to the disasters can continue while overlapping with the nations ongoing efforts to combat the coronavirus. Lead federal agency for coordinating preparations, prevention, mitigation and response and recovery from our disasters, including the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. In recent years, fema has struggled to manage the severity of multiple disasters due in part to Climate Change. In this unprecedented moment, as our country continues to respond to the virus and a recent surge in cases across numerous highimpact areas, we find ourselves in unchartered territory. Havethan 160,000 americans lost their lives. At the same time, we see Climate Change increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, setting the stage for possible loss of american lives as the result of natural disasters in the coming once. Just this year, this Hurricane Season, which began on june 1, noaa expects 13 to 19 named storms, including six to 10 hurricanes and three to six major hurricanes. Therefore, it is imperative that the American Public understand the steps being taken to prepare for and respond to natural disasters, including hurricanes. On top of the efforts to stop the spread of the coronavirus, the pandemic will further complicate femas challenges and responding to extreme weather events that are increasing in frequency and severity as a result of Climate Change. One example is the management of mac evacuation Mass Evacuation and sheltering. Territories known to be hardest hit by hurricanes also base the highest rates of covid19 cases. This years predicted higher than average Hurricane Season increases the chance of large evacuations of people, including north, to areas previously hardhit by the areas, bringing with it the potential of an increased spread in the areas. In addition, according to fema, state, local, tribal governments share responsibility for coordinating Emergency Shelter support after a disaster. For those who are lower income and forced to stay and seek Emergency Shelters as they do not have the means to evacuate overcrowded shelters from schools to convention centers, risks are becoming infection hotspots. It could lead to a symptomatic matic peopleympto staying in shelters and those with less access to health care with uncontrollable comorbidity may be put at higher risk of complications of covid19. This is a prime example of how Climate Change could act as a. Hreat multiplier Emergency Sheltering is typically authorized under the stafford act, following either an emergency or major disaster declaration, and commonly falls under public assistance category c, emergency protective measures. Fema will reimburse states, tribal, territorial and local governments, as well as eligible nonprofits for at least 75 of eligible costs while performing eligible work. Example, fema may reimburse congregate shelter costs, including facility leasing and utilities, food, furnishing, and other Services Like cleaning and medical care. Fema typically supports congregate sheltering facilities with large, open spaces, Like Community centers and schools. Hascovid19 pandemic complicated efforts to provide sheltering in typical congregate settings. Fema has acknowledged the need to ensure appropriate social distancing. Therefore, on june 17, fema issued an interim policy to authorize noncongregate sheltering, such as sheltering that of wards privacy, as an eligible emergency protective measure when needed in the events of stafford act declared incidents between june 1 and december 31, 2020. Fema also recommends sheltering with friends or family and other temporary housing solutions. For example, a Transitional Sheltering Assistance Program provides temporary hotel and Motel Accommodations for eligible disaster survivors transitioning from congregate or nonpublic shelters to temporary or permanent housing solutions. Ofaddition, it is a form direct federal assistance to homeowners to farther reinforce sheltering that covers damage, allowing disaster to remain in their home a permanent repairs could reduce this the need for Emergency Shelters if hurricanes or other hazards were to damage homes during the c. Ndemi but there remains significant concerns on the level of detailed guidance to stay, territorial and local governments regarding the handling of natural disasters in the coming once. In the coming months. Managing evacuations could be challenging and state and local officials already preoccupied with response efforts to the pandemic, and previous disasters, are now responsible for rethinking their planning and response for future disasters, including sheltering an evacuation and operations. Moreover, every state and territory cases a budget shortfall. Many will be more dependent on fema for supplies and other means during that time. Consideration to support Emergency Sheltering during the pandemic include, reducing or eliminating public assistance, nonfederal cost share, generally 25 given state shortfalls, reducing demand for Emergency Sheltering that is often limited, such as by stemming the care act moratorium on evictions and foreclosures, or temporarily extending housing for individuals who lacked it during the pandemic, and examining options to increase covid19 testing and shelters. Given the documents do not detail plans to provide or expedite testing shelters population, i hope we can discuss some of these considerations today. We need answers about what steps are being taken to protect the lives of survivors and response personnel. We need to better understand how plans can be adapted to account for simultaneous disaster. We need to know more about the capacity and whether medical supplies or other essentials will be available to communities. We need to help Emergency Managers so that they can prepare to fulfill their mission. We need to be prepared and able to address the worst case scenario. Thank you for the implication to speak with you all today and thanks so much and everyone, please be safe. Greatnk you for those remarks congresswoman. You laid out really well the challenges that the states and territories, who are at risk of hurricanes this season, face between balancing those needs of covid. Thank you for being here today. I appreciate the comments. Sure, thank you. Be safe. We are going to turn everybody over now to our colleague ryan president ofe Homeland Security and Emergency Management for iem. Previously, he was the director of urgency management for florida. Very familiar director for Emergency Management for florida. Very familiar, so he will take away the next panel. Thank you, and thank you for the introduction and thank you, representative plaskett for the overview. I am excited to be here today and to share our conversation with some of our nations premier Emergency Managers, folks who have an in the fight and will be able to talk to you all directly about the challenges that we are seeing as and individual states they represent. S far,e have done thu what remains to be done, and what are the implications, what can we learn . How do we find this . How do we staff this . So those are some of the outcomes we are looking for today. Excited to have our first panelist with us this morning. Brock long. Many of you have worked with him in the past or know him as a former fema administrator for the trump administration. He has served in other capacities on the Hurricane Liaison Team and the director of Emergency Management for alabama and currently the executive chairman of haggerty consulting. You have been in that industry a long time. We invite you all to submit questions throughout this and we will start, i will pose those to brock at the end of the conversation. There are multiple ways to pose questions, either through youtube, facebook, or you could et them using the cashtag btclive. What would brock long look like in five years if you really let himself go, the question all of you guys really want to know . Thank you for being with us. Very excited to have you. Based on whatff representative plaskett talked about. We are in the middle of august. We all know that the first couple of months of Hurricane Season are warm up. What do the next few months look like . What are our Biggest Challenges right know that we should be focused on . Brian, always good to see you. The last time i saw you face to face was Hurricane Irma, what i 4. Fer to as a forgotten cat it is good to see you again. They disaster of Mass Evacuation is something we have got to address in the future. We cannot continue to do evacuations the way we have the past decades. I joked that we have perfected this manmade disaster because we often ask people to evacuate hundreds of miles and the reason for that is because we have never put in proper building codes, theential shelter capacity does not expand with populations in vulnerable areas. There are no real programs to fund shelter capability to handle this mission. Emergency a lot of managers are faced with a tough decision. One, you have to prepare people. If you cannot save lives because of a hurricane, then covid does not matter in the secondary event. Covid is the 100 meter target. Once you get people to save locations, you will have to ask them to continue doing what they have been asked to do, which is stop the spread and putting in social distancing to ask. But what Emergency Managers are faced with is reduced shelter capacity because of the capability of being able to separate them. So there was going to be a higher shelter demand. Stock,e current shelter which has been reduced because of any or protecting people from covid. The other big problem is because of the Financial Impact on american households, typically or awe see is poverty rate lack of Financial Resiliency really drives the evacuation and shelter demand that we have seen in the past. For example, if you look at the Hurricane Evacuation, if you ask 100,000 people to evacuate, 5 to 8 typically look for shelters. I believe that number will grow and withf where we are covid, which is Something Else you will have to tack, but Going Forward, i believe we have got to as a nation to covid19, the disasters of 2017 and 2018 that i went through, and a catalyst for making real improvements. There is not a single bulletin that will change the way we do business, but over time we have to focus and streamline how we resiliency and reduce the need for evacuations. You mentioned the five day percent and that is what we saw during Hurricane Irma. Implored that, we issued the evacuation for 7 million floridians and 350,000 went to the shelters. This is a conversation i will have with the director which is, or do you do in a similar situation this year, where we have to handle all of those . Lets dive more deeply into individual preparedness. That has been an area of focus and importance for you over the years, helping families think about their own Financial Wellbeing and being prepared for those rainy days so that they can take care of themselves , and one of the things we have got to be able to do as a nation is to allow and empower these folks to have that safety net. What are some of the things we can do right now to help, and what can we do longerterm in terms of giving them the tools to get there . Starting with the longerterm , you know, femas Business Model is being broken because of a lack of Financial Resiliency and insurance. Part of the Strategic Plan is closing the gap of the lack of insurance. This is tough to talk about and not easy to digest, but it is a complex problem, but you have Climate Change in one hand, which is increasing the frequency and magnitude of the disasters, but on the social side, too Many Americans cannot put their hands on 5,000 cash, so our Traditional Campaign said get a kit for three days to five days, and that is an unrealistic asking most households. That the future, i think Congress Needs to look at the types of education and access to resiliency education in all communities across all walks of life, and it is not just income policy poverty, but asset poverty. That further impacts the lack of insurance, when they experience disasters on their households. Was we saw on 2017 and 2018 a dramatic increase in the number of people the client because of this problem. Fema will not be able to keep up. Fema cannot make people hold, so there has to be more of a whole Community Approach of how we address for future aspects of Disaster Recovery. What i think the immediate impacts are going to be his people are going to need or be more transportation dependent. They will not have the finances to buy multiple takes of gas and stay in a hotel. Stay in af gas and hotel. So you will see government at all novels being able to increase their support for transportation to independent communities and helping out on the individual assistant side. It may force fema to do more of a predisaster declaration and turning on individual assistance to help people evacuate, which should be somewhat unprecedented. You and ithe things share is a passion for mitigation. We are on the board of directors for the federal alliance of homes. One of the opportunities that usually presents themselves after a largescale disaster is to be able to reform our federal laws to improve the way we do Disaster Recovery and preparedness. We have seen it after hurricane 9 11 andatrina, and in a couple of years ago with the dra. There is a real likelihood we will see something after covid. If you could put in a couple of things into that legislation, what are the kinds of things you would like to see us improve resignation . Offirst of all, the passage the disaster reform act, i congratulate congress listening to the need of premedication funding but it isnt is and where it needs to be. I think we need to go back and look at the stafford act, which is put in place in 1979. It was an innovative act, but unfortunately, it doesnt recognize communities that putting real mitigation strategies that could reduce the destruction to property. The stafford act needs to be revised to be able to incentivize state and local communities with implementing residential and building codes, proper landuse planning because we have kind of invented this disaster of Mass Evacuation over the last years. We allow people to evacuate coastal areas. It is not like hurricanes are new. We have had the going back in history. The bottom line is we are going to have to fix this problem through proper codes to ultimately reduce the number of people asked evacuate and the distance to seek safe distance. If we keep doing the evaluation process the way we currently do as a nation, it is not sustainable. If you take coastal communities like miamidade, there evacuation