Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Sea Grant Up-Date

This morning I met with Kelly Spratt (Sea Grant's primary contact in St. Marys), Councilman Bob Nutter, and Planning Director, Roger Weaver. I am stunned and gratified by the magnitude of work that's been accomplished thus far.
 
The preliminary site visit by the FEMA representative indicates that we are well-positioned (with do-able work) to attain a favourable Community Rating System score and this should prove invaluable in terms of off-setting the rising flood insurance rates caused by the misguided Biggert-Waters Act.
 
At this time the Sea Grant team is working closely with city staff (primarily Mr. Weaver) to compile the information necessary for full examination and analysis of our status. This stage will be followed by interviews (which are being arranged) and the formulation of VCAPS (Vulnerability Consequences Adaptation Planning Scenarios). Throughout the two-year process there will be a series of public meetings - the first of which is tentatively scheduled for mid-March and will be well-publicized. 
 
I will endeavour to update everyone regularly via emails, the media, the EarthKeepers' website and our Facebook page. At this time there's little that concerned citizens can do other than attend the announced meetings and applaud Council for their clear-eyed decision to embrace this initiative. Sea Grant is deep in the realm of complex mapping and a level of science that, quite honestly, keeps me scrambling up the learning curve.
 
I am deeply pleased by our community's support for this project, and the fact that St. Marys now stands as one of the most proactive and progressive coastal cities on either seaboard. The work that we do here will serve as a blueprint for communities throughout America - and beyond.
 
Biggert-Waters may be "delayed" but, according to the Government Accountability Office, the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) is approximately $24 billion in debt to the Treasury. The premiums are too small to cover its costs, pay claims to flooded homeowners, and repay the Treasury.  Property-owners will, sooner or later, be forced to cover the costs. http://www.moneynews.com/Personal-Finance/spending-bill-flood-insurance/2014/01/15/id/547309
 
What strikes me in all of this is our acceptance that we can't (won't) strive to lower the river, and so we must try to raise the "land." We are, on a national and global basis, becoming reactive instead of proactive when it come to climate change and its cataclysmic impacts. As I have said before, I urge you all to contact your elected officials. Ask them about their stance on climate change...and then cast your votes accordingly.

Alex
 
 

Monday, January 6, 2014

2014!

Happiest New Year to all! 

2013 was an exciting year in St. Marys as we continued to increase our recycling rate, inform and energize our community, and address the many challenges posed by climate-change and sea level rise.

So a new year stretches ahead…

With the NOAA Sea Grant – a powerful tool in our tool-box – we begin the work of ensuring that our extraordinary coastal community will be prepared for climate-related events and to deal with the crushing flood insurance rates that may come about as a result of the ill-advised Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Act. http://www.fema.gov/flood-insurance-reform-act-2012http://www.fema.gov/flood-insurance-reform-act-2012

We can reduce otherwise-unaffordable insurance rates by scoring well on the Community Rating System (http://www.fema.gov/national-flood-insurance-program-community-rating-system) and I am pleased to say that our city administration is fully behind this effort.  
The work has begun: the Sea Grant teams are active in St. Marys, information is being compiled and recommendations amassed. The work that we do here will not only benefit the citizens of our town, but will serve as a blueprint for all coastal communities.  Congratulations, St. Marys.

Meanwhile, the EarthKeepers continue to promote conscientious environmental stewardship, hold Electronics-recycling events, stand guard over our river and lands, support the many “green” groups in our schools, provide information to the residents, and do what we can honor the fact that “We will be known forever by the tracks we leave.”

Alex