E.P.A. Provides Tool to Help Communities Become More Flood Resilient /Smart growth approaches can help communities prepare for and recover from disaster

WASHINGTON - The E.P.A. (EPA) released a new tool today to help communities prepare for, deal with and recover from floods. The Flood Resilience Checklist offers strategies that communities can consider, such as conserving land in flood-prone areas; directing new development to safer areas; and using green infrastructure approaches, such as installing rain gardens, to manage stormwater.

"Flooding from major storms has cost lives and caused billions of dollars in damage," said E.P.A. Administrator Gina McCarthy. "With climate change, storms are likely to become even more powerful in many regions of the country. Where and how communities build will have long-term impacts on their flood resilience, and on air and water quality and health and safety. This checklist will help flood-prone communities think through these issues and come up with the solutions that work best for them."

The checklist is part of a new report, Planning for Flood Recovery and Long-Term Resilience in Vermont: Smart Growth Approaches for Disaster-Resilient Communities. The report is a product of EPA's year-long Smart Growth Implementation Assistance plan in Vermont where E.P.A. worked with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and state agencies, including the Agency of Business and Community Development, to help communities recover from Tropical Storm Irene. Although the plan focused on Vermont, the policy options and checklist in the report can help any community seeking to become more flood resilient.

As part of the Smart Growth Implementation Assistance project, FEMA and E.P.A. also supported the development of Vermont State Agency Policy Options, a report that provides more detailed suggestions for how Vermont state agencies can coordinate their efforts to project for, respond to, and recover from floods.

E.P.A. will host a webinar on lessons learned from the Vermont plan on Wednesday, August 13. The webinar will feature speakers from FEMA, the state of Vermont, and the Mad River Valley Planning District.

View the tool and the report: http://www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/sgia_communities.htm#rec1

Learn about the Smart Growth Implementation Assistance Program: http://www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/sgia.htm

Learn about the webinar: http://www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/webinars/index.html

View images on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/usepagov/sets/72157645569318782/

Download Vermont State Agency Policy Options: http://accd.vermont.gov/sites/accd/files/Documents/strongcommunities/cpr/VT-StateAgencyPolicyOptionsFINAL_web.pdf

Find more resources on EPA's new Disaster Recovery and Resilience page: http://www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/disaster-recovery-resilience.htm

and on the State of Vermont's Project Today for Tomorrow's Flood page: http://accd.vermont.gov/strong_communities/opportunities/planning/resiliency and Vermont Strong website:
http://vtstrong.vermont.gov/

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