Hurricane Loss Mitigation Program
Section III: The Hurricane Loss Mitigation Program - The Future of Mitigation
Based on the recommendation of the advisory council, the Department has moved forward on a series of projects to implement the funds made available through the Hurricane Loss Mitigation Program for State Fiscal Year 2000-2001. The description of these activities is divided in three parts based on the division of the allocations outlined in the statute.
Mobile Homes -- Section 215.559, F.S., designates that in the first year of the Hurricane Loss Mitigation Program, State Fiscal Year 2000-2001, 40 percent of the $7 million mitigation allocation administered by the Department, or $2.8 million shall be used to mitigate future losses for mobile homes. The $2.8 million for mobile homes has been programmed to support tie-down projects in no less than one mobile home park in each of nine communities. These communities are: the Consolidated City of Jacksonville, Manatee, Marion, Martin, Okaloosa, Pasco, Pinellas, Polk and Volusia Counties. These projects will further the goal of the providing means to reduce losses among mobile homes.
The State University System -- Section 215.559, F.S., further designates that 10 percent of the $7 million Hurricane Loss Mitigation Program allocation administered by the Department, or $700,000, shall be directed to the Type I Center within the State University System dedicated to hurricane research - Florida International University. The statute also directs the Department to work with Florida International University in the development of the annual report to the Legislature on the use of funds allocated under the Hurricane Loss Mitigation Program.
The Florida International University is utilizing the $700,000 allocation to support five research initiatives associated with a range of mitigation issues. The five projects, outlined briefly below, include:
Department Programs -- Section 215.559, F.S., designates that the remaining $3,500,000 shall be directed to the programs developed by the Department with advice from the advisory council to help prevent or reduce losses, or to reduce the cost of rebuilding after a disaster. The Department has embarked upon a range of projects following up on a number of the successes that emerged in the previous fiscal years from the use of Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund resources. A complete description of the projects funded by the Department under the Hurricane Loss Mitigation Program, including a full accounting of contract amounts, is included in the table provided in Appendix B.1) Sheltering for Mobile Homes Parks - Research to analyzes and identify appropriate structures within mobile home parks to provide sheltering in place options.
2) Mobile Home Recycling Program - Research to investigate the creation of a secondary market to provide for the disposal and removal of existing mobile home units as Florida has one of the largest and oldest mobile home stocks in the nation.
3) Land Development and Zoning Issues - Research on land use, zoning, and the combination of economic and regulatory factors that present barriers to homeowners taking mitigation measures.
4) Homeowners Insurance and Issues of Incentives or Barriers to Mitigation - Research examining the role homeowners, government and insurers play in contributing to hurricane loss reduction and an analysis of the spread of benefits between these three entities.
5) Issues of Structural Performance and Retrofitting for Loss Reduction - Research to assess the effectiveness of various mitigation measures that could be incorporated into the retrofitting of existing housing units.
Lack of consistent and abundant public outreach remains a principal stumbling block to the widespread adoption of mitigation practices statewide. As such, the Department continues to support efforts to educate the public about hazard mitigation by promoting key conferences that deal with hazard mitigation issues. The Department has also placed special emphasis on educating mobile home owners on mitigation through a collaboration with the associations representing mobile home owners and the manufactured home industry. In addition, with the advent of a statewide building code, the Department has identified a critical need to ensure that local government officials are informed about the new code. To this end, the Department is directing resources to support activities that advance this aspect of public outreach. Finally, the Department continues with its strong support of the Florida Alliance for Safe Homes and its efforts to provide a consistent mitigation message throughout the state.
In addition to public education, the promotion of cutting edge applied research, beyond the scope of the statutorily mandated allocation to the Florida International University, remains a priority. The Department is funding the instrumentation of more homes as part of the coastal monitoring project, providing the research community with additional sites through which they may generate necessary data on the effects of hurricanes on structures, expanding upon the initiative so successfully launched under the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund. Other applied research is being funded through resources provided to the University of Florida to develop building code demonstration homes. These legislatively mandated homes will help to provide the building community with a fair and accurate assessment of the cost to comply with the new Florida Building Code.
Residential retrofitting is taking place in a set of low income homes in Key West, the Consolidated City of Jacksonville, as well as the counties of Volusia, Brevard, and Miami-Dade. The project concept promotes providing a small amount of funding to homes that are in the process of being rehabilitated for livability concerns with local resources. State funds are used only for hazard mitigation improvements, maximizing the leveraging potential of the Hurricane Loss Mitigation Program resources.
A portion of the State Fiscal Year 2000-2001 Hurricane Loss Mitigation Program allocation is being used to directly support local government efforts at disaster loss reduction. This will be achieved by updating the Resource Identification Strategy, a database that provides local governments with potential funding sources for mitigation projects. In addition, the Department is purchasing wind mitigation project evaluation software that will assist the Local Mitigation Strategy working groups in all 67 Florida Counties. Finally, the Department is working with the Florida Homebuilders Association to develop a disaster contractors network that will help train local associations of the major contractor organization in the State of Florida in disaster management issues.
Another important component of mitigating the effects of disaster is hardening the structures residents seek shelter in. In conjunction with the Hurricane Loss Mitigation Program, the Department is implementing an aggressive shelter retrofitting program to create more available spaces in the event disaster strikes. The $3 million in Hurricane Catastrophe funding provides communities with resources to complete projects that are not eligible under traditional federal grants programs, such as emergency power generators and or generator/pre-wire connections. These projects assist communities in meeting national guidelines for shelter space. For more information on the shelter retrofitting program, visit http://www.floridadisaster.org.