Best Practices Stories Chronicle Mitigation That Works 

Release Date: December 1, 2008
Release Number: 1791-293

» More Information on Texas Hurricane Ike

AUSTIN, Texas -- A Kemah, Texas, homeowner elevated his home. A Shoreacres, Texas, couple at first resisted and later embraced local building codes. City officials in Port Neches used grant funds for drainage projects.

The measures taken by all of these people resulted in less damage from Hurricane Ike than otherwise would have occurred. Their tales and similar ones are being collected and told as best practices stories by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Texas Governor's Division of Emergency Management (GDEM).  

Best practices are activities that support the mitigation mission, which includes creating safer communities by reducing loss of life and property, enabling individuals to recover more rapidly from floods and other disasters and lessening the financial impact of disasters on the nation.

Reasons for telling the stories about best practices include increasing public awareness of effective mitigation strategies and encouraging communities, individuals and businesses to take action.

Best practices stories are distributed through the media and posted at two places on the FEMA Web site. They are posted with best practices stories from other locations at www.fema.gov/plan/prevent/bestpractices/index.shtm. Also at that location, tools are provided for those who would like to submit information about their own best practices stories. Some of the best practices stories are also posted with other information about Hurricane Ike recovery in Texas at www.fema.gov/news/event.fema?id=10570.

Some stories also are presented as posters and hand-outs available in local permit offices and through similar channels.

FEMA coordinates the federal government's role in preparing for, preventing, mitigating the effects of, responding to, and recovering from all domestic disasters, whether natural or man-made, including acts of terror.

Last Modified: Tuesday, 02-Dec-2008 13:41:24