FEMA Highlights And Statistics For 1997

In 1997, the Federal Emergency Management Agency:

• Responded to 43 major disasters declared by President Clinton, involving 27 states and three western Pacific island territories.
  
  
• Provided housing assistance worth $319.4 million in FEMA funding to 127,064 disaster victims and another $100 million in grants to help meet transportation, medical and other serious disaster-related needs of 49,429 affected individuals and families.
  
  
• Chaired a federal interagency task force that executed the delivery of nearly $2 billion in critical U.S. government assistance for the long-term recovery of the three states impacted by the massive spring floods on the Upper Midwest's Red River Valley.
  
  
• Approved more than $107 million in funding for the purchase of nearly 3,000 flood-prone properties throughout the country, many of which were homes in Grand Forks, N. D., and East Grand Forks, Minn., that were heavily damaged by the Red River Valley floods.
  
  
• Distributed $16 million to states and communities for planning and implementing cost-effective measures to reduce future flood damage, including such eligible projects as the elevation of structures, property acquisitions, dry flood-proofing properties, and small structural projects.
  
  
• Determined nearly a third of the year's declared disasters resulted from three high-impact incidents. These included severe winter storms that lashed five states in the western part of the nation in January; flooding in the Ohio River Valley that impacted Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee and West Virginia in March; and the Red River Valley floods that swamped the Upper Midwest in early April.
  
  
• Found these three events accounted for $1.04 billion of the more than $1.38 billion in FEMA funds that have been obligated to date in responding to the year's declared disasters. Of the agency's overall funding outlay, $450.7 million was expended in recovery aid for disaster-stricken individuals and families, and $708.7 million in assistance to states and communities for clean-up operations, restoring damaged public facilities, and approved hazard mitigation projects.

Other 1997 notable FEMA facts:

• The year's single most costly disaster was the massive spring floods in the Upper Midwest that ravaged Minnesota and the Dakotas. To date, $466.7 million in FEMA relief assistance has been provided to these affected states, with North Dakota receiving $230.1 million of the overall amount. The outlay, which is expected to increase significantly as long-term rebuilding projects are completed, ranks as the most expensive for a Midwestern regional disaster since the mammoth 1993 floods that led to disaster declarations for nine states at a current FEMA cost of $1.14 billion.
  
  
• Danny, rated as a minimal Category One storm, was the only Atlantic hurricane to make landfall in 1997, resulting in a major disaster being declared for Alabama in July.
  
  
• The western Pacific proved to be the most active area for damaging tropical storms, which produced major disaster declarations for the Federated States of Micronesia (Typhoon Fern); the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (Super Typhoon Keith); and the Territory of Guam (Typhoon Paka).
  
  
• Minnesota and Washington State led the nation in the need for federal disaster aid, requiring four Presidential major disaster declarations each to recover from the effects of severe winter storms and damaging spring and summer floods.
  
  
• Multiple declarations also were issued for six other states, including three for South Dakota, and two each for Arkansas, Idaho, Illinois, North Dakota and Tennessee.
  
  
• Flooding as usual was the most common occurrence in 1997, figuring in 29 of the year's declared disasters. Severe winter storms were involved in eight declarations, hurricanes and typhoons in four, and tornadoes in three.

In 1997, FEMA also:

• Sponsored a major weather preparedness summit in Santa Monica, Calif., that pulled together government and business leaders from seven western states to take preventive actions before predicted El Nino storms could cause massive damage and dislocation.
  
  
• Developed a novel World Wide Web section for children, called FEMA for Kids, containing games, stories, quizzes, activities and information on how they can prepare for and react to natural disasters. The site also includes resources for teachers and parents.
  
  
• Initiated a Business Process Reengineering Program to develop measures for streamlining the delivery of assistance to state and local governments, expediting disaster closeouts, and reducing administrative disaster relief costs.
  
  
• Generated a 12.5 percent increase in the amount of flood insurance coverage nationwide through seasonal media advertisements, including placement in selected markets identified as potential areas for El Nino-related storms.
  
  
• Formed a National Task Force on Emergency Response comprised of 29 government agencies and national service organizations which provide expert information to cultural institutions and the public on protecting and salvaging valuable artifact collections.
  
  
• Conducted the first interactive seminar at which federal, state and local government decision-makers addressed major policy issues involving a catastrophic earthquake on the New Madrid fault.
  
  
• Entered into an unprecedented agreement with Russia's emergency management organization that established a bilateral work plan and working protocol for exchanging information and expertise on emergency preparedness and disaster response practices.
  
  
• Provided on- and off-campus training to more than 15,000 firefighters in 482 National Fire Academy courses and 17 intensive state training weekends.
  
  
• Started production of a state-of-the-art CD-ROM /virtual reality arson investigation training program in partnership with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, American Insurance Co., and National Fire Protection Assn.
  
  
• Put online a National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) with more than 600 annual profiles that contain casualty and property loss information for each of the states and metropolitan areas that report NFIRS data.