A Note from the Imagine Water Works Team
In response to COVID-19, we launched a 2,400 member Mutual Aid Response Network in New Orleans and Houma, began preparing for the intersections of coronavirus + hurricane season, and created the Trans Clippers Project to support the physical and mental health of transgender people throughout the pandemic. Listen or read more about the clippers project and intersectional disaster response through NPR: Radio Boston.
With hurricane season just around the corner, we wanted to invite you to the Mutual Aid Response Network and let you know about a few additional storm resources:
- Business Survival Handbook: A business owner’s step-by-step guide to survival before and after a disaster. Includes worksheets.
- Queer/Trans Guide to Hurricane Season: A guide full of storm prep tips for everyone, but with additional information for LGBTQ people.
- Joy of Water: Inspired by cookbooks, this resident’s guide to becoming water wise is full of DIY tips to help you manage water near your home.
In The News
Coronavirus Complicates Flood Prep, but Government Officials, Community Organizations, and Individuals are Getting Ready
To address our unique needs this year, FEMA is releasing “COVID-19 Pandemic Operational Guidance for the 2020 Hurricane Season” with the aim of helping emergency managers and public health officials best prepare for disasters, while continuing to respond to and recover from coronavirus. It’s something our state officials are thinking about, too. In a conversation with WWNO, GOHSEP Deputy Director Casey Tingle said “keeping people safe by getting them out of the path of potential hurricanes will take precedence, but the agency is developing a plan for contingencies and tweaking existing evacuation protocols for social distancing and quarantining.”
While it can feel daunting to consider the ramifications of COVID-19 overlapping with hurricane season, government officials and community leaders alike are reminding residents that we have prepared before — and we can prepare again. While COVID-19 is new to us, both natural and manmade disasters are not. And as Kathleen Tierney reminds us, we have seventy years of social science research to lead the way.
Take Action
The Louisiana House Finance Committee has voted to repurpose $117 million in funding that was previously allocated to the State’s Coastal Trust Fund for thirteen levee and coastal restoration projects. This is the first time, since the creation of Louisiana’s coastal restoration and protection trust fund in 2006, that the Legislature has tried to cut coastal project funding. The bill is headed to the House floor for debate and vote, meaning NOW is the time to contact your representative to request this $117M remain dedicated to coastal restoration. Our friends at Restore The Mississippi River Delta have created an easy action form: Click here to contact your representative.
More Water & Climate Headlines
- New storm surge map, 60-hour forecast message
- NOAA Predicts 3 To 6 Major Atlantic Hurricanes In 2020
- To reduce flooding, New Orleans City Council mandates permeable materials for parking, sidewalks
- Louisiana Senate passes bill opponents say is a disguised attempt to stop coastal parish lawsuits against oil and gas
- Trump dismantles environmental protections under cover of coronavirus
- Water Cutoffs: 1.9 million Louisiana residents could be in danger
- Dam Failure Threatens a Dow Chemical Complex and Superfund Cleanup
- Not if, but when Louisiana wetlands will vanish: Houma Today
- Coastal Louisiana wetlands are in danger: The Washington Post
- Louisiana Breaks Ground on Isle de Jean Charles Resettlement Project
- 216 homes flood in St. Charles Parish after storm drops 12 inches of rain in 2 hours
- Local shrimpers have tough spring season
- Unsurprised By Outbreaks At Crawfish Facilities, Experts And Advocates Warn ‘It Will Happen Again’
- Robin Wall Kimmerer: ‘People can’t understand the world as a gift unless someone shows them how’
- A Forest Submerged 60,000 Years Ago Could Save Your Life One Day
Funding & Finance
- Apply by June 18: Roddenberry Fellowship | Launched in 2016, the Roddenberry Fellowship is a $1mil investment in the innovators, community leaders, and changemakers leading the efforts for a more just and equitable country. The Roddenberry Fellowship is a 12-month program that offers Fellows $50,000 to take an existing initiative (e.g. campaign, organization) to the next level and amplify its impact OR to launch a new initiative.
- Apply by June 30: EPA State Environmental Justice Cooperative Agreement Program has reopened and expanded its availability to include states, local governments, tribes and territories. Special consideration is being given to those applications aimed at addressing the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on urban, rural low income, and minority communities. EPA anticipates making five awards in amounts of up to $200,000 per award for a two-year project period.
- Coastal authority approves spending $1.08 billion for restoration, levees: The plan calls for spending $804 million on construction of coastal restoration and hurricane levees during fiscal year 2021, including $75.5 million of state money for the $760 million West Shore Lake Pontchartrain hurricane levee project.
- USDA Invests $8.5 Million in Rural Water and Wastewater Infrastructure Improvements in Louisiana: The investment will be used to modernize a water system in Henderson. Improvements include drilling a well, expanding water lines to 781 new households, and adding filters and a water softener system to replace obsolete infrastructure and meet safe drinking water standards.
- “Coronavirus Capitalism”: Naomi Klein’s Case for Transformative Change Amid Coronavirus Pandemic: Economist Milton Friedman once stated, “Only a crisis — actual or perceived — produces real change. When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around.” But whose ideas? And to what end?
Land, Water & Climate Events
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Free Workshop for Teachers – Mississippi River Virtual Institute | The virtual River Institute is a live, interactive three-day professional development opportunity that inspires, educates, and prepares 3rd – 8th grade teachers to engage students in STEM disciplines through experiential, inquiry-based investigations of local watersheds. Full scholarships are provided for teachers admitted to the program, as well as 18 CEUs, classroom resources, and the option to purchase two graduate-level credits at a reduced rate. | July 20-22, 8AM-4PM | Learn more and register here.
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National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Hosts Virtual Disaster Resilience Symposium | The symposium will feature a keynote presentation by Erik Rasmussen, Senior Research Scientist at CIMMS NSSL and the University of Oklahoma, on how we can enhance the resilience of US communities. The symposium will also feature presentations from 23 grant awardees funded by NIST on topics related to disaster and failure studies, earthquake engineering, wind engineering, community resilience, and wildland-urban interface fires. | July 28-29, 2020 | Registration is free and available here.
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CPRA Technical Modeling Workshop | The Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) will host a technical modeling workshop webinar to provide technical audiences with an in-depth overview of the predictive modeling process and underlying assumptions that will be used for the 2023 Coastal Master Plan. For further details on the technical modeling workshop and the planned topics of discussion, click here. | June 16, 2020 from 1:00 – 4:00 PM CST | Register
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WaterMark is a monthly briefing on water and climate programs and policies in Louisiana, brought to you by Imagine Water Works.