Mitigation Best Practices

NEWCASTLE, OK – One year after Ronda and Billy Johnson installed a safe room in their garage, their home was totally destroyed by a tornado. It proved a wise investment because that safe room saved their lives that day.

A powerful EF-5 tornado ripped through Newcastle, Oklahoma, and nearby communities on May 20, 2013, destroying homes and taking 24 lives. Ronda and her daughters, Kylie and Raylee, plus two family dogs, took shelter from the storm in the safe room.

BAXTER COUNTY, AR – Entrepreneurs respond differently to the question, “What is success?” The term is not so easily define. Steve and Pam McCumber, an entrepreneurial couple in Norfork, Arkansas defines the term from personal experience. Success for them is the mitigation efforts that continue to keep them afloat amid the perils of bad weather which seem to hover over the State of Arkansas.

MOORE, OK - Charles Atchley and his wife escaped unscathed after the 1999 Oklahoma tornado, but decided not to take their good fortune lightly. They took advantage of a FEMA tornado initiative ($2,000 rebate) and installed a below-ground safe room. During the tornado of May 8, 2003, Atchley and his three grandchildren took shelter in his safe room.

COOKE COUNTY, TX – Faced with a long local history of dangerous tornadoes, Cooke County officials wanted to help residents protect themselves in the future. They achieved that goal by offering homeowners financial incentives to build tornado shelters and safe rooms.

MOORE, OK –When a massive tornado was sweeping across central Oklahoma on May 20, 2013, Mindy Chaddock and nine family members quickly took refuge in her mother’s underground safe room. The house above them was reduced to rubble, but the family survived.

As the day began, there was little indication that an EF-5 tornado would soon take the lives of 24 people, including 10 children, and destroy 1,200 homes.

GUAM - Dawn Santos is no stranger to disasters. After all, she lived in Guam for 15 years. "I lived through several typhoons," Santos recalls. But when Typhoon Omar swept through the island in 1992, the Santos family lost everything. Their house and possessions were destroyed.

HENRY, LA – Five years ago, when Craig Lee began planning the construction of his Vermilion Parish home, he learned he would be required to elevate his new house more than eight feet above grade in order to receive a building permit. He did not understand the parish’s requirement to elevate, because his brother’s house was on-grade, on the same piece of land, and in 25 years had never flooded.

“Why so high?” Craig wondered.

TANGIER ISLAND, VA - As a third generation Tangier Island resident, Sarah Crockett is no stranger to storm tides and the damages they create. “With [Hurricane] Floyd [1999] the water got into my house, ruined the carpets and floor and stuff. Tide came in once before, too, but that was long ago.” After floodwaters broke into her home, she decided it was time to put a stop to it.

ABERDEEN, OH - Ohio River flooding is nothing new to the Village of Aberdeen and its population of 545. Before March 1997, the historic riverfront community about 50 miles east of Cincinnati had lived through five major 20th century flood events (1913, '36, '37, '59 and '96).

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - The University of California San Francisco (UCSF) Medical Center Parnassus serves as the main campus for UCSF’s medical program, as well as a Children’s Hospital, several research labs, and the center for the Dental and Nursing programs. Located in San Francisco near Golden Gate Park, this fifteen story structure is in a neighborhood that has a high likelihood of significant damage after a major seismic event.