 Good afternoon everyone welcome to our briefing this afternoon. My name is Carol Werner I'm the executive director of the Environmental and Energy Study Institute Probably many of you have been to our briefings before but EESI is a non-profit organization that was started more than 30 years ago by a bipartisan congressional caucus the purpose of which was to really provide Educational forums for policymakers and to point the way Towards solutions that make sense and how we can bring people together to solve important energy and environmental problems and how we can work together in a way that is nonpartisan and It's truly problem-solving and that takes advantage of looking at the kinds of solutions and Issues that are being faced by people across sectors and at every level of government at local state and National and so in today's briefing we are going to be taking a look at exactly what that means in terms of thinking about coastal communities and Lessons in resilience that we are learning So much information that we need to continue to To gather and think about what that means as we seek to find ways that makes sense to deal with our communities those terribly important communities and and and their economies And we are also so proud today to be hosting this briefing in conjunction with the National Association of Regional Councils Also referred to as NARC and I would like to ask Leslie Wallach who is the executive director of NARC to please introduce the organization. Thank you so much Carol. Thank you to our panelists. Thank you for all to be here I'm Leslie walk with the National Association of Regional Councils We may have one of the very worst acronyms in DC NARC, but it means that nobody ever forgets us and many of our many of our members love to introduce us because our acronym is worse than There's but we do represent regional councils. They're about 530 of them across the country you may know them for the transportation planning they do as part of metropolitan planning organizations But they all have a broad range of issues. They are voluntary all run by local elected officials in the community who recognize that coming together to solve issues is Much more effective and that a region only grows by bringing along all parts of the region We're so thrilled to have our neighbor and Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments here to talk about some of the range of programs that our members work on They I've only been with NARC about three years I'm just we're always stunned to see the kind of issues that can really be solved by bringing a community together We do social services. We do economic development. We do planning, but mostly it's about bringing different communities together in a region to solve and look at and provide a forum for how to bring a community forward so with that we're NARC not dot NARC dot org and We look forward to the panel and hearing from all of you. Thanks so much. Thanks for being here Thanks, Leslie So our panel this afternoon again is looking at coastal resilience and These what you're going to be hearing about are some of the challenges and some of the ways that These leaders are approaching things and so they're important lessons that we all can learn from that Both in terms of the challenges as well as the kinds of resources that are needed how we Could perhaps should perhaps be thinking about things and what this means for also people in other coastal communities because so much of our country as population is Located along coastlines and therefore there is very valuable real estate. There are Extremely important Rivers ports airports that are Extremely valuable and also critical in terms of making the infrastructure The economies of all of these communities really work at the same time We have seen over the last number of years the horrific disasters in terms of the increased severity and Number of extreme weather events that these communities are all having to deal with and it is a Struggle and it's how can we best build in greater resilience so as to minimize What the the damage is the hardship the economic and human costs are So to start off our discussion today We will first hear from Nicole hefty who is the deputy resilience officer for Miami-Dade County In this capacity She is working directly with the the chief resilience officer in partnership with the Rockefeller's 100 resilient cities as well as the local partners in terms of the city of Miami and the city of Miami Beach to develop a Resilient strategy for the whole greater Miami and the beaches Nicole also coordinates the county's sustainability plan, which is called green print and she is also Leading the county's climate change and sea level rise efforts and In that particular capacity She has been serving as a steering committee member for the southeast Florida regional climate change compact Which I believe involves four counties Which is itself an enormous accomplishment and I think another Terrific example of people coming together Knowing that it's not just about me. It's about all of us and how do we work together to solve? The the problems that we're now seeing Nicole Thank you so much for having me today. I really appreciate the opportunity to Introduce everyone to our challenges and some of the things that we're doing to tackle those challenges in southeast Florida Both at the local and the regional level So we're no stranger to climate change impacts. We are experiencing fluctuations in precipitation patterns and temperature extremes and those can have some significant impacts on our economy and for example with regards to agriculture and Tourism and of course, we are no stranger to extreme events Obviously this year was a pretty or I should say last year was a pretty challenging year We feel like we really dodged the bullet because if we had been hit directly by a category five hurricane The damages would have been extremely more severe and we experienced a category five with Hurricane Andrew And that resulted in a lot of changes that I'm going to mention today Sea level rise, of course Coastal low-lying community has us in the headlines. It seems almost every day And I think if you leave all of those you probably think we're already underwater But we're not and we're fighting that and we're doing what we can proactively, but it does certainly impact our In our tides we are having more frequent with what they call King tides on a sunny day some of the streets are flooded as a result of that and Certainly does impact coastal erosion, which we spend a lot of money on beach renourishment So that's a pretty significant economic impact and in addition to that Sea level rise does Amplify the vulnerability of our coastal infrastructure to storm surge So we are very fortunate because we have tremendous academic resources in southeast Florida And we benefit from that in the sense that we have a lot of scientists really looking Gathering data and really studying some of these issues And so one of the things that's very helpful is being able to predict and Anticipate these King tides because if we have the opportunity to warn the community ahead of time They can move their cars because salty water is not good for Vehicles for example Certainly does impact mobility and and also the economy and some of the business that gets done so This is this graph actually shows a prediction from Professor Brian McNulty at the University of Miami's Rosenstein school for marine and atmospheric science and he's utilizing 37 different parameters to Predict the amplitude and the frequency of expected King tides this coming fall So it's a complex science. There's a lot of factors that affect it And so it's really helpful to have these resources at our disposal One of the biggest challenges South Florida the water in South Florida is very highly managed for agriculture for water supply and For flood control and one of the challenges is that our substrate is porous rock The benefit is that the water flows very freely underneath our sole source of drinking water is a shallow Biscayne aquifer It's replenished readily by the Everglades, so the Everglades are very important in that respect and for many other reasons But the challenge is that it's also hydrologically connected to the ocean So as sea level rises we can anticipate that the water level of the groundwater table is going to increase Threat of salt water intrusion into our our drinking water wells And in addition today some of the impacts are that our storm water Infrastructure is designed to work by gravity to let the water flow out down and out and So though that infrastructure particularly along the coast provides a direct conduit for those high tides to come right into The streets and on to the land so that is a challenge that we're addressing In addition to that the South Florida water management district has what's called salinity structures. These are again Gates that just go up and down to let the water out Those are raised in advance of heavy precipitation events and for various other reasons to manage the water But sometimes because of the high tide and as a result of sea level rise You can't always operate those gates in that manner. You have to leave them closed So there have been some instances where we've had to retrofit these gates at great expense to include pumps for those opportunities or those times when we cannot operate the standard gates So what's I have discovered Over time is the fact that even though we haven't created Particular programs in the name of adaptation or the name of resilience. We've actually been adapting and building resilience for quite a long time Starting from the 1970s when we started renourishing the beaches We started protecting environmentally sensitive land, which we understand now has a lot of additional benefits than just habitat As I mentioned hurricane Andrew was a big game changer in South Florida It resulted in much stronger building codes it resulted in a local mitigation strategy that allows us to to put projects on a list and prioritize for funding when it does become available and We have a very robust stormwater Modeling and master plan program that allows us amongst other things to have a CRS or a community rating System rating of five, which is very good So these programs have been in existence for some time and again really allowing us to build that adaptation Foundation and building the resilience long before we even started really focusing on specifically climate change adaptation So in 2009, we were fortunate to have elected officials in the South Florida region The four counties Monroe Miami-Dade Broward and Palm Beach start talking about the fact that we had our climate change programs We were already talking about these things We were trying to do things about it and we were doing things individually using different numbers, which really didn't make sense So thanks to their leadership in 2010 And let me just back up for a minute. It made sense they realized it made sense to collaborate on a regional basis because we had tremendous natural resources to protect that were also important to our economy and We had very similar economic drivers We had a very narrow but connected regional transportation system and more importantly the four counties represent 30% of the state's population So they realized that if we collaborated we would have a much stronger voice at the state and federal level So in 2010 all four counties adopted the Southeast Florida regional climate change compact and became formal members And this was an agreement for us to work collaboratively as a region on climate mitigation and adaptation policies and action and we agreed that we were going to develop Resources and inform our community so we can plan and we also agreed we would develop a regional climate action plan as well as come Together on an annual basis to keep the community and our elected officials Informed of the work that we were doing the progress we had made and where we were headed in the future So the steering committee is comprised of two representatives from each of the four counties one representative from a Municipality from each of the counties we also have a representative from the nature Conservancy the South Florida water management district and the South Florida regional planning council and the steering committee meets on a regular basis We have different work groups that work on different projects and develop different Documents and and resources and tools so it's been a very robust process that we've been able to Engage in and one of the most important and first things that we did is we brought together Those academic resources that I mentioned and we also were able to get representation from the Army Corps of Engineers the US Geological Survey and also the South Florida water management district and We developed a unified sea level rise projection for Southeast Florida that we all agreed we would use for our planning purposes and Again, this was important because we were all prior to this using different numbers different projections different time frames and so this really allowed us to have a standard measurement and The first one was produced in 2011 the group agreed They would come together and look at new data and modeling and of course specific Information about our region such as the Gulf Stream that really infects affects local sea level rise and update the projection as needed and so this is the most recent update I was released in 2015 and as you can see we really relied a lot on the work done by the Army Corps of Engineers and NOAA and This allows there's a guidance document that goes with it allows planners for Infrastructure or land use to decide based on the criticality and the lifespan of the project or the infrastructure To decide which curve they feel is most appropriate for them for them to plan for for that particular project So it really is a valuable tool that we're using in Southeast Florida In addition This is actually our second update or our first update of our regional climate action plan We spent all of last year updating it and we released it in December of 2017 and as opposed to the first document which was or the first plan that was a Actually a printed document. This one is really a much more Interactive online tool it has links to case studies Resources tools we're going to continue to update that as things become available and you can actually go in and you can pick a different discipline or a topic and it'll actually populate An example of a climate action plan that you might want to build upon for your own use So at the local Miami-Dade level we are looking we kind of are tackling this at all levels With different buckets. We're looking at strengthening our infrastructure Building resilient communities working more with our communities that are being impacted on a regular basis What do we need to do for? Economic resilience particularly with regards to insurance because we understand that that is going to be a very important driving factor As we go forward and then looking at making sure we are continuing to protect and enhance our natural resources So one of the things that we are almost finished with right now we spent the last year meeting with our critical infrastructure departments and asking them to look at the infrastructure that they have and Bait use a matrix to look at the Criticality of that infrastructure and then we looked at the vulnerability to sea level rise and storm surge and from that process We looked at 767 different projects and for pieces of infrastructure and through that progress our process we came up with 154 priority Projects that we now need to look at and look at how we can reduce that vulnerability and changes that we need to make So that is kind of the next step from this process in particular for County infrastructure We are trying to look at creative ways We know that there's no silver bullet And we are going to have to really be Thoughtful in how we do this because we don't want to have any unintended consequences So some of the things that we're doing are changing our design standards Our water and sewer department has been very proactive in that respect because they are They've already started a 13 billion dollar infrastructure improvement program So they're looking at sea level rise storm surge and changing the design standards to make that infrastructure Less vulnerable to sea level rise and storm surge in the future the bottom picture is Actually an interesting example of working together the county and the city the city of Miami Beach was already raising Roads in a particular area which connected to a county road and although the improvements On the county behalf weren't scheduled for quite a bit later We were able to work out an agreement where they they changed the the schedule to make this project more resource Effective and of less costly so by doing it together in a timely fashion. We were able to to save money in the future And then looking at the infrastructure with regards to pumps Do we need to to install pumps in certain areas that we hadn't in the past and making sure that when we do that we're thinking about elevation and keeping those pumps out of the storm surge or our flooding in In addition, I wanted to mention one of the work groups from the compact the shoreline resilience Working group because this again was a collaborative effort that engaged staff from all four counties really looking at the the the natural systems and natural Attributes that we had along the coastline understanding that not only do we the from the benefits that they provide for habitat for storm surge attenuation And for the economy that we needed to really try to Enhance and protect them so this was an opportunity to identify all those projects So we can then take the next step to determine how we need what we need to do as a community as a region to better enhance them and The last thing I want to mention is the 100 resilient cities process And the program that we are a member of because we're a little different prior to The county joining it was a city Program it was the members are cities But in the third round we were given the indication that the county would be eligible and because of the great Collaboration and relationships that we built through the compact process We agreed to partner with the city of Miami in the city of Miami Beach on our application We call ourselves Greater Miami in the beaches and sometimes we like to refer to ourselves as the three-headed monster But very challenging for us all to be working together on this But it is working because of the relationship that we had built prior to this process All three entities have a chief resilience officer and a deputy So the six of us form our primary team with assistance from resilient cities and also from our strategy partner which is a calm to develop a resilient strategy and When we had when we applied we had to identify our top shocks and stresses and when we went into this process We really were kind of going in thinking of the the climate and the sea level rise and flooding impacts But as we started really talking about it. We realized that we had to focus as well on the lack of affordable housing in our community an insufficient transportation system and Pronounced poverty and all of these things as you all well know are very connected and exacerbated by Some of the climate and sea level rise impacts that I've mentioned today So we've spent over a year in stakeholder process The resilient cities program has a very prescribed process that they have you go through in order to develop your resilient strategies so we're about halfway through and We are now Focusing on what's called our discovery areas and these are centered around the the shocks and stresses I mentioned in addition to health issues in the community That was something that bubbled up through our stakeholder process that we also needed to focus on and we have work groups Associated with us and in the end of this six to eight month process We will come out with a list of policies and projects that we anticipate putting in our resilient strategy And I want to end with this graphic because I think it really shows you visually the benefits that we have Experienced as a result of our collaboration at the regional level I've worked on climate change issues for over 20 years And I can tell you firsthand that the Momentum that we have been able to build and the work that we've been able to accomplish Because of our collaboration at the regional level has been tremendous and a lot of it is not only because we've pooled our Resources and we have a stronger voice, but because we have drawn in interest because we're working together as a region and these organizations and I apologize because I'm sure there are some that aren't on there that I should represent because You know every month someone else is helping us in one way or another But if we hadn't come together as a region We would not have benefited from the resources and the funding and the expertise that these Agencies and organizations have provided to the work that we're doing in Southeast Florida So I think that is you know collaboration is really the primary Learning that we've done and and what I've experienced personally. Thank you It is I must say it is just very impressive what all you And your colleagues are are doing and I think that I mean It's it almost feels kind of overwhelming in terms of thinking about all the stakeholders all of the people that are being brought together in all of the issues and how It's it's got to be Amazing for everyone to always see that they're in no matter what sector it is It is connected and therefore it does need to be addressed In in the whole picture and as I also Just heard the other day, too you are also dealing with a substantially growing population and That you do have some land resource constraints and you are also as you mentioned in terms of the the Everglades that That you are dealing with a with a lot to deal with the population growth and all of these issues that you are talking about So I think we have a lot to learn from Miami-Dade and so Because we're dealing with with these different areas Of our country and that have very very substantial populations when it turned next to Steve Waltz Who is from here? In in the district where he is the director of environmental programs for the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments our own local cog right and but what's But this area is also really quite incredible because This population keeps growing and growing also and that we're dealing with Several million in terms of these communities and there are a lot of communities that are all part of the Washington Metropolitan Council of Governments Which means a lot more stakeholders that have to be brought together and to deal with and So it's not easy to think about all of these different interests And so Steve has is responsible at the cog for water air quality waste management energy and climate planning Not to shabby a portfolio, right? And he has more than 38 years experience working on energy sustainability and environmental protection issues and He came to wash cog after having served Again at the at the regional level as a director of as the director of the regional energy Planning with the northern Virginia regional commission and then he'd also been the director of the Virginia Department of Mines Reynolds and energy and had been a senior energy policy advisor to then governor King So Steve welcome Thank you very much. It's amazing to hear what another area in region is doing and see a lot of the similarities So we maybe have a 22 headed monster that we're trying to deal with here With and when I think of what people in Pennsylvania and elsewhere have to deal with in the number of jurisdictions We're really fortunate to only have 22 Where they may have 222 and some of theirs So looking at the audience, I know don't know that all of you will get this But I thought I'd shamelessly steal from the talking heads and start out to say and you may ask yourself Well, what am I what? How did I get here being from Metropolitan Washington in a in a program that is looking at coastal areas? We really need to think about that coastal areas really are much more than just along the ocean and the coastline We here on the Potomac River were at the head of the title Potomac River and the Anacostia River And actually as we have been modeling some of the storms and looking at some of the types of effects that could happen in here If a storm were to come up the Chesapeake Bay and up the Potomac River It would be funneling all of that water into the more narrow and narrow place, which means the water goes up more And so we really do have a lot of risk here And we consider ourselves a coastal area for for these purposes We do have population growth as you said over the next 20 years about 1.2 1.3 million people adding to about the 5.3 million people who are here today and Really we're almost merging with the Baltimore, Washington area in many many ways if they do the some of the very very high-speed Transportation work if we're 15 minutes by train to Baltimore. It would really become one large metropolitan area Which would be the third or fourth largest in the country And so you don't think of Washington in those DC in those in those terms But it is also due to our geography. We not only have the tidal and the storm surge flooding But we it's exacerbated with the river basin flooding coming down from storms to come down the Potomac and the Interior drainage-based flooding and we've had Healthy examples or maybe dangerous examples of all three our flood of record here was and we think about how it's growing But we also really have to look back to learn our flood of record here came in October 1942 when there was a very very heavy rain up in the Potomac Basin so that was river rain flooding and down around the southwest waterfront here in the district there was 11 feet of floods into the southwest waterfront in 1942 But we also did get the storm surge flooding Hurricane Isabel in 2003 there were 10 feet of flooding in the southwest waterfront and so we can we can get lots of water from multiple directions and then in 2006 the National Archives basement was flooded out and they were having to hustle to get a many of the national Treasures that at treasures that at the time were stored down in the basement and are no longer stored in the basement That was flooded along with many of the other museums and other buildings along the mall We've had in as late in 2012 the Blooming Down neighborhood up in Northwest Washington was flooded out So that you know people walking ways deep and deeper and then our national monuments If you're walking around the World War two monument the hundred-year floodplain is about here in the World War two Mine if you go down to the Martin Luther King More the hundred year floodplain is about here now those were designed So all the critical components of the electricity and everything is located up above the hundred-year floodplain So when they designed those they took that into account, but it when we look and think about the flood risk here It's really quite great So with this region facing all of these issues much like Miami we've been doing things for quite a long while I didn't go back into the 70s But as I was looking at yours, I was thinking to you that was a lot of things really were done From flood control projects on the the run the stream that feeds into the Potomac near where I live that we're actually now redoing Because we're not just building concrete walls for for flood But it goes back one ways, but we've recognized the types of things that we have to do And projecting risks to the people and the places in our region. We will have many many more heat emergency days the counterparts to Miami that look for the district here have done some studies and I think the baseline for days over 95 in Washington, DC that they looked at Which we call kind of critical heat days or heat emergency days was in the dozen or so and by 2080 in the low Scenario it would be in the 75 or 80 days over 95 degrees and in the high scenario It would be more than that And so as we look at you know I was somewhat joking that we'll have Charleston, South Carolina weather here at some point here We will also though and you don't think about this here have more frequent drought conditions You may not have realized that as of a week ago. We were in severe drought here in the District of Columbia Now the NOAA just lowered us to moderate drought in most of the district and outside of it Rain shortages areas, but you don't really think about that while we think about the risks 70% of the drinking water for the 5.3 million people in this region comes out of the Potomac River So that's one source for all those all those folks We get to daily monitoring of the river flows in the summer as the flows get down So that we know that if we would have to put Restrictions in place We have planning for that so really this more frequent drought conditions is something we'll face here We're looking at higher winds the wind maps that you use for construction purposes You know looking at how those needs to change over time We're looking at worse air quality It used to be in this region that if it got over 90 degrees out at Dulles International Airport We had an unhealthy air day here Probably a code red air day where it was unhealthy for everybody not just those with asthma and other things We have been reducing the air pollution in this region So now we've broken that linkage between the 90-degree trigger But still as we go from you know 12 days over 95 to 70 days over 95 It's going to have a lot of pressure on air quality in the region here Which then has the follow-through effect on public health. We're looking at our infrastructure of vulnerability as much as you were talking about Transportation energy water and communications and we're looking at all of the connections between them if we get a storm and we lose Electricity if we lose all of our water pumping, then we don't have water Which means our sewers don't flush and we don't have sewers Which means we have all of these other types of problems that we have to deal with Ranging from what do you do with people in nursing homes and hospitals and all of those many many? Types of cascading impacts that come from this type of work So we're really taking a look at what are those cascading impacts as part of the broader resiliency Issue we're talking about coastal cities, but I think as was pointed out It's much more than just flooding is what we have to look at We're looking at the community vulnerabilities to themselves You know the the fabric of the communities and how people can take care of each other and how that will be Affected and where people will be able to go and shelter if they need to Whether it be for heat or for flooding or or for other things and then the natural resource damages that can be Great in this area here this particular area. We're really we're not north and we're not south We're in this zone between things and so the range of natural resources that we have in the metropolitan area Through really to the coastline is enormous if you go out into the ocean on the coast they'll be kind of alpine types of of Critters down in the water as well as tropical critters down in the water there because of the way the The Gulf Stream flows and where everything is so we have a really high vulnerability to our natural systems And so again, we've recognized this risk. That's one thing, but acting is really quite another We go back quite a bit of time doing a lot of work on natural resource protection But we really in 2007 and 2008 in this region Tried to look at it more than just in a city-by-city basis and put together a regional national capital region climate change report And in there recognized that we need to be being preparing for the impacts of climate change that we've talked about here And so that was really kind of one of the first documents that we've put down and say This is something that we need to do and we also set our goals for mitigation and reducing greenhouse gas emissions That we are measuring across the region to see if we're going to be able to meet these aggressive goals that are based upon the IPCC Standards, it's going to be really really tough to meet those goals, but we're working on it In 2009 on the Maryland side Montgomery County Issued their climate protection plan In 2011 we were looking at smart growth and how we can use smart growth strategies to address climate resiliency As well as transportation and many other things we kind of looked at climate impact symposiums and Because this is Washington DC and we have such a high Concentration of federal activities here when in 2013 When executive order 13653 was issued about preparing the US for the impacts of climate change That directed all of the federal agencies to develop climate adaptation plans Well, they had a lot a lot of people at the agencies kind of scratching the head saying I don't really know how to do that So we brought together excerpts from NASA from NOAA from other federal agencies from the academic community And with the people in the agencies who will be working on these climate plans and with many of the local government folks Who are working on these climate plans to provide some training and orientation and resources and NASA at the time did some projections of Temperature rises sea level rises and others for this region as part of that process Since then it has been updated by the district for example in its work, but that was the start of that work We brought help from EPA in and again looked at smart growth strategies we then Sandy came up the east coast and Changed a fair amount of thinking really up and down the east coast We were fortunate that it stayed a little bit off to the east here So we didn't have the type of effects that we could have had that New York and others saw But out of that the Corps of Engineers did the North Atlantic coast comprehensive study that identified nine areas that they need to Really focus in more directly on to look at flood risk mitigation and what can be done I noticed the Corps was a key partner with the work that you're doing And so that was done DC was one of those nine areas In parallel to this the district put out his climate ready DC plan Which is a very comprehensive plan that is then now being integrated into a lot of the other work of the other departments across the district But it talks about all of the risks that they're facing and then how what are the types of actions? They need to put a place across the district I noticed one of your partners was the Institute for sustainable communities And I think I was with some Miami folks last year out in Denver at a training session So we're bringing in these other types of NGOs to work with us here similar to I think the many people that you showed on your slides there DC was fortunate in the fourth round to be selected as in the final round of the hundred resilient cities So they now have their chief resiliency officer and deputy chief resiliency officer Here who is working on that we're also putting things in place on the ground be at the 500 year flood wall around the primary wastewater treatment plant for this region about 60% of all of the sewer and wastewater in the metropolitan Washington region all get treated at this one plant down on the Potomac down in the south Eastern corner of the district and as they're doing renovations and rebuilding around the plant They're building kind of they're not done yet But they're slowly building a 500 year flood wall around that whole plant as part of their work And they've realized that this is a very long-term investment billions of dollars of investment that they have there It's got to keep working and so moving up to that level as it was justified There's levies that have been that are being built down in the Huntington area of Fairfax County Just on the other side of Alexandria as we're looking at flooding There's work in the Anacostia as part of the whole Anacostia restoration process So there's a lot of on-the-ground work that is being done around all of these planning I did mention the the North Atlantic coast comprehensive study out of that We were one of these nine areas So now we are working with the Corps of Engineers on a multi-year multi-million dollar Coastal flood risk assessment will be doing things like modeling the storms that can come up through this region We're modeling about a hundred or so actual storms and about a thousand synthetic storms And so we'll be able to then look at what pieces of critical infrastructure would be flooded under what types of storms So for planning purposes that'll give us a lot of information about that But also for emergency response purposes if we see a storm coming up We'll be able to look at what was the modeled storm that most likely fits that and have some sense of where we need to Pre-position resources where we need to evacuate people you were talking about doing the messaging and things and so out of this study We see these types of things happening And it's critical that we have the Corps doing this here We're a place that we have two states and the district So I talked about 22 a 22 headed monster with our localities But we're really a three headed monster maybe with the district and the two states And maybe four headed monster if you include the federal government in that too We're also again continuing to develop these other tools just in February This month the National Capital Planning Commission put out its flood risk management planning resources for Washington DC And so they're bringing a lot of the tools into the hands of the planners And so as we're looking at how do we size things properly to look into the future the tools are there and then we're take the Northern Virginia region his just is is Finalizing a critical infrastructure roadmap for the northern Virginia section of our area And then we're going to take that and kind of expand it out to the full region as they finish with theirs So there's a lot of this planning that goes on But we need these groups that can knit it together because the storms don't just stop at the district boundary or at Fairfax County's boundary or something like that We do have this critical infrastructure that we all rely on and so lessons that we've learned from this include Scope for success is a kind of a term that we use so we look at What are the sectors that we want to focus in on and focus in on them and work hard on those sectors? Don't get so broad that you're you can't do anything look at what impacts do we want to try and address? What are the geographic areas? We got to consider the context. What are the drivers? What are the current issues that we can look at like a hurricane Sandy to be able to raise the awareness of this? We have to define our risk tolerance We don't have all the money in the world for for everything And so we need to think about well What risk is it that we can't face and that's something that again at a regional level? We really need to look at because if we're looking at planning for one risk in Loudoun County and one risk in Montgomery County with just the Potomac River between them We're going to have some disconnects that we really cannot have in order to be effective with our work Define the scenarios gather a lot of feedback Think regionally multi stakeholder and then mainstream all of these strategies that we come up with and think that is critical That it gets folded into the comprehensive plans that the cities and counties have and other work like that and then we have to communicate the plan Both to the public to be able to grow support for the investments that we'll have to make in these as well as so that they'll know What they need to do so again a lot going on at the local levels We're trying to knit it together regionally in a very similar way And I think that that's a model that we'll have to follow because as I said the storms don't stop at the jurisdiction of Lines, so I hope that gives some background and glad to be taking questions later And the third person on our panel it comes from Charleston, South Carolina and Mark Wilbert took on just last year the role of chief resilience officer for the city of Charleston But it was I would say a rather natural evolution to that role since he had been the city's Emergency manager for four years so that pretty well equipped him and of course he Also brought a wealth of experience having served on active duty in the US Coast Guard for more than 30 years retiring at the rank of captain and And of course the Coast Guard I think is such an amazing Organization such an amazing agency in terms of thinking about the breadth of The its activities its responsibilities All of the things to which it must respond And so he had been involved in the planning and management of many large-scale operations including The Coast Guard's response to the deepwater horizon oil spill So that forces one to have to think about again all sorts of players that have to be brought together Dealing with a very urgent situations and how do we both solve problems and also prevent things from happening in the future? So I'm delighted to introduce now Mark Wilbert Good afternoon, and first of all I'd like to thank EESI and and NARC for having me up here today. This is great. It's a wonderful trip And I certainly would scrape hearing from the two cities before us here I mean just it you know, it's it's like we're all going down the same journey I would have to say that both of these cities are ahead of us And it's always great to learn from people that whose journey have kind of walked on the path before you I think the biggest difference for us in the city of Charleston is size and scope I mean, I won't do the comparison, but these cities and these regions are different But our journey really is the same but my my remarks today are really to talk about the city of Charleston's journey because it's an issue I think it's interesting Charleston is a city one of the most historic places in our country and but Charleston is a city with a flooding problem We've been flooding almost since the beginning. We go back to 1800 And it's our number one priority our mayor this year declare a number one priority in building a city that is resilient and can Dap and can adapt to the changing environment where we can still enjoy the beauty This and the historic and cultural treasures that people have come to know Charleston for and that's the reason that we Have Charleston and people want to be there So our goal is to keep Charleston as Charleston is to the best we can and still deal with the challenges We have I think it's important to understand that resilience is Certainly about economics, you know, I don't want to lose that we're at the port the port provides 53 billion dollars worth of Economic impact to the city every year 200,000 jobs to the city last year we had a 10% increase over the previous year in terms of activity at the port it drives jobs Manufacturing jobs are building Boeing airplanes in Charleston now. We're building Mercedes vehicles are building Volvo cars We've built BMWs we do all kinds of things a lot of folks around the country don't even know we do and all of it's really tied to the Port and the economic impact But really just as important for us in the city of Charleston is that resilience is about getting down to the personal level I can't tell you how many times I've sat in people's living rooms and just talked about their Experiences with flooding and what it does to their life and their livelihoods Second third fourth time that their house is flooded what it does to their kids what it does to their psyche What it does to them what it does the neighborhoods and it's really it really gets you when you see that Likewise you talked to and it's interesting into this morning I was making a round in the building here at a different and people are coming up and grabbed me going You're from Charleston Let me tell you this story and one of the stories that really sticks out with me are these nurses That we are big hospital district is downtown and these young nurses their moms their nurses They've got to get to work on time and they have to drive through the area the city that floods the worst Okay, so their life is just Challenging enough as it is with their daily things never mind having to deal with the amount of nuisance flooding that we have So resilience really matters to us. So we've really leaned into it like many coastal cities We got in trouble we started filling in the marsh, but you know who knew better in the 1800s seemed like the thing to do Right, it's stunk at low tide. We had all those debris from the earthquake. Let's start filling it in and great new land It sounded like a great idea Right not really such a great idea now We're a lot smarter than we were then and so we're gonna have to go back and do something about that Unfortunately in the meantime, we've got a couple hundred years of building on it and putting new pipes in the ground and doing different things So really presents a trial problem Our flooding problem has historically been seen Primarily as a drainage issue and the city's efforts really We're primarily focused on drainage solutions. It's important to note that back in 1984 all the way back in 1984 We did a master drainage plan and After that plan started the Charleston really jumped in to a formidable effort of addressing our flooding problem with Significant engineering projects we tunneled down 140 feet dig 40 feet tunnels going to the city come up in the middle of the harbor and pump The water out. It's I mean, that's the only way we get it out similar to other cities coastal cities that do it We haven't been cheap about it. We put our own money into it right now We've got about 238 million dollars invested. That's our money with a little bit of help from the federal and state government We get about another four hundred million dollars of identified engineering projects that we're already working on In one phase or another and another two or three hundred million dollars Of work that we know it's gonna have to be done. We just really haven't started Any of the engineering work on that so what I've been trying to stress to people today as I walk around the halls here Is that you know, Charleston does put skin in the game We've got a lot of our own money a lot of her own effort that we're putting into these challenges But really our resilience journey when I'm here to talk about today started in Ernst and 2014 2015 Where we released our sea level rise strategy and In December 21st right as our mayor our former mayor mayor Joe Riley Who had been our mayor for four years was just about to leave office and he said, you know I've got to do something about this I want this sign before I walk out the door and he did and our next mayor mayor John Tecklenburg who came and he Picked it up and he's made it his number one priority since he came in at the time that we published it It was a true strategy It defined and explained the problem And it laid out guiding principles to address the problems and we initially started out with be ready Respond and reinvest those were three principles. We had 76 initiatives tied to that That could be grouped in different ways and we just put them into the strategy and said these things work We've we've looked elsewhere and we looked and then what we did We spent about a year with department heads in the city and I led the group of about every two weeks We got all the department's heads in the city and everybody here knows how difficult that is to do But we made it a priority you're gonna come to these meetings and we're gonna go through these strategies one by one Are these initiatives one by one? We're gonna look at them and we're gonna prioritize them We're gonna get them in the 2018 budget. We're gonna start to make a difference So we did that But since we started that We've had three storm events One being a record-setting rain event a thousand year where I don't like to use that term But it's a thousand year rain event others would call it and to Near record storm surge events all of which cause significant damage and impact of the city Our nuisance flooding problem has really become a nuisance. I should say our title flooding problems really become a nuisance Back in the 1970s. We had about two days a year of nuisance flooding Last year we had 50 2016. We had 50 and by 2040 we're projected to have over 180 days of title flooding which will bring some type of water put some type of water on the street the sea level rise gauge at the I'm sorry the tide gauge at the Charleston customs house is the only tide gauge I talk about because that's the one I want to keep referencing Historically the tides as you've seen here been going up for about a hundred. I'm sorry over a hundred years They're going about one foot over a hundred years the last seven years. That's increased by a factor of four We all know there's different factors that can cause that and the scientists that certainly we were talking about earlier They can tell you what it is there's something to do with the jet stream It has to do with pushing it closer. It has to do with you know the climate has to do with all of that The reality on the ground is it's going up by a factor of four and people are going Why am I flooding here more now than I did just four years ago? And the reason is because it's happening faster than it was the previous 100 years So now we're looking at it just like it's been mentioned before we Were revising our strategy we went from one and a half to two and a half using the exact same factors that Miami didn't I'm sure Washington DC did and Next week we're reconvening our science group or we're going to look at it And we suspect it might creep up a little bit probably closer to one and a half to three Just in a three-year period is what we're expecting, but we'll find out so we're updating our sea level I strategy and I think really what's going to happen and this is what I'm excited to talk about today is You know what we've learned because we've really done this organically This has really been at the city and I'll talk about our partnerships in a minute because they're really key to what we do But our pathways to resilience is the way I think we're going to build this out in a small city So I'm really talking about a smaller city. We get about 145,000 people in it and You know a small southern coastal city and I think these are the pathways to resilience for us at least for Probably the next three years or so and the first one that probably doesn't come as surprised anybody But it wasn't our number one when we started this and that's land use Okay, land use has to be number one from my perspective and I think from our perspective we can't make any more mistakes Okay, I believe I'm confident we can fix the problems of the past We've got smart engineers you get enough money enough good engineers You can fix the problems of the past the problem is you can't keep making problems Okay, because then you're always playing catch-up to try to fix the problems of the past and the problems you're making in the future So I see land use getting your land use strategy right making sure that you're building where it makes sense to build and not building Where it doesn't make sense to build is probably the first thing that any small coastal community needs to look at as they undergo on a resilient strategy the second one is regulations This was kind of a big aha moment for me was the the regulations piece and I say that because I Didn't understand just how important regulations were going to be but when you start looking at you know regulations come on a range There's a minimum and then you go higher than that I think what we have to do is really start taking a look and getting together with smart engineers smart Scientists might and start looking at where those regulations really need to be I Put into the regulation one Certainly our stormwater and floodplain regulations But you know the national flood insurance program is a great program that really is ripe for some revision To bring it into where we are today and how it can help Smaller cities and certainly larger cities as well, but when you talk about Elevation and you talk about Acquisition or you talk about relocating those are adaptation measures that are going to allow cities that continue to have their culture to continue to have what they've always been just in a different way and So really we need to take a look at how we can fund that And not wait for the big storm to have to go in and rebuild it How can we fix it on the front end now where it's a lot less costly instead of having to fix it? And that's not rocket science anybody in this room, but that's just something that I thought would be important to to point out This is something the next one that I would want to talk about it with you is resources and you know folks So I said we all its resources resources, but you know like I said city of Charleston. We put Last year we invested thirty two million dollars into our flooding and drainage issues. It's a lot of money for a city of our size It's a lot of money We are committed to eight to twelve million dollars a year. We just upped that from 2015 to 2018 In 2015 we're at eight million today. We're at twelve million dollars a year We get about thirty one million dollars of accommodation and hospitality tax coming in and that doesn't seem like a lot to some of the bigger Locations and certainly folks that deal on the federal level but for us that's real money. Okay, that matters for us So we're looking for ways to get more Flexibility to be able to use that money The way we would need to to To deal with both flooding is the some restrictions on it And we're working with our state Senate and our state legislatures to be able to change some of those restrictions There are six categories. We just want a seventh that says hey We want to use this for flood protection and flood reduction and being that we get six million visitors a year And they love to come to our city. We want to keep our city dry so they can enjoy our city That is but likewise, I'd like to point out that I think there's a skills gap There certainly is a capacity gap at the small cities In terms of people looking at these things one of the areas that came out of that review I talked earlier was that we in the city needed to add bodies to this focus We didn't have a chief resilience officer Last year we had me doing it part-time with my full-time job But we went ahead and added four bodies in 2018 just to really focus on Flooding and flooding type issues and I for us that was a commitment to go ahead and make and I think you'll probably see more in The future, but just as important is to bring people in with the right skills Okay, people who have just been doing a job You know you these are going to be in the future and again no surprise of the people in the room But in the future these are going to be folks with specific skills They can walk the halls of Congress here and talk about flood insurance and can talk about Army Corps of Engineer projects And can talk about how they're funded. That's a skill set that we need to build into both local communities and regional efforts The fourth one and this is my another my big aha moments and this is I think everybody will kind of get a chuckle out of this Is this you've got to do outreach if you're going to be successful in building resilience? You got to do outreach because my experience if you're not out in front of telling people what you're going to do You will spend all the rest of your time answering questions about what you're doing Okay, it's about getting out and putting that effort in up front to just get out and tell folks This is what we're doing. So that was probably a lesson learned for me last year I felt really good about doing something I'm kind of an action person and I wanted to get going and getting things done and then you know We'll kind of surprise people at the end about what we're doing Bad mistake. It's I got to get out front. We have to get out front You got to tell people what you're doing you got to show them what you're doing and then you kind of got to get Out and do it so if you don't like I say here if you don't do that It will consume you just answering those questions on the way out the door And the last one that everyone really likes to talk about and and the other two folks up here did a great job today So I won't spend a lot of time on it is the infrastructure piece Infrastructure really is gonna you know, that's that's the hard part here I say infrastructure is hard hard infrastructure is hard because it's hard, but it's also expensive Okay, we you know, we're easily a small city like Charleston's got a billion dollar problem I heard a coal talking about a 50 billion dollar improvement just to a waste water treatments I was like, I mean the scale is so completely different, but for us a billion dollars is a lot of money I mean we typically don't use the B word But for us, it's it's a lot of money and how we go about getting that money really matters And how we apply it and put it to work really matters, but infrastructure, that's it I mean our engineers are good today I'm probably a bunch of engineers in the room and they're they're really good at what they do and they Can get us out of these problems that we've got ourselves into as long as we're not making more problems down the road for him So I think that's kind of the the five things that we talk about in the beginning I'm sorry and in the five pathways in conclusion I'll just finish by saying a couple of other things that we learned one Although our journey is relatively short. I will say that the city of Charleston and the region of Charleston We're really full of energy. We've got a great group of people down there who are really focused on this And it's been kind of the ride for me the the journey over the last four years It's been really exciting coming out of the federal side doing the military thing and then coming out working with just some great people in the City of Charleston and in the region those folks are committed to seeing this through okay? It really doesn't matter what happens around them. They're going to see this through. I'm just convinced of that The other thing that is kind of a big conclusion for all of us This is a shared responsibility and that was another big takeaway for me You're only going to be successful if everybody pitches in and when I say everybody it's government certainly has its spot But businesses do as well Neighborhoods and then individual homeowners. Everybody's got a piece in this This is not you're not going to win this just by government deciding what it's going to do It's going to take really every homeowner in your small community Up to your neighborhoods to make this work and we're seeing that begin to happen Everybody's talking about flooding in Charleston and as we can give them Ideas and things to do it really is making a difference and beginning to make a difference Building alliances the other two guests today talked a ton about that We too are really into building a larger alliance. I think again That's a strength of the Charleston region is that people love living in Charleston. They love being from Charleston We have a group called the Charleston resilience network that mirrors some of the other groups are heard today But but it's different in that it's not chartered It's a group of people that came together about three years ago and it's represented by federal state local Institutions of higher learning in the area nonprofits the Army Corps of Engineers is in there Noah comes to the meetings and really we get together just the deal on issues of resilience It's a big tent. Everybody comes together. We have a pretty good record of attendance And we've had really some success of bringing our primary goal was bringing good science To the region that was our goal so that we could bring science to the region once so not everybody had to pay for it Four or five times and we've been pretty successful in doing that. So alliances really do matter As folks here have said I don't want to undercut the importance of neighborhood associations neighborhood associations that can get information out provide What the city is doing but also let us know what their issues and concerns are our key component to this We do know now what got us here is not going to get us to the future You know there's a book like that something similar to that, but we've kind of learned that The other thing is it takes a while to turn a big ship, you know Charleston's been going a direction has been going for a long long long time and Big ships turn best when you alter courses just a little bit at a time It keeps it from rocking keeps it from turning up on the side You'll eventually get where you're going if you just keep changing the course a little bit at a time It's got to be slow and deliberate and this is our this the other thing I would say is innovation I think all three of us up here. We're all mentioned yesterday in the Bloomberg mayor's challenge. I think Washington DC is in there. I know Miami's in there and Charleston's in there All moving to the next phase of the competition. So all three of these communities up front here all about innovation and challenges and Things like that. I thought that was pretty exciting when I looked at and saw who was on here. So good luck And I would say finally, you know, this is our future, you know bottom line is what's what's the alternative? He's just gonna say we're not gonna do it and the answer is no We're gonna do this. We again, we love our community. We love what we do. We love the people that come to our community So we're gonna we're gonna it's gonna be a little different as we get to other road things will be different than they were in The past but that's okay. Charleston's still gonna be Charleston and it's gonna be a place where everybody wants to come and We're pretty excited about our future. So with that I'll say thank you again And I'll have a seat You were all absolutely great and the amount of information that you put forward and in terms of I think Ideas and how you are approaching things is so incredible and and it was interesting hearing How each of you in terms of these different areas, but yet so many similarities in terms of approach Which is so important in how we can all sort of help and learn from each other So in in terms of sort of picking up on that whole theme I also right before we start Q&A wanted to ask Jeremy Marcus to come up for a couple minutes Jeremy is with a congressman Cartwright and they have legislation that they have Proposed and again, it's right back to these themes of Prepare and and in terms of thinking about resilience and and in terms of coordination the kinds of resources Through which we can all learn from and help each other and making sure their agencies all are working together and listening to each other Jeremy, thank you Thanks for giving me a few minutes to talk about a bill that my boss is Introduced now for the Third Street Congress and you know, we talked a lot. We've heard a lot about the the local level of Preparedness, but at the federal level there's a lot more that we can do To make sure the work that they're doing really has the resources they need and has the support from the federal government They need so a brief history back in 2013 for the first time the government accountability office came out with their every Congress They come out with their the high risk list where the federal government is particularly Exposed to fiscal risk and a risk in general and they put on the threat of a lack of preparedness for the first time Looking at that the federal government was not systematically preparing for risks And that's saying some agencies are doing great job some aren't so working with the GAO and then dozens of outside groups We put together our prepare act and it basically does three simple things the first it creates an interagency Council that will look at preparedness federal government-wide The second thing it would do is make sure each individual agency has their agency Plans to make sure that they are looking at what are the threats and what are the challenges from extreme weather that they're going to Face and how are they going to complete their mission and the third thing it does is creates an annual meeting and a great regional plan So each region has their own Specific plan of how to create resilience and prepare for extreme weather events And that's it. We've had it scored by CBO it costs zero dollars It's really just common sense making sure that the entire government is adequately preparing so The bill passed out of OGR by voice vote. It's currently being looked at by TNI But I hope many of you work for members. I have a one pager. It's out front. I don't think it was there when you walked in But it's there now. So, um, you know, if you're interested You know, I'll be around a little bit pick up a one pager. We'd love to build support We've have over 60 outside organizations endorsing the bill. It's been on the note national tax period You didn't know brainers list. So, um, it's you know, it's got a lot of a lot of support I think this would be a great way at the federal government that we can Help make sure we're better repaired and help get the information the regional preparedness that the local folks need So let's open it up for For Q&A if any of you have questions or comments Okay, go ahead. Hi What specific policies at the federal level would you like to see that would be of assistance to you all? Yeah, I've already mentioned it is Policy policies not funding but policies would be taking a look at the national flood insurance program and certainly how we may be able to increase perhaps funding for the increase cost of Compliance the ICC from 38 to 60. I think there's some Discussion moving forward on that would make a huge difference for getting people up out of the the ability to raise their homes To get them up out of flooding areas so that you know, they wouldn't sustain any additional damage Certainly, I think there's another bill and I think it's a 2017 flood mitigation act bill That's that's out there right now that is talking about the potential for the national flood insurance policy to be able to Possibly buy out homes. It's a might almost be like a rudder You could put on your policy to do that if you're in the in an area that floods frequently And again, that would be a way that you wouldn't have to wait for these FEMA grants that take a while and they're very Competitive and rightfully so very competitive But this would be something that could be done very quickly by communities to be able to get those homes out of the Flooding areas so we can move on to to other things that would be mine I think in the Washington region one of the things since we do have so much of a federal presence here is that We need to work The localities with the federal agencies to get the work done right so the policies in place of you know some of what I think was talked about in the prepare act of Making sure that they have these plans that they have resources to be able to follow up with these plans and that they don't work alone The Smithsonian for example put in some flood walls around some of their buildings after that early 2000s flood But then I talked to the deputy director at GSA and he's like well, they're just pushing the water into our buildings And so and then Metro talks about while yeah, and they're just pushing the water down into this into this big Some pump that we have under the ground here in Washington And so that type of coordinated activity And providing for that would is particularly important here and that it be coordinated with the work of the states with and of the local and regional bodies in the area too because Again the storms don't stop at the district line. They also don't stop at the at the edge of the federal property Just to build on what mark said I think you know It's very frustrating as a coastal community that Periodically is threatened and is hit by hurricanes that we don't have the funding to do the vulnerable The vulnerability mitigation ahead of time the studies have shown that for every dollar spent four dollars are saved And you know that would be my ideal dream is to be able to change the funding models So that we really can be proactive and save money in the end and lives and property, etc Great. Thank you. Other questions Okay, I go ahead Great great briefing. So just from a cost standpoint, you're talking about billions if not trillions of dollars Worth the funding that's going to be needed. Where do you do you have a feel for where that's going to come from? everywhere One of the areas that we need to explore more is the relationship with the insurance industry and the savings that we can get From the on the insurance side of things and are there investments then that can we can make using those funds in the type of Resiliency actions that need to take place that in the end will will reduce the insurance companies risks greatly and Then be able to leverage some of those resources. So that's one example Things like the debates that were happening here in the budget bills about Tax exam financing and all of these other types of tools that are used for infrastructure financing are critically important You know with your funding to deal with the issues in the drinking water systems those are all critically important to be able to leverage as many different sources and And kind of lower the cost of these projects on the financing side They're going to be expensive We are talking in Regularly in the be in the bees around here and then I guess in the halls of Congress they talk about while you put you know We're talking about bees you talk about teas but But to be able to make those investments Are going to be critical and we need to be able to do the types of things that will allow us to finance them and paying back Over time, you know, we do have the debates going on here in the district right now about the impervious service fees and Surface fees and how much people are having to pay on those and what are the churches pay versus the homeowners pay versus others But but we need to be able to keep it as efficient and in multiple sources of funds So we can control these costs for people too I just wanted to add with regards to insurance as I mentioned when I was speaking You know in South Florida insurance is a big deal It's very expensive and it continues to get more expensive And so one of the things that we've been struggling with in our frustrated by is the fact that we are making changes We are making Incremental changes to reduce our vulnerability and we want to be able to value that so we've been having annual conversations with the reinsurance companies and our our beacon council and really trying to push them to Consider that because you know, we are making Investments as you mentioned skin in the game We definitely have that because we can't wait around for the state and the federal government to come and fund what we need to do So I think that you know the insurance companies are certainly modeling this stuff But currently it's been a black box. So that's what we hope to kind of make inroads into Yeah, not not to beat a dead horse I think exactly what they said is is where we are is it's going to take everybody to make the difference right down to the Individual homeowner. We're all gonna have to pitch this together Non-profits are gonna have to you know be willing to spend money on the things that are important to them if they want to keep them As they want to keep them and where they want to keep them It's just something that's gonna have to happen in the future because this is gonna be very expensive and it's gonna take everybody I was Also struck in terms of you're talking about the insurance and the re-insurance industry. Have you have you had fairly decent? Cooperation in terms of really bringing people to the table to talk about this Nicole. We've absolutely had Cooperation it's a very very important topic in South, Florida But I you know, I'd like to say I would prefer to see a little more Tangible progress, but we have a lot of we've had a lot of conversations So does she get an award for diplomacy here? Listen to this right? Yeah be and I wanted to specifically ask about that too because We have been doing a whole series of briefings with regard to resiliency and And we will be continuing to do that throughout this year And so we will undoubtedly want to come back to to all of you with regard to your ideas your suggestions and everything One of the things that we are hoping to do is to bring in folks from the re-insurance and insurance industry to talk about that and how Their role and in terms of working with communities Because the economic stakes the human stakes are so Great and so that we can as you all have so eloquent. I said everybody has sort of some skin in the game here and And it's got to be people all kind of coming together to figure out the different roles and and how we make this work and I was also wanted to just mention that on March 2nd we're doing a briefing looking at real estate and and Climate impacts and what this means so Economics of it. Yeah, another factor here that's just coming about is the rating agencies Treatment of the cities too and and how looking at you know Miami may be in better shape because if you're rating with the National Flood Insurance Program as a you say category five service five But that's another area that I think is going to be driving the types of things that the cities and the states and others will be needing to do and Again, it's kind of a it's coming out of the same. I think Genesis as the insurance companies work And so well in all of those ratings in terms of the bond agencies and and insurance all go hand in hand, right? Any other questions or comments, okay up here if you could just wait for the microphone So I am wondering Mark you talked about a 1000 year flood event and I believe Nicole you talked about a category five hurricane and planning for these different levels of extreme weather events at what level do you see as the appropriate level of Plant and kind of a measure twice cut once we know that some of our infrastructure needs to be Resilient in the long term up against 500 year floods 100 year floods And if my memory serves those terms are just based on probability of that event occurring And we all know that probability is increasing a 100 year flood is no longer a 100 year flood So at what event at what event? Probability are you guys starting to plan and focus on planning? Well, I would say I don't have the exact answer for that but what I would say is that we understand that bar is always going to be changing and We we want to make sure that we're spending our dollars as efficiently as possible So it doesn't make sense for example to design a pump for you know, six feet of sea level rise So what we're doing is If you think about the curve that I showed you And I mentioned the fact that we're looking at the criticality of the infrastructure and the lifespan of the infrastructure And also looking at incremental steps that you can take So I like to give an example of what Miami Beach has done in the sense that they've installed pumps and They have there's a housing for the pump And so they designed the housing to be able to house a larger pump So they don't have to reconstruct that in the future knowing they're gonna need a larger pump But right now it doesn't make sense to build that to install that larger pump because it has a certain lifespan So it's I think it's that type of as you were saying you've got to have the right expertise And really thinking about the steps you can take to kind of get you to the next plateau And then by then hopefully we have more technology. We have more information to understand What's the next most efficient and effective step to take? And I would just add to that Coming from the emergency management side of a city that's you know doesn't look that good on the maps when you look at some of these big events That's that's a community decision I mean the community, you know, we're gonna protect the critical infrastructure and you know That's what governments do is protect critical infrastructure so you can come back quicker and faster But beyond that it's really a community decision. Where do you want to spend your money? What is it you want to protect and to what degree do you want to protect it? Because really that's a trade-off between what you protect and what you want to spend So do you want to spend it for the future? Do you want to spend it now? And I don't think any government would feel comfortable making those decisions other than making those decisions about the critical infrastructure That they're responsible for So that they can get back up and provide critical government services You you all mentioned at some point in terms of how important Working with the Army Corps of Engineers and NOAA have been so one question that I wanted to ask because obviously issues around budget have been Royaling up here and and in terms of thinking about the kinds of resources or capabilities that that agencies I Have been providing that that are helpful to you or where you feel that there needs to be more Could you talk about? Key agencies, you know in terms of the work that you're doing on resilience and and are there additional Resource needs that that you are seeing from those agencies Well, I'll start by Commenting on the work that the Southwood Water Management District does I mentioned that several times in my presentation because they are the regional manager of water and as I mentioned water is highly managed in Southeast Florida and so Depending on how they manage the water then determines how they're the primary system than the secondary system. So We have benefited from their engagement and they have some tremendous Modelers that have been a part of the work that we've been doing at both the local and the regional level key key partners in this and You know it There are questions for example of Precipitation What's going to be like in the future and there's kind of big holes and in the data and we really understand that we can't Think about what's happened in the past because things are changing So the challenge is really trying to better understand what is the future going to hold? What are the changes going to be so that they can properly? Design and make the changes at that larger scale so that then we can understand how we need to respond at the next level We mentioned the core NOAA and they're critically important There's many all their CDC for example and looking at the health impacts of the changing Conditions that we're facing in our area here and being able to to look to see if we're getting different Types of disease or different types of vectors and things that are available here So it really goes across we've used the Department of Energy federal labs to help look at micro grid as a Way to harden critical infrastructure and make sure it will work if the power does go down And we've been partnering with and looking at some of the things that have been done on DOD facilities as part of that So it's really I think a broad broad way One of the other things that comes that I think is important is that? We need to think about the making these investments over multiple years that not just going up and down and up and down But it takes a long time to get a lot of this stuff Going from ideas to plans to designs to construction and then to operations And having that available over multiple years and having a more steady flow of dollars available for this work is critical Okay, I just want to say thank you all very very much really really fascinating lots and lots of Incredibly important and very innovative work that I think is so important for all of us to learn from and we hope to Come back and keep learning more from you all so don't be surprised if we if you get calls from any number of us But anyway, thank you very very much for being here really really appreciate it and appreciate all your hard work. Thank you