U.S. Department of the InteriorU.S. Geological Survey

Silver Jackets

Innovative Collaboration to Maximize Solutions

What is Silver Jackets?

Collaborative Team of Agencies State Federal Regional

MANY AGENCIES – ONE SOLUTION

Silver Jackets Concept

Bring together State and Federal Agencies dealing with or impacting Mitigation Activities

Goal – Make the most of limited state and federal grant funds

Indiana is only the second state in the nation to form a Silver Jackets Team Ohio is the first state Each state sets up the team to meet their

programmatic needs and desires.

MANY AGENCIES – ONE SOLUTION

Simple name for a Team that blends the best ideas for the benefit of Indiana Citizens

FEMA – Blue Jackets Army Corps of Engineers – Red Jackets Other agencies – variety of colors

Why Silver Jackets ?

MANY AGENCIES – ONE SOLUTION

Mission

The members will establish an inter-agency communications team to:

enable effective sharing of information Leverage available agency resources Improve customer service Promote wise stewardship of the taxpayers’

investment.

MANY AGENCIES – ONE SOLUTION

What Silver Jackets Is NOT

Arbitrator between an agency and local entity

Project Review or Approval Organization

Separate or Additional Funding Source

Regulatory Arm of any agency

MANY AGENCIES – ONE SOLUTION

How it works

Host agency is IDHS Regular monthly meetings Training/workshops

Meeting process

Agency reports Agencies bring issues to the meeting Discuss info gaps & data needs Find solutions among current service

capabilities Current grants or agency programs or policies Collaborate on a combined solution Existing programs New initiatives

Discuss challenges encountered

Each Agency is able to bring challenges or issues to the meeting for others to consider

Find solutions among current service capabilities Current grants or agency programs or policies Collaborate on a combined solution

MANY AGENCIES – ONE SOLUTION

2008 IN Floods

5 record floods January February March June September

3 Disaster Declarations

During the flood- communications

Agency activities Info for response USGS brings

Flood hydrologic data – streamgage network

Flood Web page “Eyes & ears” in the field Rapid deployment

streamgages Satellite imagery

Enhanced Collaboration

Staff in EOC Frequent communication between State/Fed

partners DNR, DHS, DOT, IDEM National Guard NWS FEMA COE

After the floods - collaboration

Setting HWMKs USGS & IDNR

Flood documentation FEMA USGS IDNR IDHS NWS USACE Local Agencies

Other accomplishments

Update IN Hazard Mitigation Plan WebEOC training “Stay Afloat” campaign Outreach

Activity book State Fair

Take Home Messages

By partnering we maximize agency resources for hazard mitigation and avoid overlap

We keep it open and welcome – recently added IN National Guard & Purdue University

Silver Jackets has worked great for IN – maybe it can work for your state

MANY AGENCIES – ONE SOLUTION

Silver Jackets Mitigation Activities

6 new streamgages HGMP for

installation Local/USGS

funds for long-term O&M

How did we do??

Quality of products and services was high

Collaboration between agencies was excellent. The use of the internet web applications and access to real-time data enhanced interagency collaboration

How did we do??

Human factors played a major role in people’s responses to warnings and other flood information – additional study is needed

There is still room for improvement in flood forecasting, communicating forecast information to the public, and getting the public to take action

Key Findings & Recommendations

Finding 28: Flood inundation mapping will help the public, media, emergency managers, and others visualize the spatial extent and depth of flood waters in the vicinity of NWS river forecast locations.

Recommendation 28: The NWS should expand efforts with state and federal agencies and others to accelerate the implementation of flood inundation mapping across the United States.

Key Findings & Recommendations

Finding 29: The use of 100-year and 500-year flood terminology was confusing to some members of the public.

Recommendation 29a: The NWS should increase its education and outreach efforts on the meaning of existing flood terminology.

Recommendation 29b: The NWS should work with USACE, USGS, and other partners to assess how to communicate flood risk more effectively.

Perfect World

In a perfect world the public would use our information to take appropriate actions to prevent loss of life and/or property

The fact is people do not respond to warnings and weather information in a simple manner

People bring significant perceptual and behavioral histories to the decision-making table.

Final Thought

A whole suite of information – including people’s information sources, perceptions, experiences, and emotions relating to weather events – needs to be understood and carefully addressed to maximize the benefits of our information

Questions?