The Federal Emergency Management Agency will launch a major advertising campaign designed to alert Americans on what they have to do to better prepare themselves for dealing with natural catastrophes.
The program, to launch Sept. 5, will be led by FEMA's Individual and Community Preparedness Division (ICPD) under pressure from the Obama administration.
The program was one of the suggestions contained in a report by the Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force. That panel was headed by Shaun Donovan, secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The report said the Federal Insurance Office, an agency within Treasury created by the Dodd-Frank financial services reform law, will also participate.
FEMA was asked to do it after those working on the report found that, “After Sandy, as after most other large hurricanes, many homeowners were surprised to learn what was and was not covered under their insurance policies.”
In particular, the report said, property owners were surprised to learn that their homeowners' policies did not cover floods. “This was especially true for those property owners who did not live in FEMA-designated flood zones,” the report said.
The report said that, “Misunderstandings were compounded by confusion over whether damage was caused by flooding (covered only by flood insurance) or by wind and rain (covered by some, but not all, homeowners' policies).
Business were also confused by policy language, the report stated. According to a survey conducted by the New York Federal Reserve Bank, only eight percent of small businesses that incurred damage related to Sandy had flood insurance.
The report said “America's PrepareAthon!” will be a nationwide, community-based campaign for action to increase emergency preparedness and community resilience and build understanding of risk and insurance.
FEMA appears to have been prodded by the Obama administration to launch the campaign, similar to successful ones undertaken in 2003-2006 FloodSmart campaign. According to the report, that campaign resulted in an increase in the number of people renewing their flood insurance policies and, therefore, more flood insurance coverage in force in the 2003-2006 timeframe.
“America's PrepareAthon!” will highlight a “national day of action,” on which millions of citizens can participate through drills, group discussions, and exercises to practice for local hazards.
Donovan said his task force “strongly encourages” using these days to also emphasize the value of insurance and educate potential consumers on available insurance products and hazard mitigation measures.
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