[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 2]
[Senate]
[Pages 2676-2677]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                         FEMA's PROJECT IMPACT

  Mr. AKAKA. Mr. President, I was dismayed and confused to learn that 
the President's fiscal year 2002 budget proposal would eliminate the 
Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, initiative, Project Impact. 
I draw my colleagues' attention to this nationwide program that works 
with cities and counties to help reduce the destructive effects of 
natural disasters because so many of their citizens have benefitted 
from these successful partnerships.
  The very first Project Impact designated community was Deerfield 
Beach, FL, which joined in 1997 in response to the devastating effects 
of hurricanes. Another pilot community, Seattle, WA, uses Project 
Impact funds to ensure an earthquake-resistant community by 
retrofitting school buildings and bridges, identifying zones of 
vulnerability, training homeowners, and reinforcing hundreds of 
Seattle-area homes. Seattle formed neighborhood disaster teams and 
brought in local businesses to help.
  It is important to note that Project Impact is a major reason why 
damage to Seattle during yesterday's earthquake was minimal. Only last 
April,

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Seattle held its eighth ``Disaster Saturday'' at a school that had been 
retrofitted with non-structural seismic retrofits as part of the city's 
``Project Impact's School Retrofit'' program. I share Senator Murray's 
appreciation for FEMA's work, as well as her concern over the proposed 
cancellation of this important disaster mitigation program.
  Since its inception in 1997, nearly 250 community partners and 2,500 
business partners across the country have joined with Project Impact. 
In my own State of Hawaii, all four counties are community partners to 
Project Impact. The 50th State is vulnerable to risks from hurricanes, 
torrential rains and flooding, tsunamis, droughts, earthquakes, and 
even wildland fires. Urban areas like Houston, TX and Tulsa, OK, as 
well as rural communities, like Fremont County, WY, largely rural area 
of about 38,000 residents, and Virginia's Central Shenandoah Valley 
Planning District, have joined.
  Kenai Peninsula Borough and Soldotna, AK are educating their citizens 
about mitigation measures that can be taken to prevent damage from 
earthquakes, wildfires and floods. The city of Buffalo, which lies on a 
major fault, has joined Project Impact to help with earthquake 
mitigation, as well damage from snow storms and floods. A few months 
ago, North Carolina was named the Outstanding Disaster-Resistant State 
in recognition for all the work that has been done in communities 
across the State. In Colorado, a $150,000 grant to a coalition in San 
Luis Valley was leverage into a $268,000 Emergency Preparedness Fund. 
Other Colorado communities that have benefitted include Fort Collins, 
Delta and Clear Creek, Morgan and El Paso counties. In Elgin, IL, 
Project Impact helped start a pilot program to mitigate the effects of 
tornadoes.
  Project Impact's full title is ``Project Impact: Building Disaster-
resistant Communities.'' The initiative works by empowering communities 
to fashion hazard mitigation responses to local concerns and needs. 
FEMA helps communities carry out a detailed risk assessment and create 
disaster resistant strategies. Communities turn these strategies into 
policy by revising local building and land use codes and passing bond 
issues to construct prevention measures that will impact the entire 
community.
  Project Impact operates on three simple principles: preventive action 
must be decided at local levels, private sector participation is vital, 
and long-term efforts and investments in prevention measures are 
essential. Project Impact takes resources from a Federal agency and 
gives it to the communities, helping them to become stronger and self-
reliant.
  Since its inception, Project Impact partners have revamped their 
local emergency management plans, elevated flood prone properties, 
developed mobile demonstration models for hazard resistant construction 
techniques and upgraded storm water drainage systems. In addition, 
Project Impact communities are encouraged to exchange ideas with each 
other. As former FEMA director James Lee Witt stated, ``. . . 
participants know that Project Impact empowers them to save lives, 
protect property, protect their economies, livelihoods and save their 
citizens from the heartache of disaster.''
  Everything that I hear about Project Impact points to its successes. 
NASA, the U.S. Geological Survey, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and the 
Humane Society have all become Project Impact signatories in the past 
few months. Although the President's budget proposal states that 
Project Impact has not been effective, it is unclear how that 
conclusion was reached. We should not eliminate a program without 
reviewing its successes or failures. In order to evaluate Project 
Impact, I am requesting that the General Accounting Office review the 
program and measure its performance. It is only right that there be an 
audit of this program, which so many communities believe is an 
important government partnership, before eliminating its funding.
  FEMA estimates that for every dollar spent on disaster mitigation, 
two dollars are saved in disaster response and recovery. I sincerely 
hope that the Project Impact communities will not be left without any 
Federal assistance for disaster mitigation. Roger Faris, a Seattle 
homeowner who thanked Project Impact for his home surviving Wednesday's 
earthquake without damage, said, ``This is one of these non-partisan 
success programs that should have been expanded, not shut off.''

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