Post-Disaster Redevelopment Planning: Local Capacity Building Through Pre-Event Planning

Drawing upon the lessons learned from the impacts of the 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons, in 2006 local governments and the State of Florida sought to find a way to change behavior toward creating greater community resiliency. They turned to the State's growth management law that contains a requirement for coastal jurisdictions to develop a post-disaster redevelopment plan (PDRP), as an effective mechanism to begin to rethink current approaches to disaster recovery. This paper will summarize the combined and coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal government, as well as other stakeholders from 2006 to present, in promoting and facilitating community resiliency through post-disaster redevelopment planning. It will describe: the challenges faced by local communities and state and federal officials; the approach that defined a sound pilot planning initiative; the journey undertaken by one pilot county; lessons learned from looking back on the planning process; the future of advancing community resiliency not only throughout the state but across the nation. It will also highlight key outcomes yielded by the pilot initiative, including methodologies for integrating risk-based decision making within existing community processes and a best practice example of successfully merging recovery, mitigation, response and preparedness principles by organizing, engaging and facilitating communication with stakeholders.