Here's how Houston being a newly claimed StormReady community benefits you
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Wednesday afternoon, the City of Houston was given the distinction of a StormReady community. Members of the National Weather Service and Houston Office of Emergency Management were in attendance for the ceremony at City Hall. The recognition is only given to about two dozen communities and commercial groups in southeast Texas who meet the standards of being prepared to serve their community in any kind of severe weather.
ABC13 Meteorologist Elyse Smith was in attendance for the StormReady Ceremony and was able to speak with city officials after the event. Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner was enthusiastic about the honor, citing how their work with the National Weather Service is "invaluable."
When asked if there will be a noticeable difference for all Houstonians because of this StormReady Certification, Mayor Turner said, "It depends on the personality of that particular storm. What I can say from a general point of view is the city is in a much better shape in being prepared. Mother Nature has a mind of her own. I wish I could say to everyone individually in the city of Houston that you'll see a noticeable difference, but that doesn't mean you'll see a difference in your particular area."
He specifically mentioned lessons learned from both the Tax Day Flood in 2016 and Hurricane Harvey, the need for more local resources in the city, and high water rescue training for firefighters.
But for a city within a county that, according to a recent study done by NOAA, is the most at risk and vulnerable to billion-dollar disasters, we know that it's not an if but a when for the next big storm.
So at the ceremony, Thomas Munoz, Deputy Director of Homeland and Public Safety Coordinator for the City of Houston, was asked about how this program actually benefits the community.
"One of the things this also allows for is lower insurance rates from insurance providers now that we have this certification," Munoz said.
It turns out that previously when a community has received the Storm Ready designation from the National Weather Service, that community qualified for service from FEMA called the Community Rating System, or CRS. The CRS is like a discount given to flood-prone communities that actively take steps to manage their risk.
The City of Houston has had a CRS discount of 25% since 2009. And it hasn't changed since. The most recent CRS for this year is 25%. So the question is: Now that the city of Houston is an official StormReady community, will the CRS discount go up as a result and lower your premium?
ABC13 put in a request to FEMA for that information and is waiting to hear back.
For locations and/or communities to become StormReady, they must apply and fulfill a few tasks and specific criteria.
This specifically includes these steps as listed by the National Weather Service:
- Establish a 24-hour warning point and emergency operations center
- Have more than one way to receive severe weather warnings and forecasts and to alert the public
- Create a system that monitors weather conditions locally
- Promote the importance of public readiness through community seminars
- Develop a formal hazardous weather plan, which includes training severe weather spotters and holding emergency exercises.
Communities, counties, Indian nations, universities and colleges, military bases, government sites, and commercial enterprises are all encouraged to apply and become StormReady. It's summed up well through this statement on the correlating website: "No community is storm-proof, but StormReady can help communities save lives."
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