Improving Resiliency and Mitigation in Florida

FEMA’s Mitigation Assessment Team releases their Hurricane Michael Report which includes numerous recommendations for improving the resilience of the built environment to natural disasters

To assess the impacts of Hurricane Michael on Florida’s built environment, FEMA’s Building Science Branch deployed a Mitigation Assessment Team (MAT) to Bay, Calhoun, Franklin, Gulf, Jackson, and Wakulla Counties in October 2018 and early January 2019. The MAT assessed the performance of hundreds of varying types of buildings subject to Hurricane Michael’s wind and flood loads.  The MAT assessed coastal and in-land residential properties, critical facilities, municipal and public buildings, seawalls, as well as hurricane evacuation shelters. The MAT’s observations of building performance were used to develop 69 recommendations for actions that can be taken by FEMA, Federal, State, and local governments; designers, developers, contractors, the construction industry; building code and standards organizations, researchers, planners, emergency managers, building owners and operators and other key stake-holders. When implemented, these recommendations will help to reduce injuries, mitigate damage to buildings and their associated utility systems, and improve building and community resilience from future natural hazard events in Florida and elsewhere (where applicable).

The MAT’s observations and resulting conclusions and recommendations are presented in FEMA P-2077, Mitigation Assessment Team Report: Hurricane Michael in Florida, along with two Recovery Advisories developed through this effort.

The Hurricane Michael MAT Report can be directly downloaded from: https://www.fema.gov/media-library/assets/documents/186057.  

The Recovery Advisories are available on FEMA’s webpage:

Hurricane Michael Recovery Advisories (2019) and are also located in the MAT Report’s Appendix.

 To learn more about FEMA’s Mitigation Assessment Team Program, click here.

To learn more about FEMA’s Building Science Branch, visit our website.

Please contact the FEMA Building Science helpline at FEMA-BuildingScienceHelp@fema.dhs.gov or 866-927-2104 for questions on FEMA Building Science resources.