By Robin DeMonia — The Birmingham News
CENTER POINT, Alabama — Weather disasters in the state might be less deadly if storm shelters were required in new mobile home parks and apartment complexes, if tougher building codes were established for homes, and if Alabamians were offered a sales tax holiday on emergency supplies.
These were among 20 recommendations the Tornado Recovery Action Council made to Gov. Robert Bentley after studying the state’s deadly twister outbreak last April. The group’s report was presented to Bentley this morning in Center Point, where he’d come to tour new storm damage that occurred on Monday.
The council planned to deliver its findings to Bentley on Monday, but the event was canceled because of storms that swept through the state before daybreak.
Bentley created the group in August, hoping its 19 members would find ways Alabama could be better prepared to respond to future threats and disasters. The council’s co-chairmen are Protective Life CEO Johnny Johns and Birmingham News publisher Pam Siddall.
The report calls for more geographically precise weather warnings, more academic research on tornadoes, minimum standards for local emergency management directors, and new forms of assistance for businesses affected by disasters.
Three recommendations involve storm shelters: The state needs to build more public shelters and better publicize the locations; offer incentives to encourage safe rooms in private homes and businesses; and work toward requiring shelters in new mobile home parks and apartment complexes. “Simply put, more shelters will save more lives,” the report said.
In addition, Alabama needs to implement and enforce statewide building standards that will help homes better withstand severe weather, if not a direct hit by a powerful tornado. Relatively inexpensive requirements for roof tie-downs and better-anchored foundations could reduce property damage and prevent deaths in weaker winds, the report said. Most states already enforce statewide building standards, it said.
To encourage individuals to be better prepared for disasters, the report recommends a continuing campaign about the importance of assembling emergency kits and taking other steps before a disaster strikes. In a related idea, the tornado council suggested a yearly sales tax holiday for goods such weather radios, first-aid supplies and generators. Louisiana and Virginia already have a sales tax holiday for hurricane supplies, the report said.
Proposals to improve warnings include: a statewide severe-weather alert system to deliver more geographically precise warnings to individuals and businesses through phones and smartphone technology. The Tornado Recovery Action Council also concluded the state should pursue funding for more research at Alabama universities “to better understand the conditions that produce, strengthen and direct tornadoes.”
To improve disaster response, the state needs to set minimum standards for local emergency management directors. Currently, local EMA directors don’t have to have any particular credentials or training, and establishing some kind of criteria is “a difficult but necessary decision,” the report said.
Other response-related recommendations focus on the need for more attention to communication plans and training exercises to make sure they work; for unannounced mass casualty drills to practice assessing and transporting patients; and for more coordination of volunteers after disasters occur.
The final recommendations address ways to help Alabamians recover after disasters. They focus mostly making low-interest loans, tax breaks, grants and other assistance available to help people whose homes or businesses are damaged. One idea drawn from an Iowa program would have the state give zero-interest loans to small businesses affected by disasters with a promise to forgive the debt if the business reopens within 12 months.
Here is a full list of TRAC’s recommendations:
— Add more public storm shelters and better publicize the locations.
— Offer incentives to include safe rooms in new construction and to add them to existing homes and businesses.
— Work to require shelters in new apartment complexes and mobile home parks, and offer incentives to add them at existing locations.
— Establish statewide standards for new, rebuilt or extensively remodeled homes to ensure relatively inexpensive design techniques that will reduce property damage in severe weather.
— Create a utility work group in which electric, natural gas, telecommunication, water and other utilities can share best practices and better prepare for disasters.
— Offer incentives for certain businesses that buy generators or rewire to accommodate portable generators that can be used after a disaster.
— Launch an ongoing awareness campaign to educate people about ways they can prepare for disasters and resources that are available when disasters strike.
— Establish an annual sales tax holiday for items that relate to severe weather preparedness.
— Implement a statewide weather-alert system that will provide more geographically precise warning information, allow people to enroll their phone numbers and use smartphone technology.
— Push for technology that will allow more localized warning information to be delivered from weather radios.
— Pursue funding for academic research in Alabama about how tornadoes are generated and fueled.
— Set minimum standards and training for county Emergency Management Agency directors.
— Require emergency response agencies to have updated communication plans and include communication elements in all training exercises.
— Conduct unannounced, multiregional mass casualty drills for triage and transportation of patients.
— Go forward with plans to rebrand the governor’s Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives as Serve Alabama, and more clearly state its mission of coordinating volunteer services.
— Elevate a Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster leader to a high-level position in the state EMA structure and increase the number of VOAD chapters across the state, with the goal of one in each county.
— Establish a nonprofit organization to seek federal and private funds for a statewide program that offers low-interest loans and other aid to build homes and build or expand businesses after disasters.
— Maximize the use of Alabama Housing Finance Authority funds to provide low-interest mortgages and low-income, multifamily housing in disaster areas.
— Provide loans, grants and tax credits to encourage businesses to rebuild or expand after disasters.
— Encourage local governments to have standing contracts for debris removal and disposal in place before disasters strike.