From earthquakes to floods to landslides, California has a lot to teach the Nation on how to cope with natural disasters. "National Lessons from the California Earthquake Loss Reduction Plan," the fourth forum in a series on public policy issues in natural disaster reduction sponsored by Public Private Partnership 2000, will address issues arising from the Northridge earthquake of 1994, how the California Plan was developed, and whether it can serve as a model for a nationwide, multi-hazard loss reduction plan.
"National Lessons from the California Earthquake Loss Reduction Plan" will be held on Mon., Feb. 23, 9 a.m.-4 p.m., in Room 2318, Rayburn House Office Building.
Scheduled speakers include Rep. George Brown, Ranking Member of the House Science Committee and host of the forum; John Garamendi, Deputy Secretary, Department of the Interior; Michael Armstrong, Associate Director for Mitigation, FEMA; John Clizbe, American Red Cross; Kathleen Tierney, University of Delaware Natural Disaster Research Center; Daniel Abrams, Director of the Mid-American Earthquake Center; and Harvey Ryland, President, Institute for Business and Home Safety.
In recent years, natural disasters--floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, wildfires, and other events-- have cost the United States an average of one billion dollars each week. To address these skyrocketing costs, a group of Federal, private-sector, and non-profit agencies created PPP 2000 (Public Private Partnership 2000), a unique partnership seeking to decrease the economic, environmental, and psychological costs of natural disasters. PPP 2000 is a cooperative endeavor of the 19 Federal agencies forming the Subcommittee on Natural Disaster Reduction (a sub committee of the National Science and Technology Council's Committee on the Environment and Natural Resources), the Institute for Business and Home Safety (a property/casualty insurance organization dedicated to reducing deaths, injuries, property damage, economic losses, and human suffering caused by natural disasters), and more than 20 other private-sector organizations.
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