A Disaster Mitigation Success Story

September 2000 - Hurricane Helene Strikes When Hurricane Helene struck Florida's panhandle counties in September of 2000, 27 homes in Tallahassee's Greater Frenchtown Front Porch Community received minor flooding due to the storms heavy tropical rains. As part of the disaster response activities associated with Hurricane Helene, the Capital Area Chapter of the American Red Cross began a partnership with the Greater Frenchtown Area Revitalization Council. The mission behind the creation of this partnership was and to this day remains "To Make Individuals and Families Living in the Greater Frenchtown Front Porch Community - Disaster Resistant".

March 2001 - Building A Disaster Resistant Neighborhood In the spring of 2001 neighborhood leaders from the Greater Frenchtown Front Porch community came together in partnership with the Capital Area Chapter of the American Red Cross to launch the Disaster Resistant Neighborhood initiative throughout the area. This initiative helps neighborhood residents to identify the disaster hazards they face, then provides disaster educational materials to each resident. These materials provide information on how to prepare for the next disaster as well as how to reduce an individuals disaster threats. Neighborhood groups within the Greater Frenchtown Front Porch community were enlisted to help distribute the disaster education materials in a door to door campaign.

Summer 2001 - Fire House and Fire / Weather House Beginning in the summer of 2001 in an effort to teach young people of the Greater Frenchtown Front Porch community home fire prevention and weather safety, the Capital Area Chapter of the American Red Cross began participating in all community events held at the Lincoln Neighborhood Service Center. A focal point of the Capital Area Chapter's participation was the presence of the Fire House. This unique disaster education trailer contains a wide variety of disaster preparedness tools such as Smoke Alarms, NOAA Weather Radios, Fire Extinguishers and Carbon Monoxide Alarms. In participating in the training conducted using this unique disaster training trailer, young people receive hands on disaster learning opportunities which are designed to help participants to become prepared for the next disaster and reduce the occurrences of home fires.

October 2002 - Make A Difference Day In October 2002 the Capital Area Chapter of the American Red Cross recruited several community organizations to come together to launch the next phase of the Disaster Resistant Neighborhood initiative. On a bright Saturday morning, 49 volunteers came together in the Goodbread Neighborhood, within the Greater Frenchtown Front Porch community, as part of Make A Difference Day activity to install Hurricane Shutters on one (1) home within that neighborhood. In completing this installation, the first of many homes in the Greater Frenchtown Front Porch community became disaster resilient.

Winter 2002 / 2003 - Hazardous Tree Removal Working with the City of Tallahassee, the Capital Area Chapter of the American Red Cross was able to access $260,000 in State Housing Initiative Program (SHIP) to continue to straighten the Greater Frenchtown Front Porch community's Disaster Resistant Neighborhood activities. While SHIP funding is primarily used by cities and counties throughout Florida to up-grade substandard low income owner occupied housing, the Capital Area Chapter was able to prepare a plan to provide $1,500 mini-grants to low income homeowners within the Greater Frenchtown Front Porch community to have hazardous trees removed. The threat of lay down hazardous due to aging, diseased and dead trees during high wind events like hurricanes, thunderstorms and tornadoes is a severe threat throughout Leon County.

March 2003 - Making Homes Safer In the spring of 2003 the City of Tallahassee provided $55,000 in Residential Construction Mitigation Program funding to the Capital Area Chapter of the American Red Cross to undertake additional disaster structural mitigation activities within the Greater Frenchtown Front Porch community. To strengthen the partnership with the Greater Frenchtown Revitalization Council, the Capital Area Chapter of the American Red Cross was able to open and staff an office in the Lincoln Neighborhood Service Center with one (1) of its Disaster Mitigation Specialists. The Lincoln Neighborhood Service Center is located in the heart of the Greater Frenchtown Front Porch community. In an effort to maximize the Residential Construction Mitigation Program funding, the Capital Area Chapter of the American Red Cross brought in three (3) National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC) teams to help with the man-power needed to install hurricane shutter on 50 homes. During the months of March through June, 27 NCCC Members logged 5,371 hours of volunteer time installing hurricane shutters.  Team Number   Format   Team # 1 Activities   HTML   Team # 2 Activities   HTML   Team # 3 Activities   HTML

September 2003 - Masters of Disaster and Facing Fear To strengthen the interface with the youth of the Greater Frenchtown Front Porch community, and to help young people become better prepared for a disaster, the Capital Area Chapter of the American Red Cross undertook a project to enhance the usage of the school disaster safety curriculum Masters of Disaster and Facing Fear in Riley Elementary School and Rudiger Elementary Schools. These disaster based lesson plans help teachers to instruct their math, English and science classes while providing a learning opportunity for young people to become prepared for the next disaster. To pull this project together, members from the Capital Area Chapter's Domestic Preparedness and Response Corps, worked directly with the teachers and students of the these elementary schools.

December 2003 - Adopt A Drain - Prevent A Flood Much of the flooding problem in the Greater Frenchtown Front Porch community is due to stormwater drains and ditches becoming clogged with leaves, sticks and other debris. In an effort to reduce future flooding problems, the Greater Frenchtown Revitalization Council and the Capital Area Chapter of the American Red Cross came together to launch the Adopt A Drain - Prevent A Flood campaign. This campaign is designed to encourage residents of the Greater Frenchtown Front Porch community to adopt a stormwater drain or ditch close to their home and monitor it. If the drain becomes clogged with debris, the resident is instructed to contact the City of Tallahassee to have it cleaned out.

February 2004 - Installing Sewer Backflow Valves In an ongoing effort to make homes throughout the Greater Frenchtown Front Porch community as flood proof as possible. The Capital Area Chapter of the American Red Cross was provided with $45,000 in Local Mitigation Strategy Funding from Leon County to provide mini-grants to low-income owner occupied residents to have Sewer Backflow Valves installed. As part of the communities powerful Disaster Resistant Neighborhood initiative 29 homes were made flood proof.

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