SAVE Award 2011 Ideas

Let's stop the redundancy of various Federal Agencies, and States, that are using Taxpayer funds to generate, publish, and administer Flood Hazard Data to the public. It has to be confusing to the American public at large, and to the people living and working in or near floodplains. The agencies and States are:
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE)
The DHS/Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
The United States... more »

If FEMA can't get rid of NEMIS for a better system, then let's make the system work better for processing disaster claims and producing reports. The system was set up back in the 70's and times and processes have changed and the system is not working for us! When a sequence of events happen, NEMIS should be able to send out automatic notifications, complete processes, etc. NEMIS should be able to do more work for us.... more »

FEMA could investigate getting out of the mapping business, and perhaps, instead, FEMA could provide digital overlays to Google Maps, Zillow, Bing Maps, and others, instead of hosting huge map databases themselves at various States and the FEMA Map Service Center. There would be some changes in the Regulations and perhaps the laws to make this happen, but this isn’t rocket science.
Make it easy for Internet users of... more »

Many of the vehicles in the DOD, in my experience exclusively the military, are depended on day by day for many to perform the mission. Whether it be to drive to and from a briefing, sitting idle to watch traffic and clock speeders/ those who roll through the stop signs, to sit idle and drive crew chiefs and aircraft specialsts back and forth on the flight line as they prepare jets for their missions, the list goes on.... more »

I work at one of FEMA’s National Processing Service Centers. When I am indexing documents into individual registrations I see many of page 2 (sections C and D) of the Declaration of Continuing Need for Temporary Rental Assistance form that have no identifying information on them. The pages become separated from the recertification documentation the registrant sends in when the fax splitters split them incorrectly. The... more »

Rapid Respose from FEMA.
Local Employment Construction Opportunity.
Base-sites in communities (e.g. Inexpensive warehouse design, eg. Walgreens size) that are multi-use and spread across the National Rail system to house, treat and/or evacuate populace on a temporary short term basis for a few days before, during or after a disaster event. FEMA heavy resources respond to each location within 6 hours via freight rail utilizing... more »

This is an idea from the 1800s that anyone born on United States soil is automatically a citizen. Other countries do not do this! You have to be born of a citizen to be a citizen. I think ending this practice will basically solve one of the biggest immigration issues we have. The practice of illegal imigrant coming here to have children (aka anchor babies) so that they can stay in this country. Just something to think... more »

Many communities are being flooded this year. If we can get HUD onboard in the intitial response stages the long term costs of redevelpment and housing could be lowered. the quicker more tasks can be handed off to HUD or local authorities the more personel and resources can be deployed or prepositioned for the next emergency.

After severe weather strikes an area, the NWS sends scores of people - often in overtime status - to survey damage. Likewise, local emergency managers, American Red Cross, and other organizations conduct similar assessments in the same area. Utilizing and sharing ALL of the assessments would reduce the amount of time / money the NWS spends on conducting assessments.

The cost of these 'surveys' can be substantial,... more »

Places like much of New Orleans which is below sea level are not fit for human habitation and should not be built upon and instead should be used to naturally control flooding, allowed to return to their natural states as wetlands.

 

Taxpayer dollars should not be spent to rebuild in areas which will surely be flooded again.

Update FEMA NEMIS IA to provide more information and more relevant information per page. We spend quite a bit of time going between tabs and pages. It also would provide a much more logical progression for training applicant services program specialists. It would also greatly reduce processing errors.

In FEMA for every $1 spent on Mitigation the Government saves over $4 on the next disaster. Lots of money gets wasted due to lack of Mitigation. In the past Hazard Mitigation was not done because someone did not know how to do it or it took too much time. So I wrote a program called “Fast Mitigation”. Now Hazard Mitigation can be done in minutes and not hours or in some cases not at all. Not only does it save on thousands... more »

FEMA allows owners and renters who experience home damages to receive 2 months of initial rental assistance. They can then keep submitting requests for additional rental assistance called recert for an additional 16 months! In a normal situation landlords can give renters 1 month notice to move out. It does not make sense for renters in disasters to receive up to 18 months to find a new place to live. It also should... more »

FEMA's mission support bureau has become emblematic of the problems presented by bureaucracy. The components of the mission support bureau have added hundreds of requirements to the rest of the agency. One recent example include a new form that has to be filled out and submitted to FEMA HQ before a manager can move a CORE staff member's desk at a remote facility. While this seems trivial, it is part of the death by a... more »

Multi-Task Our Contractors the Same Way Our Employees Must Multi-Task.
FEMA is an organization that by definition must have a ready workforce to meet national needs in the face of natural and man-made disasters. With the budgetary limitations inherent in our current fiscal environment, we are increasingly reliant upon contractors to fulfill that workforce. While the contract award controls and procurement requirements... more »