As Hurricanes Florence and Matthew have made painfully clear, the Southeast coastal region is vulnerable to a variety of disasters that impact the vitality and long-term viability of its coastal communities. Planning for the disaster recovery process provides an opportunity to build resilience to future hurricanes, flooding, and other hazards. The Southeast Disaster Recovery Partnership has taken a local and regional approach to strengthen the ability of the Southeast’s coastal communities and businesses to recover from the next coastal storm. This Partnership builds relationships across the public and private sectors, and engages professionals from natural resources, emergency management, business continuity, and other industries

In this session, audience members will learn more about disaster recovery process and implementation and will engage one another about challenges and opportunities to advancing resilience in disaster recovery, including building partnerships with the private sector.

The session will alternate between interactive activities and presentation formats. Amanda Martin, Coordinator of the Southeast Disaster Recovery Partnership, will introduce core concepts related to disaster recovery, and will discuss the Partnership, its work, and lessons learned over the past two and half years. Audience members are invited to brainstorm on the opportunities and challenges for advancing resilience during disaster recovery – or even getting involved in recovery at all. Collectively, we will strategize about overcoming challenges and capitalizing on opportunities.

In addition, the session will address engaging the private sector in resilience work through the lens of disaster recovery. Amanda will present the Partnership’s work in this area, including the findings from case studies and a white paper on public-private partnerships for disaster recovery. Together, audience members and Partnership staff will discuss engagement across sector or agency lines, and consider various approaches to implementing partnerships.

The session will conclude with an activity in which audience members develop concrete next steps, building on their own organizational strengths and partnerships, to contribute to resilience work in disaster recovery.

Questions from the audience are encouraged throughout the presentations, and we will reserve time to discuss getting involved in the Partnership. We welcome new partners to learn from and contribute to our work!