RCPGP Funds Will Help City Plan for Catastrophic Incident Response
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has selected Houston as one of eight jurisdictions to be awarded Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 Regional Catastrophic Preparedness Grant Program (RCPGP) funds.
Eight local governments received a total of $10 million in competitive awards for the FY 2019 RCPGP to assist in developing innovative regional solutions for issues related to catastrophic incidents.
The 2019 grants focus on planning, organization, training, and exercises to build regional capabilities in FEMA’s Food, Water and Sheltering Community Lifeline. The City, which was awarded $1,230,748, will use these funds to support planning, training, and exercises to build capacity to respond to a range of catastrophic incidents.
“Houston has committed to developing solutions that will benefit the whole community, especially the underserved communities within the region that struggle to find food, water, and shelter support during, after, and even before an incident,” Mayor Sylvester Turner said. “Regardless of the size or scope of the incident, regardless of the type of hazard, the products that these new funds will allow us to develop will be usable by any jurisdiction within our region.”
Project implementation will begin in September 2019 and be completed by August 2022. The new Houston RCPI Lifelines Program Team will be responsible for the development of a suite of products and events under this initiative:
- Community Lifelines Seminars
- Baseline Community Lifelines Assessment
- Planning Templates
- Planning Workshops
- Lifelines Assessment Tool
“The Houston region commits to developing resources that are scalable, easily replicable, and largely beneficial to national preparedness,” said George Buenik, Director of the Mayor’s Office of Public Safety and Homeland Security. “Because of the diversity within the Houston region, resources developed through this program will be inherently scalable to accommodate large and small as well as urban and rural jurisdictions.”
RCPGP’s objective is to close known capability gaps, encourage innovative regional solutions to issues related to catastrophic incidents, and build on existing regional efforts. Learn more about the FY 2019 RCPGP program: http://bit.ly/FY19RCPGP