Puerto Rico Coastal Outreach Advisory Team (COAT) Meeting #2 Date: June 6, 2013 Time: 10:00 –11:30 a.m. EDT Place: Puerto Rico Emergency Management Agency (PREMA) Office and Webinar Meeting Summary Welcome and Roll Call • The meeting began at approximately 10:15 a.m. Host Jesus Poupart welcomed everyone to the PREMA facility. Alejandro De La Campa also welcomed the group and introduced Tim Crowley on the phone. Tim discussed the importance of the COAT and of the success in New York and New Jersey. He also mentioned how encouraging it is that this COAT is looking into a museum exhibit with the Municipality of Carolina and the “Museo de el Niño” that would be similar to the exhibit at the Liberty Science Center in New Jersey. • Heidi Carlin took roll and summarized who was in the room and on the phone. Groups represented included FEMA Region II, US Geologic Survey (USGS), Puerto Rico Planning Board, Puerto Rico Home Builders Association, University of Puerto Rico (various campuses), Ponce Office of Building Permits, Puerto Rico Insurance Commission, Municipality of Bayamón and the Municipality of Carolina, Write Your Own Companies, and RAMPP. • Iris Delgado discussed the Agenda both in English and Spanish. She encouraged active participation and reminded everyone of the need to take action and reach out to the stakeholders through their customer services. • Heidi Carlin welcomed new COAT members who have joined since the kickoff meeting April 4, 2013 and opened with reviewing the COAT Mission Statement. Target Stakeholders/Audience • The group discussed tactics for disseminating messages to target stakeholders: o Go to schools, factories, government agenies, shopping centers, and use the press to spread the word – this is a successful method used in the past for getting public information about tsunamis. o Email has been effective for other outreach efforts, but this will only be successful with people who utilize email frequently. o Place visible reminders such as warning signs and/or high water mark lines. o Social Media (Twitter, Facebook) is a low investment tool that can be very effective, how much it is utilized depends on the community and their resources. It also depends on the preferences for knowledge gathering of the local people;some may prefer to reference local news casts or other sources of information instead. o Puerto Rico Planning Board is currently developing a webpage and application that citizens can access to see their property and the risks associated with it. Additionally they are working on a Social Media Program. o Question: where can the communities find information/maps about storm surge now? Heidi will send a follow-up email with links to sites that provide mapping information. Messaging Tactics • Messages to be public need to be easy to understand with visuals to explain the concept(s). o Strategies to inform the public of flood risk could include the following: — School curriculum and drills for Tsunamis, flash floods, etc. — Present informally and provide information at factories and shopping centers — Written and spoken press material — Email developer associations — “Informacise” UPR – write to coastal communities and how coastal threats work — Install storm surge warning signs like Tsunami zones — Use social media, such as mobile phone application, utilize Facebook and Twitter • Main Message: Know your Risk, Know your Role, Take Action. o Focus needs to be on Take Action o Heidi invited everyone to read through the messaging document handed out during the meeting and comment via email or during the next meeting. • Messages to the public need to be very basic conceptually. The general public may be aware of the risk,, but they are not exposed to the details like the COAT members are on a daily basis. • Consider providing inserts/handouts to the community containing information about the risks for their community. Listening to someone isn’t always enough; sometimes community members need to look and read things. • Use technology for message delivery whenever possible and feasible, but remember different groups will react to technology differently. Web Content • Part of the outreach effort includes development of web content about coastal flood risks and other hazards that affect Puerto Rico. Partner websites this content can be posted/linked to are welcome. • Group was asked if there were any recommendations for content to include specific topics, key messages, or partner websites to consider during the development. o Use the Puerto Rico (Government) website that lists shelter locations based on a user entering basic location into the database. This site could be shared site with private sectors to encourage community use. o Use existing website that has live video of the ocean so communities can see the water rising and larger waves coming. o Utilize www.region2coastal.com website. Collaboraton on Mitigation • Sharing information is crucial for success o Critical information that should be shared with Puerto Ricans is locations of the nearest shelters to their homes and businesses (PREMA has this information, need to spread the word). It was also mentioned that private industry, academia, non-profit organizations, and others can provide a link to the shelter location site and other important sites. Municipality of Bayamón • The Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) has a key role in their Municipality to inform the community. • The Municipality of Bayamón has the capability to use interactive videos to spread the message to the community. • The use of an application in smartphones could be a useful tool • Offered to host future COAT meeting. Wrap Up • Aurelio Mercado lead a discussion using existing draft web based applications on coastalhazard.uprm.edu that model tsunami flood maps. The plan is to add hurricane categories 3, 4, and 5, which extend past the Flood Insurance Rate Map zones. This will be a good tool to communicate risk outside the 1% annual chance flood or base flood event. This content was not displayed for those on the webinar The conference call adjourned at approximately 12:00 p.m. EDT.