So, keep that in mind as you read about former Mayor Kotaku Wamura of Fudai in Japan.  The Associated Press article by Tomoka A Hosaka, published May 13, 2011, can be found below.  You really have to appreciate the vision former Mayor Wamura and his dedicated efforts to get the wall built before it caused additional deaths in his community.  Wamura served ten term mayor of Fudai.  As the article clearly notes to the reader:  “Without the 51-foot costly floodgate, Fudai would have disappeared.”

How One Japanese Village Defied The Tsunami

In the rubble of Japan’s northeast coast, one small village stands as tall as ever after the tsunami. No homes were swept away. In fact, they barely got wet.  Fudai is the village that survived — thanks to a huge wall once deemed a mayor’s expensive folly and now vindicated as the community’s salvation.

The 3,000 residents living between mountains behind a cove owe their lives to a late leader who saw the devastation of an earlier tsunami and made it the priority of his four-decade tenure to defend his people from the next one.  His 51-foot (15.5-meter) floodgate between mountainsides took a dozen years to build and meant spending more than $30 million in today’s dollars.

“It cost a lot of money. But without it, Fudai would have disappeared,” said seaweed fisherman Satoshi Kaneko, 55, whose business has been ruined but who is happy to have his family and home intact.  The floodgate project was criticized as wasteful in the 1970s. But the gate and an equally high seawall behind the community’s adjacent fishing port protected Fudai from the waves that obliterated so many other towns on March 11. Two months after the disaster, more than 25,000 are missing or dead.

“However you look at it, the effectiveness of the floodgate and seawall was truly impressive,” Fudai Mayor Hiroshi Fukawatari said. Towns to the north and south also braced against tsunamis with concrete seawalls, breakwaters and other protective structures. But none were as tall as Fudai’s.

The town of Taro believed it had the ultimate fort — a double-layered 33-foot-tall (10-meter-tall) seawall spanning 1.6 miles (2.5 kilometers) across a bay. It proved no match for the tsunami two months ago. In Fudai, the waves rose as high as 66 feet (20 meters), as water marks show on the floodgate’s towers. So some ocean water did flow over but it caused minimal damage. The gate broke the tsunami’s main thrust. And the community is lucky to have two mountainsides flanking the gate, offering a natural barrier.

The man credited with saving Fudai is the late Kotaku Wamura, a 10-term mayor whose political reign began in the ashes of World War II and ended in 1987.  Fudai, about 320 miles (510 kilometers) north of Tokyo, depends on the sea. Fishermen boast of the seaweed they harvest. A pretty, white-sand beach lures tourists every summer.  But Wamura never forgot how quickly the sea could turn. Massive earthquake-triggered tsunamis flattened Japan’s northeast coast in 1933 and 1896. In Fudai, the two disasters destroyed hundreds of homes and killed 439 people.

“When I saw bodies being dug up from the piles of earth, I did not know what to say. I had no words,” Wamura wrote of the 1933 tsunami in his book about Fudai, “A 40-Year Fight Against Poverty.”  He vowed it would never happen again.

In 1967, the town erected a 51-foot (15.5-meter) seawall to shield homes behind the fishing port. But Wamura wasn’t finished. He had a bigger project in mind for the cove up the road, where most of the community was located. That area needed a floodgate with panels that could be lifted to allow the Fudai River to empty into the cove and lowered to block tsunamis.

He insisted the structure be as tall as the seawall.  The village council initially balked.

“They weren’t necessarily against the idea of floodgates, just the size,” said Yuzo Mifune, head of Fudai’s resident services and an unofficial floodgate historian. “But Wamura somehow persuaded them that this was the only way to protect lives.”

Construction began in 1972 despite lingering concerns about its size as well as bitterness among landowners forced to sell land to the government.  Even current Mayor Fukawatari, who helped oversee construction, had his doubts.

“I did wonder whether we needed something this big,” he said in an interview at his office.  The concrete structure spanning 673 feet (205 meters) was completed in 1984. The total bill of 3.56 billion yen was split between the prefecture and central government, which financed public works as part of its postwar economic strategy.

On March 11, after the 9.0 earthquake hit, workers remotely closed the floodgate’s four main panels. Smaller panels on the sides jammed, and a firefighter had to rush down to shut them by hand.  The tsunami battered the white beach in the cove, leaving debris and fallen trees. But behind the floodgate, the village is virtually untouched.

Fudai Elementary School sits no more than a few minutes walk inland. It looks the same as it did on March 10. A group of boys recently ran laps around a baseball field that was clear of the junk piled up in other coastal neighborhoods.  Their coach, Sachio Kamimukai, was born and raised in Fudai. He said he never thought much about the floodgate until the tsunami.

“It was just always something that was there,” said Kamimukai, 36. “But I’m very thankful now.”  The floodgate works for Fudai’s layout, in a narrow valley, but it wouldn’t necessarily be the solution for other places, Fukawatari said.

Fudai’s biggest casualty was its port, where the tsunami destroyed boats, equipment and warehouses. The village estimates losses of 3.8 billion yen ($47 million) to its fisheries industry.  One resident remains missing. He made the unlucky decision to check on his boat after the earthquake.

Wamura left office three years after the floodgate was completed. He died in 1997 at age 88. Since the tsunami, residents have been visiting his grave to pay respects.  At his retirement, Wamura stood before village employees to bid farewell: “Even if you encounter opposition, have conviction and finish what you start. In the end, people will understand.”

WOLF BLITZER, HOST: On the whole issue of FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, do you want to see that agency ended?

REP. RON PAUL (R), TEXAS: Well, if you want to live in a free society, if you want to pay attention to the constitution, why not? I think it’s bad economics.  I think it’s bad morality.  And it’s bad constitutional law.

Why should people like myself, who had, not too long ago, a house on the Gulf Coast and it’s – it’s expensive there and it’s risky and it’s dangerous.

Why should somebody from the central part of the United States rebuild my house? Why shouldn’t I have to buy my own insurance and protect about the potential dangers?

Well, the reason we don’t have market insurance is it’s too expensive. Well, why is it expensive? Because it’s dangerous. Well, so why should – why should we take money from somebody else who don’t get the chance to live on the Gulf and make them pay to rebuild my house?

I mean it’s – it’s a moral hazard to say that government is always going to take care of us when we do dumb things.  I’m trying to get people to not to dumb things.  Besides, it’s not authorized in the constitution.

BLITZER:  And if there’s a disaster, like flooding or – or an earthquake or Hurricane Katrina, what’s wrong with asking fellow Americans to help their – their – their fellow citizens?

PAUL:  Nothing.  And I think Americans are very, very generous and they have traditionally.  The big problem is Americans are getting poor and they’re not able to voluntarily come to the rescue.

But to coerce people, to ask them to help, that is fine and dandy.  But when you bankrupt our country and nobody has a job and then they say, well, FEMA needs to bail out everybody, then all we’re doing is compounding our problems.

And believe me, I’ve been, you know, very much involved in the hurricanes that have come into my district.  And most of the people in my district do not like FEMA.  You know, they want to try to get their money and all.  But FEMA comes in and takes over.

They take over their property rights.  They dictate.  They prevent some of the volunteers from going in.

So there’s a strong resentment toward the way FEMA operates, because they’re bureaucrats who don’t understand the rule of law nor do they understand local control and property rights. So there’s – there’s a very strong argument that this whole program, that governance through coercion and taxation, can bail out everybody when we’re flat broke and they have to print the money.  And now we’re going into inflationary problems, which are very severe.  That’s our big issue right now.

Substantial cuts are proposed to come from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s state and local grant program.  Some in Congress have indicated that FEMA’s state and local grants are wasteful and backlogged.  To balance this out, there is a proposal to add money to the Disaster Relief Fund.  This specific issue is a concern to me.  Reducing investment in mitigation and preparedness projects is being “penny wise and pound foolish.” 

Why?  Take FEMA’s Pre-Disaster Mitigation (PDM) program for instance.  This program has been proven to be a highly effective program for state and local governments to help prevent damage due to natural disasters.  The PDM program has proven to save lives, mitigate damage, and, perhaps most importantly, reduces post-disaster costs.

The PDM program has been studied extensively.  Studies have shown that it SAVES taxpayers $4.00 in post-disaster expense for every $1.00 in PDM grants funded.  So, does it really make sense to cut funding for programs like PDM which have been proven to save lives and money simply to spend even more money to clean up after a storm and support individuals with disaster relief funds?

Texas Emergency Management ONLINE recently noted that approximately 56 states and territories participate in the federal EMPG program funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). When Texas receives its allocated EMPG funds, it is one of the few states that will pass a portion of those funds through to local jurisdictions to reimburse them for emergency management program expenses. For local governments, the state of Texas requires a 50 percent match for every federal dollar of EMPG funding provided (Texas Emergency Management ONLINE, 2011, Vol 58, No 2). 

Without this program, many Texas jurisdictions would lack funding for an Emergency Management Coordinator, even a part-time coordinator.  Given the threats from natural hazards and technological hazards, it is vitally important that Texas communities have the ability to develop emergency management programs and dedicate time and resources to preparing for events such as hurricanes, ice storms, pipeline blowouts, terrorism, etc….  In FY 2010, a total of 115 jurisdictions in Texas were approved to receive more that $5 million from the EMPG program.

The expectation of the average citizen is that its jurisdiction will be able to respond effectively to disasters.  However, without funding, and, of course, commitment from elected officials who make budget decisions, it is unlikely that any jurisdiction will effectively prepare for, respond to, and recover from disaster events.  Ellis Stanley, in his testimony before the Subcommittee on Homeland Security, Committee on Appropriations, US Senate a few years ago, argued forcefully, not only for the maintenance of the EMPG program, but for budgetary increases in the Program.

Stanley, General Manager of the Emergency Preparedness Department of the City of Los Angeles, California noted that EMPG “funding is the single most effective use of federal funds in providing emergency management capacity to state and local governments. No other source of homeland security funding is based on a consensus building process determining outcomes and specific deliverables backstopped by a quarterly accountability process. This program, which is cost shared, provides the funding for the emergency managers who perform the role of the “honest broker” at the state and local level and who establish the framework for preparedness, response, recovery and mitigation. EMPG is used for personnel, planning, training, and exercises at both the state and local levels.”

The President’s Budget Request for FY 2012 was made public this morning.  An initial glance at the document indicates that the budget request includes $350 million for the Emergency Management Performance Grant Program.    I do not remember exactly, but I think this is within the range of the total budget for last year.  This is good news, but there is a long way to go before the FY 2012 Budget is adopted.  It is my hope that the EMPG program makes it through relatively unscathed during the upcoming budget proceedings— it is of critical importance to Fort Bend County, the State of Texas, and communities across the nation.

With the new year fast approaching, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is encouraging all Americans to make emergency preparedness one of their New Year’s resolutions for the coming year.  Resolve to be Ready in 2011 is a nationwide effort to urge individuals, families, businesses and communities to focus on being ready and aware of all the hazards that exist in their communities.

 ”Emergencies can happen at anytime, anywhere,” said FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate.  “They can range from natural disasters such as snowstorms or flooding, to events such as power outages.  The key to successful emergency response, regardless of the nature of the event, is personal preparedness.  As we ring in 2011, make a resolution to be prepared through a few simple steps: get an emergency supply kit, make an emergency plan and be informed of the hazards in your area.”

Resolve to be Ready in 2011 is one resolution anyone can keep thanks to the tools and resources available at www.Ready.gov or the Spanish language site, www.Listo.gov.  These sites include important information such as how to put together a kit, make a plan and stay informed.

Throughout this holiday season, FEMA leadership across the country has been encouraging citizens to Resolve to be Ready in 2011.  Among other things, they have written op-eds in The Tennessean, Everett Daily Herald, Oregon Live, Los Angeles Daily News, Southeast Missourian and Boston Herald encourage readers to take the simple steps to be prepared.

Resolve to be Ready in 2011 is led by FEMA’s Ready Campaign in partnership with Citizen Corps and The Advertising Council.  For more information on the Ready Campaign and Citizen Corps, visit Ready.gov and CitizenCorps.gov.

Follow FEMA online at www.twitter.com/fema, www.facebook.com/fema, blog.fema.gov, and www.youtube.com/fema.  Also, follow Administrator Craig Fugate’s activities at www.twitter.com/craigatfema.  The social media links provided are for reference only. FEMA does not endorse any non-government websites, companies or applications.

Fugate delivered this message as part of his keynote address at the 58th Annual International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM) Conference in San Antonio, Texas.  He made a number of interesting comments to the professional emergency managers in attendance.  A common theme of his remarks was that “Emergency Management is not about easy.”  Emergency Management is also not for the faint hearted he said.  He felt emergency planning needs to be done in a new way— in a way that better serves the citizens, and he committed to changing FEMA planning documents to be inclusive of children, infants, elderly, pet owners, and those without transportation.  He asked all emergency managers to answer the question:  ”Who are you planning for in your community?”

During his remarks, Fugate also urged the audience to participate in a new public challenge FEMA is hosting to come up with creative ideas on how we can prepare communities before disaster strikes. “Considering the needs of all members of our community and planning for worst case scenarios is exactly why we need a strong emergency management team – a team that FEMA is only one member of,” said Fugate. “We know government can’t do it alone – many of the most innovative ideas for how we can protect all members of our community from the impacts of disasters will come from you.  That’s why we are engaging the entire team in this effort to crowd source solutions by submitting creative ideas to http://challenge.gov/fema.”

In addition, Fugate discussed the need for all stakeholders to prepare for worst case scenarios, what he calls “Maximum of Maximums” – disasters that go beyond the capability of government resources.  Under Fugate’s leadership, FEMA has focused on engaging a diverse group of stakeholders in these efforts.  In September, FEMA hosted the first-ever National “Getting Real” Conference, which brought together leaders from the emergency management and disability communities to discuss strategies to integrate the entire community into emergency planning.  FEMA also recently hosted its first-ever Latino Leadership Summit and Black Leadership Forum, which engaged stakeholders in discussions about how to better involve the entire community in emergency planning.

Fugate launched FEMA’s new public challenge last week at a separate conference in San Diego, Calif.  The IAEM Annual Conference provides a forum to share information about the latest trends, tools and technology in emergency management and homeland security.  Sessions encourage stakeholders at all levels of government, the private sector, public health and related professions to exchange ideas on collaborating to protect lives and property from disasters.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator Craig Fugate today urged state emergency managers from across the country to incorporate the needs and capabilities of the entire community, including children and people with disabilities, when planning for disaster response and recovery.  In addition, Fugate also challenged participants to plan for worst case scenarios that go beyond the capabilities of government solutions, scenarios which he refers to as “Maximum of Maximums.”

“Historically in emergency management we have only planned for what our capabilities can handle or only looked at what we can do to respond as government,” said Fugate.  ”But what we really need to be doing is planning for disasters that go beyond our capabilities.  That’s why we have to look beyond our government-centric approach and see what outside resources we can bring to the table.  We need to better engage our volunteer and non-profit partners, work with the private sector, and most importantly involve the public.  And through all this planning we can’t lose focus on the communities we serve.  We have to remember: It’s not about process, it’s about the products; it’s not about the incident, it’s about the individual.”

Fugate made his remarks during the National Emergency Management Association’s annual conference, which brings together state emergency management officials from around the country.  

Fugate also pointed out that FEMA is trying to lead by example in these areas, having recently hosted the first ever National “Getting Real” Conference to bring together leaders from the emergency management and disability communities to discuss strategies to integrate the entire community into emergency planning.  Also, last month, FEMA hosted a Latino Leadership Summit, and in May FEMA hosted the Black Leadership Forum.  Both gatherings were designed to engage stakeholders in discussions about how to better involve the entire community in emergency planning.

Prior to joining FEMA 18 months ago, Administrator Fugate served as the Director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management.  Fugate began his emergency management career as a volunteer firefighter, Emergency Paramedic, and finally as a Lieutenant with the Alachua County Fire Rescue.

Follow FEMA online at www.twitter.com/fema, www.facebook.com/fema, and www.youtube.com/fema.  Also, follow Administrator Craig Fugate’s activities at www.twitter.com/craigatfema.  The social media links provided are for reference only.  FEMA does not endorse any non-government websites, companies or applications.

FEMA’s mission is to support our citizens and first responders to ensure that as a nation we work together to build, sustain, and improve our capability to prepare for, protect against, respond

Residents and business owners in the City of Sugar Land can now enjoy a reduction in flood insurance premiums because of the city’s active participation in the National Flood Insurance Program’s (NFIP) Community Rating System (CRS). In addition to lower premiums, the CRS program helps to reduce the threat of damage due to flooding.

“The flood insurance program rewards communities for implementing programs and policies that protect their residents from flooding,” said Tony Russell, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) regional administrator.  “City of Sugar Land’s higher regulatory standards, public education outreach, and other initiatives, have earned the city lower premiums as a CRS Class 7 Community.”

The City of Sugar Land’s flood insurance policyholders who reside in Special Flood Hazard Areas will receive a 15 percent reduction on flood insurance premiums and policyholders located outside Special Flood Hazard Areas will enjoy a 5 percent discount. The reduction in flood insurance premiums represents an annual savings in premium costs for Sugar Land policy holders and will take effect at the time a new policy is written or an effective policy is renewed.

New to CRS, the City of Sugar Land’s participation in the CRS has been beneficial in many respects.  In addition to the reduction in insurance premiums, the City of Sugar Land officials are more knowledgeable about floodplain management and its residents are more knowledgeable about mitigation and flood insurance.  

The program helped make the City of Sugar Land a safer place to live, reduced the economic impact of flood hazards and saved their citizens money on their flood policy premiums.

The community rating system (CRS) is a voluntary program for NFIP- participating communities.  The intended goals of the CRS are to reduce flood losses; facilitate accurate insurance ratings; and to promote the awareness of flood insurance.  For more information on the NFIP’s CRS program, go to www.fema.gov/business/nfip/crs.shtm.

FEMA’s mission is to support our citizens and first responders to ensure that as a nation we work together to build, sustain, and improve our capability to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate all hazards.

The NETC Learning Resource Center (LRC) provides current information and resources on fire, emergency management and other All-Hazards subjects. With its collection of more than 160,000 books, reports, periodicals, and audiovisual materials, the LRC facilitates and supports student and faculty research and supplements classroom lectures and course materials. Users of this Web site may access the LRC’s Online Public Access Catalog to perform their own literature searches. In addition to searching the collections cited above, the LRC’s catalog is a unique guide to periodical literature with citations on fire, emergency response, natural disaster, and homeland security topics going back to the early 1970s. LRC staff index nearly 5,000 newly published articles each year, from scores of professional journals, magazines and newsletters across the country and internationally.

Here is the URL to take you to the Learning Resource Center:   http://www.lrc.fema.gov

To view the entire FEMA News Release (March 31, 2009, #1791-459) go to:   http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=47842