Feds Launches $1 Billion National Disaster Resilience Fund

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro launched a $1 billion National Disaster Resilience fund to helpcommunities devastated by natural disasters build back stronger and prepared.

“The National Disaster Resilience Competition is going to help communities that have been devastated by natural disasters build back stronger and better prepared for the future,” said Julián Castro. “This competition will help spur innovation, creatively distribute limited federal resources, and help communities across the country cope with the reality of severe weather that is being made worse by climate change.”

Julian was joined by Dr. Judith Rodin, President of the Rockefeller Foundation, in announcing that eligible states and localities can now begin applying for funds. Representatives from eligible communities will have the opportunity to attend Rockefeller-supported Resilience Academies across the country to strengthen their funding proposals.

“The Rockefeller Foundation is committed to spurring innovation in resilience planning and design so that communities can build better, more resilient futures, particularly for their most vulnerable citizens” said Dr. Judith Rodin, President of the Rockefeller Foundation. “Building resilience will minimize the impact of the next shock, while also improving life in communities day-to-day, allowing them to yield a resilience dividend. Everyone wins.”

As the recent National Climate Assessment made clear, extreme weather events—including heat waves, drought, tropical storms, high winds, storm surges and heavy downpours—are becoming more severe.  In many places these risks are projected to increase substantially due to rising sea levels and evolving development patterns, causing risks to the safety, health, and economies of entire communities.

Events like Hurricane Sandy have made it clear we remain vulnerable to such events in spite of advances in disaster preparedness.  American communities cannot effectively reduce their risks and vulnerabilities without planning for future extreme events and other impacts of climate change after a disaster and in their everyday decision-making.

The National Disaster Resilience Competition makes $1 billion available to communities that have been struck by natural disasters in recent years. The competition promotes risk assessment and planning and will fund the implementation of innovative resilience projects to better prepare communities for future storms and other extreme events.  Funding for the competition is from the Community Development Block Grant disaster recovery (CDBG-DR) appropriation provided by the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act, 2013 (PL 113-2).

This competition responds to requests from state, local, and tribal leaders who have asked the federal government to help them prepare their communities for the impacts of climate change and support investments in more resilient infrastructure.

All successful applicants will need to tie their proposals to the eligible disaster from which they are recovering.  For example, a community that suffered a flood might want to offer flood buyouts and property acquisition in the most impacted and distressed areas, followed by restoration of a wetland to limit future flooding and provide a nature preserve or recreation area. A community that lost housing and a road during a mudslide might want to not only construct housing in a safer area for survivors, but also find a financing mechanism for affected downstream businesses to survive the effects of the last event and be prepared for and recover more quickly from future hazards.

As Americans strive to create a more disaster-resilient communities, real estate agents in the area can use disruptive video marketing technologies to actively promote their listings to them. Realbiz Media Group, Inc. RBIZis a Florida-based digital media company that develops proprietary video marketing software that agents and their brokers can use to promote their virtual tour listings online. The company offers a Virtual Tour Program that allows real estate sellers to create virtual tours and presentationsthat are optimized for mobile viewing and could be syndicated through social media for only $29.95 a month.

The program is equipped with a video search engine optimization (VSEO) tool that automatically generate meta tags and descriptions for virtual tours and listings agents have uploaded to the platform so that they would be found easily by consumers online.

The program also has tools for creating QR codes, e-flyers, and seller reports as bonus features.

For agents on the go, the company has also recently launched a mobile app called EzFlix, which makes creating listings and virtual tours on mobile phones easier. The app also utilizes Realbiz Media’s patented technology which allows agents to create local community content, realtime videos, and add personalized messages to these items.  

To learn more about Realbiz Media and its products, contact sales@realbizmediagroup.comor call 1.888.REAL.BIZ (888.732.5249).