Immediately following the beginning of the 2008 flooding and severe storms in Iowa, the State hired Witt Associates to help them manage the planning and coordination effort for long-term recovery. Within days, Witt Associates deployed a team of skilled professionals to provide the State of Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management Division (HSEMD) with technical and professional services to assist and implement the State of Iowa’s responsibilities as a Grantee under Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) grant programs, including the Public Assistance (PA) Program.
Witt Associates worked with the State of Iowa on Public Assistance, providing coordination, team development, and communication with eligible state, local, and non-profit sub-grantees in order to maximize grant awards and reduce the likelihood of problems.
Witt Associates provided the State of Iowa with strategic advice, organization, communications, and planning services. Through the disaster programs, our team regularly reviewed activities and priorities in an effort to achieve strategic objectives and to plan for future delivery of support in a way that best met critical needs. Action and work plans were developed as needed to guide work efforts linked to performance benchmarks that allowed us and our clients to monitor progress.
In the immediate aftermath of the historic flooding, Witt Associates provided experienced personnel to support the State of Iowa’s individual assistance responsibilities by expediting the delivery of assistance and minimizing unmet needs. Our personnel worked with FEMA staff to help identify critical needs of disaster victims, strategize on issues and challenges in the delivery of individual disaster assistance, and assist in the recommendation and development of disaster- specific guidance to ensure citizens in Iowa received the assistance they were eligible to receive in the least amount of time possible all while assuring accountability in the process.
Witt Associates carried a broad range of experience to the State of Iowa related to the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program and hazard mitigation planning. Our team provided mitigation grant managers as well as specialists (mitigation planners, benefit-cost analysis, training, Quality Assurance/Quality Control, National Environmental Policy Act/Historic Preservation, engineering, etc.) to support Iowa’s needs in implementing its HMGP program and provided the State with assistance in requesting innovative pilot programs and initiatives to meet specific challenges in the recovery period. Our External Affairs Officers in Iowa also worked directly with the State emergency management and communications staff to recommend and develop daily messages and communications strategies, as well as with existing program personnel and dedicated outreach/community relations staff to ensure a common understanding and delivery of messages and strategies.
Additionally, Witt Associates recommended the establishment of the Rebuild Iowa Office (RIO), a State agency created by Executive Order, charged with the mission of ensuring the State of Iowa rebuild safer, stronger and smarter than before. Witt Associates provided core staff support for the RIO and its advisory body, the Rebuild Iowa Advisory Commission, and helped develop and implement a community-based recovery planning initiative that provided heavy emphasis on identifying and prioritizing the impacts of the 2008 disaster on housing, businesses and area economies, infrastructure, and other key areas. More than 500 Iowans participated in the planning effort, including community representatives, elected officials, business leaders, economic development planning districts/Councils of Governments, and citizens. This significant public/private effort produced substantial consensus among participants, and resulted in a variety of policy changes at the state and local levels, as well as the establishment of the state’s widely-praised “jumpstart” initiative that has provided grants and forgivable loans to businesses and homeowners to “jumpstart” their recovery.