FEMA Mitigation Assessment Team Program: Observations and Recommendations since Hurricane Andrew

This paper will provide an overview of FEMA's Mitigation Assessment Team (MAT) Program, as well as observations and recommendations coming out of the MAT post-disaster investigations. Since the early 1990s, FEMA has deployed assessment teams in response to Hurricanes Andrew, Iniki, Opal, Fran, Georges, Charley, Ivan, Katrina, and Ike. The MAT has also deployed teams following floods, tornadoes, and terrorist attacks. The most recent MAT deployments were to the Southeast U.S. and Missouri following the tornadoes of Spring 2011. MAT investigators are deployed quickly following disasters, and teams are made up of FEMA representatives, state and local officials, and public and private sector experts in engineering, architecture, construction, building codes, and natural hazards research, as well as industry representatives. Observations from MAT findings help establish improved disaster-resistant construction codes and standards, designs, methods, and materials used for both new construction and post-disaster repair and recovery. The observations and recommendations of MATs are presented in reports published by FEMA. MATs deployed after hurricanes have focused on the performance of residential, commercial, and critical facility construction affected by high-velocity flood flow, wave action, the impact of waterborne debris, erosion and localized scour, and high winds. This paper will focus on the observations of the interaction of flood and wind during hurricanes, as well as the load combinations of flooding and high wind.