Wetlands Watch Role in the Appalachian Flood Coalition
In the Commonwealth, Coastal Virginia is not the only region at risk of changing climate, shifting weather patterns, and the increasing intensity of storms and flooding. Western areas of the state are the primary sites of presidentially declared flood disasters in Virginia, with hurricanes from the Gulf Coast traveling north to cause large amounts of devastating flooding in the Appalachia region. Wetlands Watch helps all regions of Virginia prepare, combat, and respond to the effects of climate change. We work with communities in Southwest Virginia, providing technical assistance to increase flood resiliency in a region experiencing an upwards of 230 flash-flood related deaths over the past decade.
Last year, Genevieve Guerry, Wetlands Watch Flood Risk Project Staff and Community Rating System (CRS) Workgroup Chair, joined the Appalachia Flood Resilience Coalition, founded in 2022, as a member of their steering committee. This coalition strives to connect Appalachia organizations to foster policy change and ensure investments to increase flood resilience in the region are grounded in evidence-based information and the Appalachia lived experience.
As part of this Coalition’s steering community, Genevieve has helped make federal policy recommendations that align with the coalition's four pillars of: increasing local and state flood response capacity, relieving the flood burden on low income households, improving flood mapping and data inputs, and investing in nature-based solutions. Genevieve's experience in environmental health will be an asset to the coalition as they work to address the health concerns that flooding and occupational hazards pose to the Appalachian community.
With Wetland Watch’s expertise in strengthening floodplain management and resilience planning, we hope to apply flood resilience strategies, such as open space preservation and public flood messaging, to a region that has commonly been left out of the climate adaptation conversation. The effects of Hurricane Helene in 2024 on the Appalachian communities further call for the necessity of flood preparation measures and federal and state resource support. Wetlands Watch has helped a large number of communities achieve higher FEMA flood insurance discounts through its Community Rating System (CRS), but recognize adequate floodplain mapping and staff capacity is a barrier to entry in this program. A part of our involvement with this steering committee has been to recommend streamlining entry into the CRS program so that communities, such as those in Appalachia that lack up to date floodplain data, can achieve flood insurance discounts. More federal policy recommendations will be debuted in mid November, so stay tuned! Wetlands Watch strives to support every community across the Commonwealth to mitigate flood risks and build healthy floodplains. We want to support the community of Appalachia that has largely been left out of climate resiliency conversations to build climate adaptation and reduce flood risk.
