Summit convened by:

Center for Biosecurity of UPMC

Canadian Policy Research Network

Center for Science Technology and Security Policy at AAAS

National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responsed to Terror

Panel II: Show Me! An Inside Look at Citizen Engagement
Grassroots Hazards Management in Tornado Alley

Ann Patton

Speaker biography  |  Transcript  |  Panel agenda

Summary
Ms. Patton presented on the work and experience of Tulsa Project Impact, Citizen Corps, and Tulsa Partners, Inc., in collectively making the community of Tulsa, OK, safer from man-made and natural hazards. She has held leadership positions in each of these initiatives.

Tulsa, OK, has benefited from both grassroots activism and federal support in reducing the impact of ever present hazards like floods and tornados. For the period of 1970 to 1985, Tulsa was the nation's leader in flood damage with 9 federally declared flood disasters. In the face of this repeated threat, a Tulsa housewife named Carol Williams organized the citizens group "Tulsans for Better Community" to find ways to improve "flood-living." Her efforts gained more traction in the wake of a devastating 1984 flood.

In 1998, the City of Tulsa became a Project Impact community. Project Impact was a FEMA initiative that funded grassroots community mitigation programs in 250 communities from 1997 to 2001. Homegrown and federally supported efforts helped raise Tulsans' consciousness about disaster mitigation, enough for them to embrace bond issues and sales taxes in the interest of better floodplain management. The City continued to fund community disaster mitigation efforts even after the FEMA program was discontinued. Citizens Corps and Tulsa Partners, Inc., have built on prior successes, continuing a shared vision.

Since 1998, hundreds of community organizations and thousands of volunteers have participated in various community programs with the common goal of facilitating "ordinary citizens working together for safer lives and better communities-despite natural and man-made hazards-from tornadoes to terrorism."

Investing in these initiatives, Tulsa has enjoyed profitable returns with respect to increased mitigation and community collaboration. A key example of this was the improved relations between community members and Tulsa Home Builders Association resulting from a community partnership to build tornado safe rooms in thousands of new residences.

Summary by Jennifer Nuzzo, SM