Sign this letter to FEMA demanding action to reduce flooding.

Dear Administrator Criswell,

We are flood survivors, and we are angry. 

We live in cities like Detroit, Chicago, New Orleans, and New York, but also small and mid-sized towns including Playa Ponce, Borikén, Puerto Rico; Miami, Oklahoma; and Koyukuk, Alaska. 

We've witnessed death and destruction from Hurricanes Harvey, Florence, Laura, Sally, Sandy, Matthew, Irma, Delta, and Zeta, as well as from overland flooding in the Midwest. 

We've lived without electricity, running water, and secure shelter. We've heard our children cry from the absence of friends, school, and safety. And we've confronted homelessness, illness, and mind-numbing red tape from insurance companies and government agencies.

But we are also organized, and we demand change. 

We have coordinated emergency planning, helped with evacuations, piled sandbags, called in rescue teams, provided food and shelter for displaced people, run workshops about how to fill out out claims-forms, trained young people in home repairs, filed lawsuits, and run buy-out and green infrastructure programs. We have shouted, protested, and carried signs and banners. 

Now, we are responding to FEMA's Request for Information on the National Flood Insurance Program's Floodplain Management Standards for Land Management and Use, and an Assessment of the Program's Impact on Threatened and Endangered Species and Their Habitats. That's a long name, so the following five demands are as succinct as possible. (And by the way, just because we make demands, it doesn't mean we don't appreciate your efforts to improve post-disaster recovery programs: We do!)

Here are things we want -- (they are pretty simple).

1. Don't Build Where it Floods 

2. Stop Recycling Flooded Properties 

3. Disclose Flood Risk 

4. Make Flood Insurance Fair 

5. Protect or Restore Ecologies that Reduce Flooding

We know a thing or two about flooding – so talk to us! 

The flood survivors below all believe that for our children to have a safe and healthy planet, we need to quickly end fossil fuel use and transition to an economy focused on the satisfaction of real, human needs. At the same time, provision must be made to protect individuals and communities from present and future harms due to more intense storms, rising sea levels, subsidence, bad development, and flooding. We need support, transparency, inclusiveness, and accountability to grassroots organizations. We're already at work on these issues and we can help you do a better job helping communities recover from flooding and preventing future disasters.

Respectfully,

Harriet Festing
Executive Director, Anthropocene Alliance

Read the full version of our letter here and see who has already signed.