Lessons from Sandy : Federal Policies to Build Climate-Resilient Coastal Regions

Hurricane Sandy brought the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut metropolitan area to a standstill, flooding key arteries, disabling power plants, damaging more than 600,000 homes, and killing 60 people. The scope of the devastation was a wake-up call that elevated the discussion about disasters and climate change at all levels of government. This report, copublished with Regional Plan Association, identifies a set of policies, regulations, and administrative practices that federal agencies can adopt to help coastal metropolitan regions become more climate resilient--able to recover quickly from shocks and stressors while at the same time reducing future risk in the face of climate change and rising sea levels. This report, spurred by the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, identifies a set of policies, regulations, and administrative practices that federal agencies can adopt to help coastal metropolitan regions recover quickly from natural disasters and reduce future risk in the face of climate change and rising sea levels.