CREW develops projects and activities that support collaboration, raise awareness, and facilitate resilience-building efforts and earthquake preparedness across the western U.S. and beyond. The following is a sample of the projects that CREW is currently developing with support from the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
Highlights
Multi-State Earthquake Insurance / Financial Preparedness Outreach and Collaboration Projects
CREW worked with state, federal, and industry partners to survey and report on the status of earthquake insurance in the western U.S., paying particular attention to existing education and outreach efforts. The results of this work are now informing the development of a variety of projects aimed at facilitating constructive dialogue about earthquake insurance challenges, as well as educating the public about earthquake insurance and financial preparedness.
Learn more: Earthquake Insurance Snapshot
The survey highlighted the need for more communication and collaboration among earthquake program managers, emergency managers, and insurance professionals in order to tackle the issues that drive low earthquake insurance uptake. Working with our central-U.S. partner CUSEC, CREW hosted a forum on March 28, 2022 in which participants took a closer look at earthquake insurance, exploring its potential as a resilience tool and examining challenges that have limited its role in financial preparedness.
View recordings of the Mind the Gap national earthquake insurance forum
On February 8, 2023, CREW and CUSEC will be hosting a webinar: Equitable Access to Affordable Earthquake Insurance: A Resilience Challenge.
In addition, to help keep these conversations going and facilitate sharing of information and ideas among professional groups, CREW is hosting an earthquake insurance collaboration site and Slack platform.
CREW published two online sites to support public education about earthquake insurance and financial preparedness in the western U.S.
- The Insure Against Earthquakes Outreach Hub is a resource for preparedness educators and seismic professionals. It offers links to reliable information as well as ready-to-use outreach tools, including videos, social media graphics, sample messages, fact sheets, guides, and outreach tips.
- The Outreach Hub is connected to the Insure Against Earthquakes public hub. It provides basic information on key topics and connects members of the public to relevant content and useful online resources.
Featured products on the information hubs include social media graphics that CREW created for our preparedness partners to use in outreach campaigns, as well as an educational video that CREW produced with our central U.S. partner CUSEC. CREW subsequently produced five more shorter videos, each focused on a specific message or audience. The videos are available in both English and Spanish and include closed captioning.
Remote-Learning and Collaboration Resources
To further support coordination among states and between the private and public sectors, CREW is expanding our existing partnership portal and other collaboration tools, as well as developing new remote-learning resources for earthquake program managers and other earthquake-preparedness professionals.
The development of these and related products will encourage the exchange of ideas, enhance regional collaboration, and help states apply their resources efficiently to reduce seismic risk.
Tools for Earthquake-Preparedness Partners
CREW is consulting state and federal partners to develop a comparative overview of earthquake programs, policies, goals, and strategies across the western region — information that will become the foundation of a resource that earthquake program managers and other planners can use to identify opportunities for collaboration and to coordinate state and regional mitigation goals, strategies, and activities.