Sharing and Adapting the Homeowner’s Handbook to Prepare for Natural Hazards

Abstract

In 2007, the University of Hawai‘i Sea Grant College Program produced the Homeowner’s Handbook to Prepare for Natural Hazards in response to the significant threat of hurricanes and a sense of the urgent need to help communities prepare. There are now 15 versions of the Handbook across the Sea Grant network, with over 189,250 copies printed in three languages. The Handbook helps prepare communities for natural hazard risk with best practices that are resilient, adaptive, and sustainable. Partnerships between scientific organizations, emergency managers, the private sector, and community groups have played key roles in developing, distributing, updating, and educating the public. A wide range of education activities—from adult outreach through seminars, webinars, emergency fairs, workshops, and continuing education courses to student and K–12 teaching resources to TV and media sharing—​were developed for greater reach into the community. Going forward, programs have plans to include more information on climate change, to address not just homeowners but all residents, to encourage helping the vulnerable, and to work with emergency managers and partners to expand the range of education and outreach so that the “Whole Community” can be reached.