“Roadmap to Resilience” Debuts:
CRC Report Available to Everyone
As promised when the Coastal Recovery Commission (CRC) of Alabama was launched in September, the Commission presents its bound report (6.9mb .pdf) to Gov. Bob Riley and Gov.-elect Robert Bentley today in Montgomery.
The ceremonial presentation of the report, A Roadmap to Resilience, takes place in the historic Old Statehouse Legislative Chamber. More than 80 coastal Alabama leaders are expected to make the trip to the Capitol for the event. And with the legislature in special session, a strong turnout of the state’s political leaders is likely.
What happens next depends largely on those state political and business leaders. Some of the recommendations in the 198-page report will require legislative support. Many more, however, call for new perspectives on how the coastal region organizes itself to be more prepared for future challenges. Such challenges will come not only in the form of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, which inspired Gov. Bob Riley to launch the CRC in late September, but also potentially catastrophic events such as hurricanes.
The CRC effort was saluted in a video produced for the occasion by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and featuring EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. Jackson’s agency is leading the post-spill environmental restoration effort from the federal government. She congratulated CRC leaders for pushing forward resilience strategies and lauded their determination to align organizations and agencies, from the federal level down to the local communities, to implement those strategies.
A report on the day’s events in Montgomery will be posted in this space on Dec. 16.
For more background on the CRC, read the column to the immediate right, and check out the FAQ here. The Commission’s progression towards today’s event is chronicled in posts preceding this one.
As a Board member of the Mobile County based West Bay and Gulf Coast Tourism Development Council I was privileged and heartened by the regional synergies this whole CRC process facilitated for South Alabama and the Gulf Coast.
Having the opportunities to discuss/strategize regional issues with not just our sister organizations (Gulf Shores/Orange Beach Tourism and Mobile Convention and Tourism Bureau) but other business and fishing organizations was such a breath of fresh air.
Thank you Gov. Riley, Ricky Mathews and all the CRC staff for organizing and implementing this process. I hope this cooperative effort can continue beyond this emergency.
Marion Laney
Board Member, West Bay and Gulf Coast TDC
COO, ideaWercs, inc