A Georgia state representative who spearheaded a study committee on recovery from natural disasters met with mitigation experts from around the country Tuesday.
Representative Clint Crowe, a Republican from Jackson, led the Disaster Mitigation and Resilience Study Committee in 2024. The group found that Georgia needs a statewide office to coordinate disaster mitigation efforts.
Crowe spoke with "resiliency planners" from across the U.S. to learn about best practices for disaster response.
He explained Georgia’s unique risk for natural disasters: “We have a coastal area, but even South Georgia, because of the panhandle of Florida, we have opportunity or occasion for storms to come from either side, from the Gulf or the Atlantic.”
But he also added that a resilience agency would respond to other issues.
“We’re not just looking at hurricanes,” he said. “We’re looking at all natural and manmade disasters, for that matter, anything that we can be prepared for, for any large scale emergency response.”
The event was sponsored by the Pew Charitable Trust, which convened disaster mitigation specialists from 20 US states on the campus of the University of Georgia in Athens.
