Coastal Family Resilience Act
Coastal Georgia should prepare before disaster strikes—not wait until families are already trying to recover.
If elected to the Georgia State House, I will work to introduce the Coastal Family Resilience Act—a practical plan to help Coastal Georgia families, homeowners, renters, small businesses, and local communities prepare for flooding, severe storms, rising insurance pressure, and infrastructure challenges.
Coastal families should not have to wait until after a storm to discover that drainage is inadequate, homes are vulnerable, roads are unsafe, insurance is unaffordable, or emergency resources are difficult to access.
This proposal would focus on preparation, protection, and recovery by supporting drainage improvements, home-hardening assistance, flood-risk mitigation, emergency readiness, and training for resilient construction and disaster-recovery careers.
Preparing before disaster strikes protects homes, jobs, families, and taxpayer dollars.
Why This Bill Is Needed
Coastal Georgia faces challenges that cannot be ignored: severe storms, flooding, high winds, drainage problems, damaged roads, rising property-insurance costs, and long recovery periods after emergencies.
When a storm hits, the burden is not carried equally. Families living paycheck to paycheck, seniors, veterans, people with disabilities, renters, small businesses, and people in aging homes can face the hardest road to recovery.
A flooded home, damaged roof, impassable road, prolonged power outage, or insurance cancellation can disrupt a family's ability to work, keep children in school, care for loved ones, and remain in the community.
Georgia must invest in practical preparation before the next emergency—not just temporary help after the damage is already done.
Every dollar spent preparing for disaster can help prevent families from losing far more after it happens.
What the Plan Would Do
The Coastal Family Resilience Act would bring state resources, local knowledge, and community partnerships together to reduce risk, protect homes and businesses, and improve recovery when emergencies occur.
1. Fix Problems Before Floodwater Reaches Homes
The proposal would support local drainage improvements, culvert upgrades, stormwater projects, ditch maintenance, flood-control planning, and other infrastructure work that helps move water safely away from homes, roads, businesses, and schools. Projects would be prioritized using documented flood risk, repeated drainage failures, local infrastructure conditions, and community input. The goal is not to wait for the next flooded neighborhood. It is to identify problems early and invest in solutions that protect families before severe weather arrives.
2. Make Homes Safer and More Storm-Ready
The bill would create or expand assistance for income-qualified homeowners, veterans, seniors, people with disabilities, and families in aging homes who need help making their homes more resilient. Eligible assistance could support roof reinforcement, storm shutters, window protection, elevation and flood-proofing measures, drainage improvements, accessibility upgrades, emergency repairs, and other home-hardening work. A family should not lose their home because they could not afford the basic improvements needed to prepare for predictable coastal risks.
3. Protect More Than Homeowners
Renters and small businesses are part of the same community and should not be left out of resilience planning. The proposal would explore practical protections and recovery assistance for renters displaced by disasters, small businesses that need help reopening, and local employers trying to retain workers after an emergency. A resilient community is one where families can return home, workers can return to work, and small businesses can reopen as quickly and safely as possible.
4. Make Sure Communities Are Ready Before the Emergency
The bill would support local emergency-preparedness planning, public communication, neighborhood response networks, resilient community hubs, emergency-supply coordination, and accessible information for residents. Planning must account for seniors, people with disabilities, families with young children, veterans, people without reliable transportation, and residents who may need additional support during evacuation or recovery. Every family deserves clear information about where to go, what resources are available, and how to get help before and after an emergency.
5. Fight for Fairness as Insurance Costs Rise
Rising insurance costs can make it harder for families to keep a home, buy a first home, or keep a small business open. The proposal would strengthen transparency around insurance affordability, encourage public review of coastal insurance challenges, and support consumer education so families understand coverage, deductibles, mitigation discounts, and available resources. It would also direct the state to identify ways to reward verified home-hardening and flood-mitigation work with fairer insurance options whenever possible. Families should not be left alone to navigate complicated insurance rules after they have already suffered a loss.
6. Create Local Jobs in Preparation and Recovery
Coastal resilience is also an opportunity to create good local jobs. The proposal would support training, apprenticeships, certifications, and workforce partnerships in resilient construction, roofing, drainage, electrical repair, plumbing, emergency management, debris removal, environmental restoration, and disaster recovery. When a storm affects our communities, Coastal Georgia should have more trained local workers ready to help rebuild safely and quickly.
How the Plan Would Work
The Coastal Family Resilience Act would be built around local input, documented risk, responsible use of public funds, and measurable results.
Step 1: Identify Risks Before Disaster
Use flood maps, infrastructure assessments, local emergency plans, resident reports, insurance-pressure data, and community input to identify the areas and households facing the greatest risks.
Step 2: Build Local Resilience Plans
Work with counties, cities, school systems, emergency-management agencies, housing authorities, small businesses, nonprofits, neighborhood groups, and residents to create local plans that reflect real community needs.
Step 3: Invest in Practical Projects
Direct grants, matching funds, technical assistance, and infrastructure support toward drainage, home hardening, mitigation, emergency readiness, and workforce training projects that reduce documented risks.
Step 4: Protect Families During Recovery
Coordinate recovery resources so residents can access clear information, housing support, repair assistance, small-business resources, and emergency services after a disaster.
Step 5: Report Results Publicly
Require annual public reporting on projects funded, homes strengthened, drainage problems addressed, residents served, local workers trained, funds used, and measurable risk reduction.
The standard for success is simple: Are families safer, are homes stronger, and is our community better prepared than it was before?
Protecting Homes, Neighborhoods, and Local Infrastructure
Coastal resilience begins at home, but it does not end there. A family can strengthen its roof, but still suffer if a nearby drainage system fails, roads flood, power is disrupted, or community services cannot reach residents after a storm.
This proposal would treat resilience as a community responsibility—linking home protection, infrastructure planning, emergency readiness, and local recovery.
Support drainage, culvert, stormwater, and flood-mitigation projects in high-risk areas.
Help income-qualified homeowners make storm-safety and resilience improvements.
Improve access to emergency repairs for vulnerable households after severe weather.
Support resilient roads, bridges, public facilities, and evacuation routes.
Encourage local governments to use updated risk assessments and public input when prioritizing projects.
Improve communication systems so residents receive timely, accessible emergency information.
Protect renters, seniors, veterans, people with disabilities, and families with young children during recovery.
Prepared neighborhoods recover faster, protect more families, and reduce the long-term cost of disasters.
Protecting Families From Insurance Pressure
For many Coastal Georgia families, the cost of insurance is becoming part of the housing crisis. Rising premiums, high deductibles, nonrenewals, and confusing coverage rules can make it harder for residents to keep a home or recover after a storm.
While the state cannot control every national insurance-market decision, Georgia can do more to make the system transparent, protect consumers, encourage mitigation, and make sure coastal voices are heard.
Require clear public reporting on coastal insurance affordability and coverage challenges.
Expand consumer education about coverage, deductibles, mitigation discounts, flood insurance, and claims rights.
Encourage insurers to recognize verified home-hardening and risk-reduction improvements where permitted.
Support a state coastal-insurance working group that includes homeowners, renters, small businesses, local governments, consumer advocates, and insurance experts.
Identify barriers that make it harder for families to obtain or maintain coverage.
Ensure that disaster-recovery resources are clearly communicated and accessible to residents.
No family should lose their home because insurance becomes impossible to understand, impossible to afford, or impossible to obtain.
What This Means for House District 180
House District 180 is part of Coastal Georgia. Our families, businesses, roads, neighborhoods, schools, and local economy are connected to the coast and the challenges that come with it.
Families in our district include military-connected households, veterans, seniors, first responders, teachers, nurses, service workers, small-business owners, renters, homeowners, and families living in older or more vulnerable homes.
When flooding, storms, or high insurance costs hit, the impact reaches every part of the community. It can affect whether a family stays housed, whether a small business reopens, whether employees can get to work, and whether children can return to school safely.
This proposal would help District 180 prepare before the next emergency, compete for resilience resources, protect vulnerable households, and create local training and jobs connected to disaster preparation and recovery.
Coastal Georgia should not have to wait for the next storm to start protecting families.
Responsible Investment and Public Accountability
The Coastal Family Resilience Act will focus on practical, measurable investments that reduce risk and protect public dollars over the long term.
Public funding should prioritize projects with documented need, clear community benefit, local input, and transparent results. The goal is to prevent damage where possible and make recovery faster when prevention is not enough.
Use documented flood risk, infrastructure conditions, and local emergency plans to guide investments.
Prioritize high-risk neighborhoods, vulnerable households, and repeated problem areas.
Use matching funds, federal grants, and local partnerships whenever possible.
Require public reporting on every major project, including cost, location, purpose, results, and maintenance needs.
Include independent financial oversight, audit requirements, and fraud-prevention safeguards.
Require projects to consider long-term maintenance and not simply short-term construction.
Protect local control by requiring meaningful community input before major state-supported projects move forward.
Review programs regularly and adjust investments based on outcomes and resident feedback.
The most responsible disaster plan is one that invests before damage becomes more expensive than prevention.
My Commitment
If elected, I will work with homeowners, renters, veterans, first responders, small-business owners, local governments, emergency-management professionals, housing organizations, infrastructure experts, and community members to introduce and strengthen the Coastal Family Resilience Act.
This is not about waiting for the next storm and holding a press conference afterward. It is about doing the hard work of preparation now—strengthening homes, improving infrastructure, protecting families, and building a local workforce ready to respond.
Coastal Georgia deserves a future where families are safer, communities are stronger, and recovery does not depend on luck.