J&M in South Carolina
In late 2015, South Carolina experienced unprecedented flooding, and was declared a major disaster area. Under the National Disaster Recovery Framework (NDRF), the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) coordinates the federal government’s economic recovery support to disaster areas. EDA asked J&M to support the economic recovery mission, deploying our disaster and economic recovery experts to the state for several months following the flooding.
While on the ground in South Carolina, the J&M team helped the federal government to assess the scope of the economic recovery mission and determine what economic recovery support that would be needed for the State and affected communities. Under the NDRF, these findings are compiled into a Mission Scoping Assessment (MSA) and a Recovery Support Strategy (RSS) for the declared disaster. Our consulting team also worked in collaboration with South Carolina’s Economic Recovery Coordinator and integrated input from State’s Disaster Recovery Coordination team into the development of both the MSA and RSS, so that the federal and state efforts were aligned and complimentary.
Throughout the recovery process, the team worked closely with state and local partners and to identify funding, technical assistance, and training resources to support the economic recovery and resiliency of communities in South Carolina. Direct and indirect losses impacted several economic sectors in South Carolina, particularly agribusiness and tourism industries.
Just one year later, in October 2016, South Carolina was once again hit by disaster, this time Hurricane Matthew. A number of the economic recovery initiatives outlined in the 2015 Recovery Support Strategy will again serve the state and local economies well as they remobilize and continue their recovery, rebuilding, and resiliency efforts
J&M is at the forefront of assisting states and local communities with community resilience planning and post-disaster economic recovery efforts. Our team continues to deploy across the nation to support post-disaster economic recovery efforts. While the challenges and impacts are different in every disaster, our team’s experience helps to accelerate economic recovery strategies and initiatives.
