In our second year of the annual award cycle, grants were awarded to the Office for Coastal Management (OCM) and Office of Coast Survey (OCS). The following four projects were funded:

• OCM - Ensuring communications and safety for NOS staff on remote islands. DPP will fund the purchase of emergency kits for staff at five remote locations in the Pacific and Caribbean.  The kits would include a Garmin InReach communication device as well as other common emergency items.
• OCM - Next Generation Disaster Resilient Plans for National Estuarine Research Reserves (NERRs). DPP will fund the development of a next generation Disaster Response Plan template to assist NERRs that do not yet have a site based plan, or to help NERRs improve existing plans.
• OCM - Disaster Resilient Environmental Monitoring Platform for Coastal Estuaries. DPP will fund the design and installation of disaster resilient environmental monitoring platforms for use in NERRs that have been impacted by hurricanes and severe weather events. The platforms will be capable of weathering extreme storms and will provide continuous monitoring of environmental conditions.
• OCS - Echoboat 160 Upgrade. DPP will fund an upgrade of the NRT1 vessel from a 160 model to the 240 model, including a hull upgrade, battery upgrade (to water resistant), and repositioning the existing sensors. This upgrade will improve payload size and decrease survey time in shallow areas.

Each of these projects aligns with the DPP mission to support NOS and our partners prepare for disasters. Implementation of these projects will continue to improve the preparedness efforts, ideas, and culture across NOS and NOAA.

For more information, please contact Charles.Grisafi@noaa.gov.

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