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Show 53 [ The prepared statement of Dr. Hayes follows:] PREPARED STATEMENT OF MICHAEL J. HAYES Drought is a normal feature across almost the entire United States, including Hawaii and Alaska. In fact, since 1895, there has not been one year in which severe or extreme drought has not occurred somewhere in the U. S. During the last four years, since 1998, drought has occurred in every part of the country, except for a portion of the Upper Midwest. Parts of Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Texas, and Hawaii experienced four consecutive years of drought from 1998 through 2001, the East Coast experienced a crippling drought in 1999, and the Northwest and northern Rockies faced a severe drought in 2001. In late May 2002, severe and extreme drought exists along portions of the East Coast and across most of the Rockies and High Plains from Montana to Arizona and Texas. These recent drought events have illustrated the country's vulnerability to drought and the economic losses caused by the variety of drought- related impacts should be addressed through a systematic effort aimed at reducing the risks associated with extended drought. FEMA recently estimated that the annual losses caused by drought in the United States are $ 6- 8 billion. The concept of identifying and implementing " mitigation" actions to reduce natural hazard impacts has long been an important component of emergency management. For droughts, however, incorporating mitigation into long- range planning efforts is a relatively new concept. The National Drought Mitigation Center ( NDMC) was formed at the University of Nebraska- Lincoln in 1995. The mission of the NDMC is to help people and institutions develop and implement measures to reduce societal vulnerability to drought by stressing preparedness and risk management approaches. Drought mitigation defined by the NDMC are the actions and programs taken by decision- makers before a drought in order to reduce drought impacts from a future drought event. To accomplish the NDMC mission, one of the original actions of the NDMC was to develop a comprehensive drought information clearinghouse for drought- related issues on the World Wide Web ( http:// drought. unl. edu/ ndmc). In 2001, the NDMC server received four million hits. Funding for the NDMC every year has been provided by a special grant through USDA/ CSREES. Along with the formation of the NDMC, there has been additional progress in drought risk management in recent years. One of the examples of progress has been made in the area of drought monitoring. Drought monitoring is the key to good drought planning because it provides answers to questions such as " Where are we now?" and " Where are we going?" that are necessary for planning and responding effectively to droughts. One of the monitoring " success stories' is the collaboration and coordination provided by the weekly Drought Monitor product ( http:// drought. unl. edu/ ndmc/ dm). The Drought Monitor map is a weekly assessment of current drought conditions around the United States and is put together by a group of scientists at the Climate Prediction Center, the National Climatic Data Center, USD A, and the NDMC, as well as a group of approximately 150 local experts around the country. Drought planning at the state level has also made progress in the past two decades. In 1982, three states ( Colorado, South Dakota, and New York) had drought plans. Now, 33 states have drought plans, and several additional states are in the process of developing plans. In 1998, New Mexico took an important step of incorporating drought mitigation actions into the drought plan they were developing. Since then, several states have followed New Mexico's example and have revised their existing plans to incorporate mitigation ( Nebraska, Utah, Montana, and Colorado) or have developed new plans that incorporate mitigation actions ( Texas and Hawaii). There are numerous examples of successes that states have had in drought planning and reducing the impacts from drought events. All states, however, continue to search for more assistance and information on how to further reduce their drought impacts. The NDMC has worked with many states in various capacities to facilitate drought planning efforts and also documents these experiences for states and others. Another success story regarding drought planning has been the progress made by Native American tribes in developing drought mitigation plans in the southwestern U. S. The tribes that are currently in some stage of drought planning include the Hopi, Navajo, Zuni, Haulapi, and Paiute. With the assistance of the Bureau of Reclamation, and adapting specific methodologies developed by the NDMC, each of these plans incorporates mitigation actions in order to reduce the long- term drought impacts resulting from future droughts. There are considerable challenges in trying to reduce drought impacts in the future by taking a more risk management approach. One of the biggest challenges is |