The Federal Emergency Management Agency will launch a majoradvertising campaign designed to alert Americans on what they haveto do to better prepare themselves for dealing with naturalcatastrophes.

The program, to launch Sept. 5, will be led by FEMA'sIndividual and Community Preparedness Division (ICPD) underpressure from the Obama administration.

The program was one of the suggestions contained in areport by the Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force. Thatpanel was headed by Shaun Donovan, secretary of the Department ofHousing and Urban Development. The report said the FederalInsurance Office, an agency within Treasury created by theDodd-Frank financial services reform law, will alsoparticipate.

FEMA was asked to do it after those working on the report foundthat, “After Sandy, as after most other large hurricanes, manyhomeowners were surprised to learn what was and was not coveredunder their insurance policies.”

In particular, the report said, property owners were surprisedto learn that their homeowners' policies did not cover floods.“This was especially true for those property owners who did notlive in FEMA-designated flood zones,” the report said.

The report said that, “Misunderstandings were compounded byconfusion over whether damage was caused by flooding (covered onlyby flood insurance) or by wind and rain (covered by some, but notall, homeowners' policies).

Business were also confused by policy language, the reportstated. According to a survey conducted by the New YorkFederal Reserve Bank, only eight percent of small businesses thatincurred damage related to Sandy had flood insurance.

The report said “America's PrepareAthon!” will be anationwide, community-based campaign for action to increaseemergency preparedness and community resilience and buildunderstanding of risk and insurance.

FEMA appears to have been prodded by the Obama administration tolaunch the campaign, similar to successful ones undertaken in2003-2006 FloodSmart campaign. According to the report, thatcampaign resulted in an increase in the number of people renewingtheir flood insurance policies and, therefore, more flood insurancecoverage in force in the 2003-2006 timeframe.

“America's PrepareAthon!” will highlight a “national day ofaction,” on which millions of citizens can participate throughdrills, group discussions, and exercises to practice for localhazards.

Donovan said his task force “strongly encourages” usingthese days to also emphasize the value of insurance and educatepotential consumers on available insurance products and hazardmitigation measures.