Reporting From the Front

Repeated crises on the eastern seaboard have necessitated rapid planning and design action. With the aim of building preparedness for coastal Virginia, programs at UVA, W&M, and ODU developed the Resilience Adaptability Feasibility Tool (RAFT). The initiative provides localities a scorecard system to assess political, social, and infrastructure readiness for crisis, as well as aid in developing and implementing new plans. Since the first analyses and implementation in 2017, RAFT has aided resilience planning in twenty-eight localities. The program is funded entirely by grants and donations, and is free to local governments. After a year of aid, however, the localities are on their own. This raises the question of why the program is necessary at all, especially considering that local governments absorb responsibility for continuously enacting and updating plans set by RAFT once the group walks away. And where will responsibility lie if the plans aren’t enough?