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September edition heightens awareness and education on disaster preparedness for condominium, housing cooperative, and homeowners associations

In the wake of recent natural disasters, including Hurricanes Harvey and Irma and wildfires plaguing the western United States, Community Associations Institute (CAI) has partnered with Mediaplanet on its annual Disaster Prep & Recovery campaign. CAI, the leading international authority in community association education, governance, and management, supports 69 million residents living in condominiums, co-ops, and HOAs with disaster preparedness and recovery resources.

CAI understands that a disaster can strike at any time and have a devastating impact on a community association and its residents. No matter what type of disaster, community leaders should be prepared to oversee and lead the recovery process. "Community associations must work collaboratively with local municipalities to leverage resources to protect residents," says Dawn Bauman, CAE, CAI's senior vice president for government and public affairs. "It is critical for communities to have a plan to ensure the community can respond quickly and recover efficiently."

Houston, Texas, is home to nearly 3,500 to 4,000 community associations and 97,800 condominium units. Two of CAI's large-scale communities, Sienna Plantation and First Colony, both in the southwestern Houston suburbs, suffered record-breaking rainfall, devastating floods, mandatory evacuations, and damaging high winds from Hurricane Harvey in August. Dozens of Sienna Plantation homes were further damaged by a tornado spawned by the hurricane.

Today, a massive amount of work is being done to clear streets and common areas from debris after Hurricane Irma slammed many Florida community associations in the Naples, Marco Island, and Fort Myers areas. The state represents nearly 10 million residents in 48,000 community associations. According to Bauman, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) does not support disaster recovery in community associations. "Unfortunately, associations are routinely denied FEMA requests for assistance that are granted to non-association neighborhoods," she says. "Forcing association homeowners to fund 100 percent of their neighborhood's disaster recovery places financial burdens on households and impedes community recovery."

CAI is working with congressional leaders and advocating for equal access to federal disaster benefits that will be critical for community association recovery in the wake of these unprecedented storms. For more information on the Disaster Assistance Equity Act of 2017, visit www.caionline.org/Advocacy/FederalAdvocacy/PriorityIssues.

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About Community Associations Institute
Since 1973, Community Associations Institute (CAI) has been the leading provider of resources and information for homeowners, volunteer board leaders, professional managers, and business professionals in nearly 350,000 community associations, condominiums, and co-ops in the United States and millions of communities worldwide. With nearly 35,000 members, CAI works in partnership with 63 affiliated chapters within the U.S, Canada, United Arab Emirates, and South Africa, as well as with housing leaders in several other countries including Australia, Spain, Saudi Arabia, and the United Kingdom.

A global nonprofit 501(c)(6) organization, CAI is the foremost authority in community association management, governance, education, and advocacy. Our mission is to inspire professionalism, effective leadership, and responsible citizenship—ideals reflected in community associations that are preferred places to call home. Visit us at www.caionline.org and follow us on Twitter and Facebook @CAISocial.