Overview

Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s (ORNL) Community and Regional Resilience Initiative (CARRI) is a program of the Congressionally-funded Southeast Region Research Initiative (SERRI). CARRI is a regional program with national implications for how communities and regions prepare for,respond to and recover from catastrophic events. CARRI will develop the processes and tools with which communities and regions can better prepare to withstand the effects of natural and man-made disasters. In its first year, CARRI will create a standard for community resilience that is accurate, defensible, welcomed, and applicable to communities across the region and the nation.

A resilient community anticipates problems, opportunities and the potential for surprise. It reduces vulnerabilities to development paths, socio-economic conditions and identified threats. It responds effectively, fairly and legitimately. It recovers rapidly, safely and fairly. In addition to the key disaster management services that local governments provide, a resilient community recognizes that private sector and non-governmental organizations are critical components of the fabric of a community and play significant roles in community and regional disaster resilience. CARRI processes will integrate the full resource base of a community into planning, response, and recovery so that the community can get back on its feet as quickly as possible.

CARRI is presently working with three partner communities in the southeast: Gulfport/Gulf Coast Area, Memphis/Shelby County Tri-State Urban Area, and Charleston Low Country. These communities will help CARRI define community resilience and test its emerging resilience framework. Using input from the partner communities, lessons learned from around the nation, and the guidance of ORNL-convened researchers who are experts in the diverse disciplines that comprise resilience, CARRI will develop a community resilience framework that delineates a process that communities can work through to become more resilient, and be so recognized. These objective metrics will help communities differentiate themselves from less-resilient communities and regions resulting in positive economic benefits. As part of developing the community resilience framework, CARRI will collect and make available practical tools to help the communities assess their resiliency status and systematically take steps towards enhancement.

Once the southeast community programs are completed and the lessons and key attributes are integrated from these communities and others, CARRI will be available as a national resource for communities and regions that seek to improve their ability to withstand and recover from a catastrophic event.