“Five U.S. universities have been chosen to participate in the pilot phase of a unique undertaking by…FEMA to help the nation's colleges and universities limit future property and economic damage from natural disasters. The five universities will each receive about $100,000 from FEMA for the project and each university will match equally the resources provided by FEMA. The five pilot Disaster Resistant Universities are Tulane University, University of Alaska/ Fairbanks, University of Miami, University of North Carolina/Wilmington and the University of Washington at Seattle "These five universities have already shown their commitment to making their campuses more disaster resistant," said FEMA Director James Lee Witt. "When an institution takes action like these universities are doing, their activities will improve the ability of their surrounding community and regions to recover from a major disaster." “FEMA's Disaster Resistant Universities initiative uses the same strategic approach as FEMA's Project Impact: Building Disaster Resistant Communities. Through Project Impact communities are encouraged to come together to assess their vulnerabilities to natural hazards and implement strategies to limit damage before disasters occur. Project Impact bases its work and planning on three simple principles: Risks must be identified and preventive actions decided at the local level; private-public partnerships are essential; and long-term efforts and investments in prevention measures are necessary. “The first part of the project consisted of a University of California at Berkeley study of the economic consequences of a disaster on a university and its surrounding community and state. The study substantiated the premise that a disaster in a community's predominant business - the university - will have severe economic consequences locally and even statewide. As part of the study, UC Berkeley also developed a plan to limit future disaster losses and guidelines for other universities to use in the pilot phase of the initiative. "It is clear that disasters do much more than destroy buildings," FEMA Director James Lee Witt said. "They impact a locality in many different ways for a long time." The federal government alone invests nearly $15 billion per year in university-based research… “Witt said that he expects the Disaster Resistant University initiative will be an important component of FEMA's efforts to change the way America deals with disasters”. (FEMA, Five U.S. Universities Selected to Participate in Pilot Phase of FEMA Initiative to Help Universities Avoid Damage from Natural Disasters, September 28, 2000)