Loretta Hatch to get national award! - 2021 State NFIP Awards
Notification provided by:
Wendy Blackwell, CFM
Preparedness Bureau Chief
Good Morning All – So glad I get to start the morning out with such fantastic news… Loretta has been selected for the ‘Best State NFIP Compliance award for 2020’ by FEMA’s Federal Insurance and Mitigation Administration (FIMA). She will be the first to tell you that her accomplishments are a group effort (that is true only to a point). As you know, NMFMA assisted with support for HB168; Nicole’s and Michele’s testimony really helped to present a well-rounded perspective. This recognition has such a positive benefit for all floodplain managers in the State.
At the same time, without Loretta leading the charge, sharing her extensive knowledge, and portraying high-level professionalism, none of it would have come to fruition. The quote I like the best from Julie Grauer, National CAP-SSSE Grant Program Manager is ‘Thank you, Loretta for promoting compliance and enforcement actions in your State NFIP Office, this is clearly what we need to do nationwide and you are a prime example of hard work paying off!... We can’t wait to see what you do in 2021!’. No pressure?! See the rest of Julie’s glowing remarks below.
Loretta will accept the award on Monday at the National Hazard Mitigation Workshop (being held virtually this year). Way to go Loretta! We are so thankful that your hard work for the State of New Mexico is getting national-level recognition. We are so very proud of all you have accomplished, Wendy, et. al
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Some of your many highlights of your work from 2020 include:
How you… championed the cause of compliance of state-owned structures. You came into the State Floodplain Coordinator position immediately realizing issues with state-owned structures built out of compliance and gross concerns with tax-funded development but also life-safety risks to children.
You took full ownership of the idea and led the effort to take the concept of state compliance and move that into a bill and eventually a law. Your work in detail with state legislation personnel to develop the bill and move it through committees, eventually the state legislature, and then the law was signed by the governor in April of this year.
The law dictates that state-owned or state-funded development will respect the most stringent criteria of the locally adopted community ordinance. Your work on this was demanding and you were tireless in the effort to turn this idea into a bill and then a law. Because of this law and the policies developed, New Mexico will no longer develop with vulnerable populations with no consideration of flood risk.
• Thank you, Loretta for promoting compliance and enforcement actions in your State NFIP Office, this is clearly what we need to do ---nationwide and you are a prime example of hard work paying off!... We can’t wait to see what you do in 2021!
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