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Special Recognition for John Ingargiola

John Ingargiola, Senior Engineer assigned to the Mitigation Directorate's Building Science Branch of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), received FEMA's Gold Medal Award on October 15 at the Voice of America Auditorium in Washington, D.C., during the FEMA 2008 Administrator's Awards. The award, presented by FEMA Administrator R. David Paulison and Deputy Administrator Harvey Johnson, is recognized as the highest official honor a FEMA employee can receive.

Ingargiola’s work on disaster-resistant codes and the Katrina Mitigation Assessment Team Report as well as FEMA 550 Recommended Residential Construction for the Gulf Coast is recognized and highly acclaimed in several building industry publications, including Coastal Contractor, STRUCTURE, Building Design & Construction, as well as the International Code Council’s Building Safety Journal (BSJ). Ingargiola is an invited BSJ feature author and his paper FEMA Improvements to Hazard-Resistant Construction and Building Codes appears in the Summer/Fall 2008 issue.

A major accomplishment for Ingargiola was the completion of the new FEMA Safe Room Publications (FEMA 320 and 361). Given that more than 20,000 safe rooms have been built with Hazard Mitigation Grant Program funds, Ingargiola has kept the publications state-of-the-art, using the latest scientific data and has ensured results compatible with a new private sector standard published by the International Code Council.

Ingargiola is also successful at partnering across Mitigation Directorate Divisions to accomplish shared goals. In support of Risk Analysis Division, he provided building science justification and field evidence from years of Mitigation Assessment Team studies to help draft a Procedure Memorandum for Mapping the Limit of Moderate Wave Action (or Coastal A Zone). This new Procedure Memorandum will be useful as MT embarks on a major coastal remapping initiative.

Using field evidence and the results of the National Flood Insurance Program Building Standards Study, Ingargiola has worked with the the Code Council to require 1 foot of freeboard in the International Residential Code. The extra measure of protection will reduce losses in the future, save homeowners money on their flood insurance premiums year after year, and reduce potential exposure of the National Flood Insurance Program in coastal areas across the United States.

John Ingargiola, Senior Engineer Mitigation Directorate for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (right), and Wayne Berggren, National Flood Insurance Program Lead, discuss aspects of coastal floodplain mitigation at the Community Rebuilding and Flood Protection Expo on November 16 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Photo: FEMA

[Original Release: http://www.fema.gov/government/goldaward2008.shtml]