Below is a transcript of the Welcome Keynote Address by Leslie Chapman-Henderson, President and CEO of the Federal Alliance for Safe Homes (FLASH), delivered on Wednesday, November 19, 2025, at the National Disaster Resilience Conference (NDRC) in Clearwater Beach, Florida
Welcome everyone. We are honored to host you here and bring everyone together—architects, builders, developers, economists, engineers, emergency managers, insurers, journalists, manufacturers, meteorologists, professors, researchers, risk communicators, nonprofit leaders, policymakers, product innovators, students, technology experts, volunteers, and survivors.
We gather here every year because we share one belief:
A disaster should never be the moment a family learns whether their home was strong enough. “Building the DREAM” — homes and communiti
es that are Durable, Resilient, Energy Efficient, Affordable, and Modern. Today and tomorrow, we’re not here just to talk about what fell or failed. We are here to define what will stand, survive, and succeed.
And that brings us to this year’s theme, a concept that we articulated here at NDRC, and that we are celebrating because we see it emerging around the country, including an award-winning community just south of us here that you’ll hear about at lunch today.
Not in the future. Not for the lucky few. But now, and for everyone.
WHY THE DREAM MATTERS TODAY
We are living in a time when disasters are no longer “rare events.”
(The tally of injuries, lives lost, and billion-dollar disasters reflect this profoundly)
Whether it’s wildfire in places that never burned before…
Tornadoes that break out past the “season” …
Or hurricanes that arrive stronger, faster, and costlier than anything in recorded history…
The pattern has changed — but most of our homes have not. All too often, we still rebuild the same way, in the same place, to the same minimum standards.
Meanwhile:
- Insurance markets are stressed.
- Construction costs skyrocket.
- And families are left to recover emotionally as they grapple to rebuild financially.
Millions of Americans are still living in housing that is one storm, one spark, one surge, or one freeze away from catastrophe. So the question is not, “Can we keep doing this?” It’s, “Why would we?
DEFINING THE D.R.E.A.M.
Let’s break down what a DREAM home really means.
D – Durable
A home built not just to pass inspection on closing day — but to reliably deliver safety and low-maintenance performance over decades. It meets the “no surprises” standard.
R – Resilient
A home matched to its most likely hazards. A house in Florida that won’t float away in a flood or fail in 120-mph winds. A house in Oklahoma that won’t slide off its foundation in a tornado. A house in California that doesn’t ignite from airborne embers a football field away.
Resilience is not abstract. It’s measurable. It’s certifiable. It’s buildable.
It’s anchored connections and stronger garage doors. Flood-smart foundations and ember-resistant vents. It’s above-ground tornado safe rooms that withstand winds of up to 250 mph, and sealed roof decks that prevent nine bathtubs of water per minute of wind-driven water from entering the attic after the wind blows away the shingles.
It’s CEA’s Bolt and Brace, IBHS’ FORTIFIED and Wildfire Prepared, and our own EarthquakeStrong, HurricaneStrong, and TornadoStrong.
Fundamentally, resilient building means following building science, not just building tradition.
E – Energy Efficient
With decades of work completed, this goal is within reach. And that’s important because a strong home should also be an efficient home. Comfort and cost don’t have to be separate conversations.
And because a resilient home that’s also energy efficient doesn’t just survive the storm — it survives the utility bill.
A – Affordable
I want to emphasize affordability, as this is the concern that most often slows our progress:
So let’s rethink it because there is a compelling case to be made that the DREAM home is THE most affordable home. How? Why?
Because it’s the home that lasts over time (durable), saves money every day (energy efficient), delivers safety and stands up to disasters (resilient), and retains its value as a family’s most significant financial investment.
And let’s not forget insurance.
- On the individual level – It not only saves the homeowner money over the lifetime of homeownership through avoided losses and insurance deductibles they don’t have to pay.
- On the community level – it keeps insurance available and affordable by creating predictive, reliable building performance that fosters a stable and healthy insurance marketplace. As we know, a healthy insurance marketplace is essential as it underpins some of the most significant components of our economy – construction, housing, and real estate.
That is why affordability is not only NOT in conflict with resilience. It is what makes resilience universal.
M – Modern
The DREAM home is not a bunker. It is attractive. It is functional, and it’s built with innovative materials, technology, and design that reflect today’s opportunities and tomorrow’s norms. It ensures that we are constantly improving, embracing technology like accommodating our future kitchen robots. It works for us as we age, as we confront special needs, and as we adapt to our environment.
A modern home demonstrates that strength, style, and resilience are not mutually exclusive concepts, as they don’t cancel each other out. The modern home merges all the DREAM values together.
The bottom line:
A home can be strong and beautiful.
A home can be efficient and affordable.
A home can be modern and built to last.
HOW THE FLASH PARTNERSHIP IS MOVING THE DREAM FORWARD
Together, we are advancing the DREAM in many ways. Here are just a few new things this year:
1. Strong Homes Scale
This year, we delivered a new digital tool that helps homeowners answer the question, “How Strong Is My Home?” You can enter your address and compare your home to today’s model codes, which are continually honed and improved with insights from both everyday and catastrophic disasters. You’ll see the list of upgrades that would help mitigate home damage outcomes for six different perils, a disaster history for your home’s location, and your risk ranking from FEMA National Risk Index.
We created the scale to increase transparency because we know that consumer knowledge can catalyze marketplace change and innovation faster than policy alone.
2. Strong Homes Initiative
We have continued and are growing our collaboration with nonprofit volunteer rebuilding organizations, including MDS, UMCOR, and now the Fuller Center. We join forces in the field to deliver and demonstrate resilience opportunities after disasters by upgrading recovery builds.
This initiative:
- Ensures disaster survivors don’t return to a house that is equally fragile as the one they just lost, and,
- Creates alliances with the stakeholders who are essential to resilience success – builders, contractors, code officials, elected officials, planners, and more.
The most common feedback we hear once our Strong Homes projects are complete is, “This isn’t that different or difficult.” And, nearly every time, our new allies adopt the enhanced practices and forever change the way they build in the future.
3. Wildfire Strong – No Fuel. No Fire.
This last example is on the horizon. This year, we have created a new component to the “Strongs” series. Soon, in addition to Earthquake, Hurricane, and Tornado Strong, you’ll have a novel set of multi-media and digital tools to help raise awareness about wildfire solutions and to bring people to your communities’ mitigation programs BEFORE the fires strike.
WHAT THE DREAM LOOKS LIKE WHEN IT IS TESTED
Hurricane Francine
To paint this picture, let me go back to where we began — with a family, in this case, it’s actually 52 families.
52 families in 52 homes in Dulac, Louisiana whose homes were destroyed by CAT 4 Hurricane Ida in 2021.
Their homes were rebuilt by volunteers and partners through the Strong Homes initiative. Same neighborhood. Same footprint. But this time, the roofs are anchored, the walls are braced, the windows are protected, and the homes are elevated well above expected flood levels. And as with all Strong Homes in our program, every home earned the IBHS FORTIFIED Gold Hurricane Designation.
So when CAT 2 Hurricane Francine hit in 2024, not just with wind but with water, the families and their homes were safe. Zero damage. This experience broke a cycle of Build-Destroy-Rebuild that these 4th, 5th, and 6th generation families have endured for decades.
That is the DREAM.
CALL TO ACTION
What is our call to action? What can guide us forward?
Historically, before technology, sailors navigated by following Polaris—the North Star—because it remains fixed in the night sky. Metaphorically, a “north star” is that steady reference point that keeps us on course.
Our movement’s north star is simple. When we join forces as allies and bring all our expertise together, as we will over the next two days, having a DREAM home won’t be just an opportunity for some, but instead a new normal for everyone.
We are the first generation with the knowledge to build homes that stand. Together, we can be the last generation to let the opportunity slip away.
Thank you.
Organizing an annual conference every year is a mammoth undertaking for an organization of our size, but it is one of the most important aspects to our work because it delivers such unique value. In our movement, most conferences bring together attendees with a common profession, like engineers, floodplain managers, or meteorologists. Many revolve around a common hazard, like the