FEMA’s National Dam Safety Program Releases First Ever Children’s Coloring Book

FEMA’s National Dam Safety Program (NDSP) is excited to announce the release of “Dam Safety with Beaverly“, a children’s coloring book. This coloring book was created to help children, or young students, learn more about dams and safety around them. This coloring book follows Beaverly the beaver, who provides information about dams, what they are used for, the hazards surrounding them and how to stay safe near them. It also includes several pages for coloring and two activity sheets that will help children learn about dams.

Dams play a vital role in the nation’s overall infrastructure as they provide flood protection, water supply reservoirs, hydroelectric power, irrigation, and recreation. The average age for one of the United States’ 91,000 dams is more than 53 years. Dam safety is important for the security and well-being of the communities they support. FEMA’s hope is to continue to spread awareness about dam safety in the United States to a younger audience through this coloring book.   Dam failures can pose safety risks to an often-unaware public. Many communities in the United States are near at least one dam. In many cases, large populations, vital elements of our infrastructure, jobs, and businesses are located downstream of dams. Dam failure floods are almost always more sudden and violent than normal stream, river or coastal floods.

The National Dam Safety Program is a partnership of states, federal agencies, and other stakeholders to encourage and promote the establishment and maintenance of effective federal and state dam safety programs to reduce the risk to human life, property, and the environment from dam-related hazards.

For more information about the FEMA National Dam Safety Program, visit https://www.fema.gov/emergency-managers/risk-management/dam-safety.